Vaio Backup has not backed up

[Ali1001]

Hi,

My laptop has Windows 7 Home Premium preinstalled on a Vaio laptop (VPCEF3E1E). A couple of days ago W7 informed me it needed to do an automatic update to install SP1. The update crashed during the install so I rebooted and when I tried booting back into W7, I got an error message andW7 would't load beyong the welcome screen. Anyway, after a while I found the W7 KB fix and uninstalled the SP1 through the F7 command prompt (issue with the pending.xml file being accessed twice), On trying to boot into W7 I then had an issue with the explorerframe.dll which I couldn't fix for various reasons. Given that my supplier (dabs.com) didn't supply an OEM disk (presumably on the basis that the VAIO Assist works) I didn't have the W7 disk to re-register the dll, I decided to press the Vaio assist button.

On pressing the Vaio Assist button I went through whatever the steps were to do a full factory re-install. The 'wizard' gave me the option to back-up my data, so I did, The back-up was to be 173Gb which took 4 hours or so. So, fast forward 4 hours and I return to the laptop to see a nice window displaying "Backup completed successfully" and then I ticked the 'I'm sure' box and merrily proceeeded with a full factory re-set.

So the laptop whirred away happily and the factory re-set worked just fine and all was merry. And then I followed the instructions in my manual to restore data. On my external drive were two folders, date-stamped to around the time the 'back-up' was supposed to be happening. So I clicked on the earlier one, and the restore wizard informed me there was nothing to restore. So I clicked on the second date-stamped folder and it restored a grand total of 222Mb, which comprised about 20 RAW image files. It backed up the entire folder structure but omitted almost every file inside it - except the most recent image files I'd copied onto it that day!!

It does irritate me enormously that this has happened. It shouldn't be necessary to sanity check Sony's software if I've spend £XXXX on buying the stuff in the first place, on the expectation I've got the latest and greatest software they can deliver.

So Sony, what are you going to do to fix this?? Is there any way I can 'restore' my data (I'm guessing there isn't because on checking the external drive I can see there's only 222Mb backed up). Incidentally, if you're wondering why I didn't check the back-up had worked, then a) I couldn't, because my laptop was corrupt and b) the software told me it was a success.

[Blencogo]

Hi Ali1001,

This is a user forum and Sony will not reply here.

Have you contacted the official Vaio Support?  I am not sure what they can do but you never know and you will have registered the problem.  Go here and enter your Vaio's Serial Number and follow the link to Get in Touch with Vaio Support.

http://support.vaio.sony.eu/computing/vaio/index.aspx?m=0&l=en_GB

In the meantime, I will flag your concerns with our contacts at Sony.

[Blencogo · Accepted solution]

Sony have acknowledged your problem and are writing to you as they do not have a telephone contact number.  They would like to troubleshoot the problem with you.

They have allocated a Case Number for you to quote should you call them - I have sent this Case Number to you by PM.