Anyone else here have a recent Sony Vaio with the recovery partition?

[Marcos]

What do i do with this partition? I've used the software to create DVD back-ups and i could do with the HD space but not sure wether i should delete that partition?

I dont even know how to initiate a recovery from that partition either, anyone know? Its an S3 series

[Marcos]

wow, no one else uses vaios?

[moose82]

http://kb.sony-europe.com/KB/Solutio...99/A01305.html

Follow the steps here if you still have access to Windows.

If Windows is completely wrecked then I think it is either F10, F11, or F12 that starts the recovery process.

BTW the recovery partition is faster at recovering the system as all the system has to do is unpack it and put the data in a different place on the HDD rather than having to waste time transferring data from a DVD which can be dead slow...

The Manufacturer does this as 9/10 the user has just wrecked the OS rather than their being a complete HDD failure.

It is still 100% advisable to create recovery discs asap as there is still that 1/10 chance that the actual HDD HAS failed. They tend to charge you a fee to give you a recovery DVD if you don't (I've seen some go for around £60 but it varies)

I hope that this info helps.

[Marcos]

Thanks for the reply

since i'm not too bothered about the double time it takes to recover from the DVDs, i think i'm going to create another set of recovery discs then delete the partition.

[GuruJockStrap]

My Dell laptop came with a recovery partition on the HD.

The default Windows installation was full of bloat (59 running processes on first boot!) so I reformatted and deleted the hidden partition.

I've created an image of the installation onto an External USB HD using Acronis True Image, so if it goes tits up I can just restore that.

[Marcos]

Yeah i'd like to just do my own XP install but i'm worried that with it being a laptop it might not like the drivers and all that.

[GuruJockStrap]

Just grab the drivers for the particular laptop model from the Sony website. I found that the drivers on the Dell website were a bit old so I just used the latest drivers from the relevant manufacturers website. Eg. Chipset drivers, graphics and wireless adapter drivers from Intel etc.

No problems with my install. Also I chose not to install certain drivers like the touchpad. Found that it functioned perfectly without installing any drivers. Added bonus was that it reduced the number of applications starting up with windows at the same time.

[Ross Stone]

Marcos,

I have a FS215 sony vaio, and have noticed an odd partition? It was Yesturday in fact when I was removing Vista and putting Windows XP back on.

I suspect it might have drivers on, but I deleted it without thinking anyway. No probelms so far, although I had to get the drivers from sony to get sound and network working.

Sony are helpful in that respect, you enter your serial and you can download all the drivers you will need, about 50Mb, so its fine.

As a result, C: is a little bigger and is partition 1 while D: is now partition 3, will have to delete D: sometime and make it partition 2. But anyway, don't worry about it Marcos, I deleted it, and have had no issues. I have made backups a while ago. But using my own XP disc I find the Vaio to be alot faster on a new install as there is none of that Sony Software stuff that slows it down loads.

Hope that helps.