not trying to defraud Microsoft but need a vista copy!

richleeds

ok long story cut short.....

selling my vaio laptop, did a complete system erase, put the system restore discs in and they are not working, tried BIOS, its booting correctly etc

all i get is "operating system not found" - cant do anything else, no back up partition or anything.

so im going to have to start from scratch.

vista business was preinstalled and on the bottom of the vaio is the licence key sticker, the problem is where can i get a copy of vista business from?

the vaio is less than a year old so sony will take it in and put everything back on but quote 6 to 8 WEEKS!

Ive already got my next laptop and have a buyer for this so cant really wait that long.

any ideas would be great, its been doing my head in for the last few days!

cheers

rich

chuckles1066

richleeds wrote: »

ok long story cut short.....

selling my vaio laptop, did a complete system erase, put the system restore discs in and they are not working, tried BIOS, its booting correctly etc

all i get is "operating system not found" - cant do anything else, no back up partition or anything.

so im going to have to start from scratch.

vista business was preinstalled and on the bottom of the vaio is the licence key sticker, the problem is where can i get a copy of vista business from?

the vaio is less than a year old so sony will take it in and put everything back on but quote 6 to 8 WEEKS!

Ive already got my next laptop and have a buyer for this so cant really wait that long.

any ideas would be great, its been doing my head in for the last few days!

cheers

rich

They're having a laugh, tell them to send you properly working Restore CDs by Recorded Delivery; you'll have them by Friday.

BritBrat

Try pressing F10 at the start.

Keep tapping it, do not hold it down.

cant do anything else, no back up partition or anything.

Oh, did you Fdisk it?

They nearly all come with a restore partion.

Just do a search using Google and I am sure you could find a disk to download. (vista dvd torrent)

It's not illegal to download a disk as you never buy that anyway, you only pay for a licence.

By the way a VISTA DVD has all the different installs on one disc all you have to do is choose between 64 or 32 bit.

Wonder why the authorities have not shut down Google for indexing illegal downloads.

richleeds

chuckles1066 wrote: »

They're having a laugh, tell them to send you properly working Restore CDs by Recorded Delivery; you'll have them by Friday.

Sorry, should have added, I work 6 months of the year in the USA so its a USA bought vaio and sony UK wont touch it and sony usa wont send recovery discs to the UK!!!!

Sods law im in my UK time now and not over there!!!

richleeds

BritBrat wrote: »

Try pressing F10 at the start.

Keep tapping it, do not hold it down.



Oh, did you Fdisk it?

They nearly all come with a restore partion.

Just do a search using Google and I am sure you could find a disk to download. (vista dvd torrent)

It's not illegal to download a disk as you never buy that anyway, you only pay for a licence.

By the way a VISTA DVD has all the diffent installs on one disc all you have to do is choose between 64 or 32 bit.

Wonder why the authorities have not shut down Google for indexing illegal downloads.

I didnt F disk but I did use window washers entire eraser, i have used it before on previous vaios followed by the restore disks and its been perfect its just this time.....

BritBrat

You will still need a product key.

I take it you have the COA label.

I have often thought they should let you download these restore disk, maybe asking you to enter Ser No of the computer as part of the process to check you are allowed to and also confirm the correct disc download.

libra10

Have you tried the Vaio Recovery utility found under Programmes? When I reinstall I don't use the backup discs but just run through the programme.

Don't know whether this will help, just a suggestion.

Good luck

richleeds

thanks for all the replies, if anyone can point me in the direction of a download site where im not going to get a virus, please PM me.

cheers

rich

richleeds

libra10 wrote: »

Have you tried the Vaio Recovery utility found under Programmes? When I reinstall I don't use the backup discs but just run through the programme.

Don't know whether this will help, just a suggestion.

Good luck

thanks libra, but the entire drive has been erased, so there is nothing on there at all, no utilities, no partitions with any restore features etc

I get a black screen with "no operating system found" and sadly thats it!

richleeds

aknot wrote: »

No idea if this will help http://neosmart.net/blog/2008/windows-vista-recovery-disc-download/

You should have a recovery partition unless you scrubbed that aswell.

thanks aknot, but im afraid everything went!

richleeds

aknot wrote: »

If you have the COA you can ask a friend for his/her copy and install the drivers individually.

yeah I have the COA stuck on the bottom of the vaio, anyone near Leeds with a copy of vista???!! happy to pay!