How to format and reinstall Vista?

gobears20 · 3rd February 2009

Hi, hope everybody is doing well! I have not bought a laptop in about five years. I just purchased a Sony and I found it odd that they did not include the operating system CD or the driver cd along with the laptop. I am old school and when I bought my Dell about five years ago it came with all of this on CD.

I was told by some friends that this is how companies are doing this now.

The reason why I am asking is if I have to format and reinstall the operating system. I have had some bad luck with some spyware viruses in the past on my Dell and I would just pop the operating CD in and boot from that CD. I would delete the patrician and that would format and reinstall the operating system.

My question is how would I do this without a CD? Can someone provide the steps to doing this? I have Vista Home.

**BurrWalnut** · 3rd February 2009

All manufacturers must provide a way for the user to reinstall the operating system.

As you haven’t been supplied with a DVD, there must be a recovery partition that sets the machine back to factory settings. Have a look at your documentation and/or the Sony website for instructions.

gobears20 · 3rd February 2009

Thanks

Is this the norm now not to included this information on a CD or DVD?

**wildfire** · 3rd February 2009

Hi gobears20;

It's quite common, but some (most/all?) do allow a recovery DVD to be created (required if your HD needs replacing).

If you post the model number then I'll try to find out what options are available to you.

gobears20 · 4th February 2009

Here is the one that I got...

Model Number: VGN-AW290
Sony VAIO
Intel® Core™ 2 Duo Processor T9800 (2.93GHz)
Microsoft® Windows Vista® Home Premium 64-bit
8 GB DDR2-SDRAM (DDR2-800, 4GBx2)
400 GB SATA Hard Disk Drive [5400 rpm]
DVD±R DL / DVD±RW / DVD-RAM Drive
XBRITE-FullHD™ (1920x1080)
TV Tuner
WLAN (802.11a/b/g/n) with integrated Bluetooth® technology
Extended Battery