Restoring to factory setting without CD.

[OmertaJohn]

Hey,

I have a Sony Vaio VGN-NW26M. It's two years old. I need to restore it back to factory settings. I have bought an external harddrive and have placed all the files I need to keep on it. I went to look in the box for the CD, but there was none. I've read elsewhere that I need to contact Sony to get the CD. I know how to restore it (in the BIOS), but I'm unsure what to do after. Does the system reinstall itself? And what about my drivers? Obviously I'll need them. So how do I go about having a 'brand new' computer with all my drivers installed? I'm running on Windows 7. Any help is greatly appreciated, thanks.

[rich912]

Hi Omerta.John,

Restoring back to factory settings using the HDD recovery utility (F10 at boot) will restore the operating system, all drivers and pre-installed software. You will of course need to restore all personal data and third party software.

For further information follow the link below and type ‘Recovery’ in the search field.

http://www.sony.co.uk/support/en/product/VGN-NW26M/tips-and-solutions

Rich

[OmertaJohn]

Oh so I don't need a windows CD then? How does that work, is there some form of 'backup' of drivers etc in my HDD?

Thanks very much!

[rich912]

Hi Omerta.John,

Unless you have formatted the entire hard drive there should be a hidden recovery partition. This (if present) is accessed by tapping F10 at boot when you see the Vaio logo.

When the recovery utility launches follow the on screen instructions.

Rich

[OmertaJohn]

Okay thanks for your help! I'll give it a shot tomorrow.

[flogger12345]

There is also one option. Usually this can be done on notebook. Click Start-Program, then look for a folder that says something about Sony. Click that then look for any icon that says recovery or restore to factory defaults.

Good luck.