I went through the same procedure last year with the then-new Sony Vaio Laptop. I basically agree with everything Greg wrote, but I took a simpler approach to things.
First thing I did, I created those factory recovery discs - this used to be done by manufacturers, in the past such discs were simply included in the package, but now they just put an image on the hard drive and leave it to us to burn the image on DVDs. Cost cutting, right?
Second, I got hold of a Windows 7 installation disc (well, in my case I already had one, but it's not hard to find either) and completely re-installed Windows 7 and re-formatted the hard drive in the process. As a result, I had the "lightweight instantaneous" Windows, which of course lacked certain Vaio-specific drivers.
Third step was to go to the Sony download page, where all those drivers are available. Here you might start thinking whether you want any of the included software. For example, my laptop has a few "special" buttons on it. If you want to use them, you might want to get the Sony app that allows you to program them. If not (i.e. if you are happy with a few buttons just sitting there doing nothing), then don't do this. There is a Sony app that installs missing packages one by one. You might want to use that, instead of picking them manually from the download page. The end result is the same.
Things that seem to be important to install, are of course the NVidia drivers, the Alps - the touch pad - drivers, and Sony power management app, although here people may disagree with me. Now, the problem with the Sony touch pad is that it's so sensitive, that sometimes I have hard time typing on the laptop. So, I basically use an external mouse and disable the touch pad. But, and here's the catch, the only way I found to disable the touch pad, is by using the Sony "control' app, I can tell you the exact name of it later, when I actually open up the laptop. So this got installed as well.
One thing that I did not manage to install, was the Corel WinDVD that was included with the laptop. I have no idea what else it wants, but I just can't get it working. Not a big deal, there are plenty of other players out there (personally I use VLC), but I mention this just as a warning, that if there is something you want to keep from the original set up, then you might want to be more careful than I was. This however, was the only issue with the whole thing.
Hope this helps.
(System) and Recovery (System) Doesn't show up in explorer but I assume all the stuff I need is there..
