Paulc24 Posted February 23, 2009 Share Posted February 23, 2009 I have a SONY VAIO VGC-RC210G, but no Recovery Disk and it's going south on me.It's a great desktop. Extremely quiet. Windows XP - MCE with a remote. Once you add some memory and a better Vidcard, it's nice.Unfortunately I need a Recovery Disk due to a bad virus I picked up, and SONY doesn't have them in circulation anymore. BOTTOME LINE:I need the recovery disk for this VGC-RC210G desktop. None of the Recovery CD Warehouses online carry it. I would immensely appreciate any help someone could give me on this matter as I live through my computer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xper Posted February 23, 2009 Share Posted February 23, 2009 I'm sorry, but i will disappoint you. We do not tolerate that kind of requests. Why don't you install retail windows? I'm going to edit your post. Read forum rules please. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paulc24 Posted February 23, 2009 Author Share Posted February 23, 2009 (edited) Hello. I will edit it. I apologize for the inconvenience. SONY tech support basically said that it's $100 for a Sony location to do the work for me, for which I get the service and no hardware to do it myself if it happens again. OR, they told me to purchase or borrow a "Recovery Disk" from someone. They added that it wasn't illegal to borrow or purchase second hand since the disk itself will only work if you have the product key and license from your computer.None of the online stores have this disk available, Sony discontinued it, and now I'm left with the option of finding someone who has the disk to loan me or BUYING a full XP MCE. Any suggestions.........? Edited February 23, 2009 by Paulc24 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cluberti Posted February 23, 2009 Share Posted February 23, 2009 Well, legality on that is dependent on country, but borrowing may be OK. Purchasing gets murky, unless Sony didn't include the disc with the license sticker. Those are generally sold as a unit in retail OEM packaging, but their royalty agreement may allow otherwise. If you can get it in writing from Sony saying that usage of a disc that didn't come with your unit is OK, then it should be OK to purchase. However, if you can borrow from someone, that'd likely be better.If you can't find one to borrow or purchase, you'll be stuck with buying a copy from a store. I'd stick with an OEM disc as it's cheaper, and you aren't going to get free support from Microsoft after April 14th of this year anyway, so don't bother paying for it (that's the cost difference between retail and OEM in the retail channel, basically). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ricktendo Posted February 23, 2009 Share Posted February 23, 2009 This is typical sony, I have a friend with a VAIO® VGC-LV190Y HD PC/TV with Vista Ultimate x64 pre-installed and it did not come with a disc so he can reinstall if wanted. I had to help him create his own OEM DVD from a retail version of Vista so he could make use of his serial Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tripredacus Posted February 25, 2009 Share Posted February 25, 2009 Sony had stopped shipping their recovery media about the time they started selling desktops with RAID in them, so around 2004 or 2005, when I was still working there. They also weren't shipping manuals either, but came with instructions on how to make your own recovery media. HP/Compaq is similar in this as well, as long as you leave their preinstalled software be, there is (should be) an option in the Start Menu to make the recovery media. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaclaz Posted February 25, 2009 Share Posted February 25, 2009 HP/Compaq is similar in this as well, as long as you leave their preinstalled software be, there is (should be) an option in the Start Menu to make the recovery media.Yep, the catch is that noone creates the recovery media before he/she actually needs it, often after a Virus has stricken and made the system unbootable.HP was sued (and lost) on a similar basis:http://web.archive.org/web/20060218141400/...settlement.com/http://www.engadget.com/2005/08/03/hp-sett...partition-suit/For recent "Vista based" SONY's, it is possible to recreate a Vistra install cd from the recovery partition too:http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=127624it is possible that the same or a similar approach can be used for other brand/makes.Oldish "Xp related" SONY threads here:http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=120423http://www.msfn.org/board/Cannot-access-CD...P-i-t91907.htmljaclaz Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paulc24 Posted February 25, 2009 Author Share Posted February 25, 2009 Ya. Sony said it would be 150+ to have them do it at a facility, + shipping if they can't get it done and have to send it away. I'm attempting to burn the Recovery Discs using "System Restore" from the Start menu. Problem is I've gotten a "An error occured while attempting to burn. Try again?" the first two attempts. Hoping the third is the charm, but I'm watching to see if it's a certain point that is snagging.Any suggestions on how to acquire a Recovery Disc if my system can't create one?Thanks for all the help on this. I appreciate it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paulc24 Posted February 25, 2009 Author Share Posted February 25, 2009 Dmnit...."There was an error writing to the disc. Destroy the current disc and start the process to create "Recovery DVD 1/2" again."I'm stumped....and broke... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
submix8c Posted February 25, 2009 Share Posted February 25, 2009 (edited) I can tell you that IF your PC has that god-awful Hidden Recover Partition (like HP had), you can get XP Boot floppies from MS, destroy (delete) the original "bad" partition, set the "good" Hidden Partition to Active, reboot and the PC will automagically recreate the original C: partition. Heck, the HP's (probably since Only Partition Found rule applied) would boot into the Recover Partition without even "activating" the partition.That is if you're lucky enough that the Virus didn't "eat" your recovery partition (if it exists). Chances are it's there if you have the option of creating a disk set. Odd as it seems, this was exactly what HP did...edit - some info on hidden partitions -http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=17158edit2 - and BootItNG may be able to "unhide it" if there's one there. If you try this, (google for it) don't install it, just use Maintenance Mode and Warning! If you don't know what your doing, don't do it! Edited February 25, 2009 by submix8c comment about other topic removed! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DigeratiPrime Posted March 25, 2009 Share Posted March 25, 2009 If the recovery partition exists and there is a win32 program that can access it, you can probably inspect it or extract files from it by making the partition unhidden. I would reccomend doing this "offline" (live cd or connect to another pc) so if you have a sophisticated virus it doesn't modify the recovery volume.diskpartlist volumeselect volume Xdetail volumeattributes volume clear hidden Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tripredacus Posted March 26, 2009 Share Posted March 26, 2009 It may be hidden via the MBR also. I have found with recovery partitions in this case, diskpart's ability to set or clear hidden is useless. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kook man Posted April 8, 2009 Share Posted April 8, 2009 I happened to find this vendor with the recovery disks needed. Recovery Disks for a SONY VGC-RC210G are found at this link, Good Luck! http://www.impactcomputers.com/y-8315-359-a.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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