HELP - Reinstall from recovery partition.

[biturbo]

Hello all,

I have a Sony Vaio VPCEC4SOE I bought cheap - needs a new screen.
After purchasing first thing I done was a Reinstall of windows using F10 on boot up and following instructions.
However after all finished Task manager showed 90+ processes at idle and the amount of bloatware was more than I had ever seen included with any PC.

So, Made up a Windows 7 Install disc as I wanted to go for a totally fresh install. Once installed it asked for product key - I checked underneath and half of the sticker is missing (I know I should have checked before hand!) Plus thinking about it after I really don't think the product key can be reused even if it is on the same machine (can someone confirm?)

I now have a nice clean operating system, but no product key, that will self destruct in 27 days!
So I would like to return to VAIO factory state. I have checked and recovery partition is still there and intact - 13gb, but how can I reinstall from this partition? F10 now does nowt on boot up.

Thanks in advance,
Tony.

 

[Ztruker]

You can try setting the Recover Partition as the Active instead of the Win 7 partition. Then when you boot, the Recovery partition should boot.

You can do this from Disk Management.

 

[ignatzatsonic]

The product key CAN be reused.

I don't know anything about Sony recovery partitions, but am wondering if you can still make a set of recovery disks and restore from them, rather than from the recovery partition?

 

[biturbo]

I didn't think the product key can be reused - if thats the case, I would like to reinstall to VAIO spec, pull the key and then reinstall a fresh copy using the product key that i now have.

Have phoned Sony and recovery discs are nigh on £50!! Forget that, there must be another way around it. I could buy a new copy of windows for not a lot more.

 

[biturbo]

I will have a look at trying to boot from that partition, but I'm sure I tried this using a program called BCD, and it wouldn't boot throwing an error code.
Will try the suggestion above quickly

 

[ignatzatsonic]

I didn't think the product key can be reused - if thats the case, I would like to reinstall to VAIO spec, pull the key and then reinstall a fresh copy using the product key that i now have.

If you reinstall to VAIO spec by using the recovery partition or recovery disks, I'm not sure you can then retrieve the product key that was on the sticker.

The sticker key is not the key used by Sony to activate the original install and would not be the key used to activate any recovery install. The original install used an OEM key and I think key retrieving applications can only get that OEM key if you recovered to VAIO specs.

Short of buying new Windows, your best hope may be to restore to VAIO spec and then "decrapify" the install.

 

[biturbo]

Ok, thank you so far for your help. Just noticed that was your 7,500 post

What does the sticker product key relate to? Ive called microsoft and the indian call centre I got through to was about as useful as a chocolate teapot!
Edit/ I only wondered if they could provide me with the missing 15 digits

 

[ignatzatsonic]

If you had the sticker key, you could use it to do a clean install. When you buy Windows, you are paying for the Product Key. OEMs such as Sony are legally required to include the sticker, even though it is not used for the Windows installation provided by the OEM.

In your situation, if you had the sticker key, you could go online to mydigitallife.info, a Microsoft partner, and download a legit Windows 7 ISO file, burn it to a disk, install it, and activate with the product key on the sticker.

Maybe that is what you did a few days ago?

The sticker key is for a particular edition of Windows, such as Home Premium, and can't be used to activate some other edition.

 

[biturbo]

Yeah, exactly. I have a windows 64 home edition cd I made from the windows site aswell as a seperate repair disc. I installed a fresh copy before realising that the sticker was half missing! The thing is I have 4 other spares/repairs laptops, two of which have duff hard drives, but both stickers intact. Can I not just use one of the product keys from the back of these to register this copy?

Ive just tried booting from E: The recovery partition, and it comes up with a startup error. I used BCD to do this though and this is what I got:

Windows failed to start due to a recent hardware or software.. blah blah.
File: \windows\system32\winload.exe
Status: 0xc000000f
Info: The selected entry could not be loaded because the application is missing or corrupt

The thing is if you look at the drives in 'Computer' the E: partition says Vaio recovery and has the VAIO logo, so there must be some way around this. There are however no runable apps from this partition.

I think I will have a go at trying with disk management now.

 

[biturbo]

Here is a pic of disk management and of drives. Strange that my computer showsthat recovery partition is nearly full, where as disk management shows recovery is empty?

 

[Slartybart]

OEMs usually activate Windows at install time when you use their recovery mechanisms. If biturbo can resurrect the Recovery manager (download from OEM?) there shouldn't be an issue. Once the machine is restored to factory condition, the key can be retrieved and written on the COA.

 

[biturbo]

lll be honest, Ive also no ideas on how to use Disk management either?

 

[biturbo]

Can someone point me in the right direction? Bit of a noobs step by step on how to go about this?

 

[ignatzatsonic]

Go about what?

You need the product key and don't have it.

 

[biturbo]

Reinstall from recovery.

 

[ignatzatsonic]

Disk Management isn't going to help you with reinstalling from recovery.

If F10 doesn't bring it up, I'd look in my list of programs or Control Panel for anything related to recovery or reinstallation. There may be a way to access it by a menu.

Consult your documentation or download the manual from Sony if you don't have it.

I've never even owned an OEM PC with a recovery partition, so I don't know the finer points.

You may have rendered it permanently useless when you did the new install. The fact that one program shows it as nearly full and the other as nearly empty likely means something.

Someone else with Sony-specific knowledge may be able to help you.

 

[biturbo]

Ok, thank you.

Do you think a product key from the sticker of another spares/repair OEM laptop I have will work?

 

[Slartybart]

To be honest, I don't know, now that you've done the install in post 1. If you could still hit the f10 recovery or launch the machine mfr's recovery mgr, then I think you'd be alright. Check on the PC manufacturer site for their utility or call and ask how to get it.

anyway, I think I'm saying the same thing you were think in post 4 -get it back to factory condition. The discussion is will the Sony recovery mgr plug in the key for you or is your half torn COA sticker going to cause problems even using the Sony Recovery.

Do you have a bookmark for the Sony support site. I can't seem to locate your machine using Sony Vaio VPCEC4SOE

 

[biturbo]

I actually reinstalled originally using the VAIO recovery centre via F10 on startup and after seeing how much crap it was bundled with made me want a totally fresh install - which is what I did, and where I am stuck now.

I have phoned Sony, and they have told me that I will need to buy recovery discs at the cost of £50! A new copy of windows isn't much more.

Model number is: vpcec4s0e/WI
It is a UK model, which may be why you cant find it?

Thanks again for all of your help

 

[ignatzatsonic]

Ok, thank you.

Do you think a product key from the sticker of another spares/repair OEM laptop I have will work?

It might, if those spare laptop installations were not activated with the sticker Product Key.

But:

1: The versions would have to match (Home Premium, Pro, whatever)

and more importantly

2: Even if it did work, I doubt if it would be in accordance with Microsoft's EULA, which is basically one license for one machine.

I think you can get Windows 8 for less than 50 pounds. I think it's $40 in the US.