Help required with restoring my Vaios to factory settings

[paolahart]

I have the following Vaios: VGN-AR11S, VGNAR11E and I need to restore them both to factory settings. I have the Product Recovery Cds but it say they are for Sony PCG-FX105K. Can I use these with my laptops? Thanks.

[Blencogo]

Hi paolahart and welcome.

What OS is running on the two VGN-AR11 Vaios?

If the Recovery Discs are for the PCG-FX105K they will not work with your VGN-AR11 Vaios.

Recovery discs are model specific as they contain the original OS and drivers and software specific to the individual Vaio.

The PCG-FX105K was released for sale in about 2001 and had Windows 2000 preinstalled.  This would be of no use on your newer Vaios as support has ended for Windows 2000 and it would not be possible to install a workable system.

Both the VGN-AR11 vaios are from 2006 and would have been preinstalled with Windows XP.  The only supported operating systems are XP and Vista but I seem to recall an upgrade from Vista to Windows 7 worked using most of the Vista drivers.

This leaves you with three options: -

Option 1 - If the Vaios are working and have the original operating system installed, it may be possible to return the Vaios to factory settings from the hidden recovery partition that is shipped with all new Vaios.  Try tapping F10 repeatedly on startup when you see the Vaio Logo and see if the recovery software starts.

Option 2 - If the recovery partition has been corrupted or destroyed by installing another OS or replacing the hard drive, you can probably buy a set of Recovery Discs from Sony Support.  You will have to telephone the out-of-warranty premium phoneline.  The purchased discs will restore the original OS, drivers and software.  The last I heard the cost was in the region of £50.

Option 3 - You can install a retail copy of XP or Vista (if you can still get a copy somewhere) and then download and install the available drivers from the Sony Support website here: -

http://www.sony.co.uk/support/en/product/VGN-AR11S

However, not all the original software is available for download and XP is no longer supported by Microsoft, so Vista is probably the best bet if you can find a copy.