topic Re: Deleted Recovery Partition????? in PCs & Accessories

Deleted Recovery Partition?????

emmal — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 13:56:41 GMT

Hi Everybody,

Im a newbie here, despite having had my vaio for a year or so now.

Anyway for the last few months I have had a few problems, namely that I couldnt download the vaio update 3. I have contacted Sony and they said what to do but when I tried it told me that my recovery partition has been deleted.

Now this is a complete surprise as I have never touched it, I wouldnt even know where to find it. Has anybody any suggestions as to what I can do (I never got round to doing any recovery disks, and yes I have learnt my lesson [:">] ).

Thanks
Emma

Re: Deleted Recovery Partition?????

jumpsuit — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 14:48:58 GMT

Hi there and welcome to the forum!

I think firstly we have to check that the recovery partition has actually been deleted.
I assume you are running XP

You can try going to control panel - administrative Tools - Computer Management - then under Storage - disk management. Under disk 0 if there is a recovery partition present it will show up at the start of disk 0 with no drive leter allocated. (Possibly as an EISA configuration) It should be about 7.5 Gig - 12 Gig depending on your model.

If it is showing up there reboot the PC and tap F2. Restore your bios to defaults. Save and exit. On reboot tap F10 and this will hopefully take you to the HDDR utility.

If none of the above work its possible that you have removed it by mistake, or a 3rd party application may have done so. If this is the case there is no way that I know of to restore it.
If you created the recovery discs though these will function in the same was as the recovery partition. I would suggest you also make a further 2 copies of these discs.

If you haven't made the recovery discs though then you will have to contact Vaio-Link and order some for your model. This is around 70 Euros.

Re: Deleted Recovery Partition?????

emmal — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 15:08:11 GMT

Hi,

Thanks for replying.

Before I do what you said do I need to make copies of any files etc I want to keep that are already on my C drive. I ask as I run a small business from home and I have several sage clients information on this drive.

Also I do have a blank presumbably recovery partition that appears when I go to the disk management. Also once I have done what you suggested will I then be able to make the recovery disks.

Thanks and sorry for all the questions.
Emma

Re: Deleted Recovery Partition?????

MattWilson — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 15:11:42 GMT

I would back everything up as when the recovery process starts it wipes the drive clean.

Re: Deleted Recovery Partition?????

jumpsuit — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 15:48:34 GMT

Hi there

When you say blank I assume you mean that it has no drive letter assigned. Does it give you the size of it?

Have you tried creating the recovery discs now using the vaio recovery tool?

If you do perform a recovery yes I would advise that you back up any imporatnat data first. During the recovery process you can choose to recover the C drive only if you have a c and d drive. You can back up the data or copy it to the d drive but I would suggest that you make external backups of all the important data to either external hard drives or removeable media.

If you let us know your model number we can point youin the right direction for the recovery tutorial

Re: Deleted Recovery Partition?????

Blencogo — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 16:46:06 GMT

Hi Emma,

Just as a matter of interest, do you have Norton GoBack installed - this can cause the problem you describe.

Re: Deleted Recovery Partition?????

emmal — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 19:47:49 GMT

Hi,

Yes I do have Norton Go Back.

Emma

Re: Deleted Recovery Partition?????

emmal — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 19:51:37 GMT

Hi,

Yes there is no drive letter asigned to it, and its size is 6.99GB with 100% free.

I have been out this evenig so have yet to back up my C & D drive before I do what you suggested.

Thanks
Emma

Re: Deleted Recovery Partition?????

Blencogo — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 20:28:11 GMT

Hi Emma,

Yes I do have Norton Go Back.

You will have to uninstall Norton GoBack for the Recovery Partition to be recognised. You can then make your Recovery Discs or Recover Your Vaio.

The Recovery Partition EISA set-up is incompatible with Norton Go Back and gives you the (wrong) message that the Recovery Partition has been deleted. It will show up normally if you uninstall Norton GoBack.

You can always put it back afterwards!

Re: Deleted Recovery Partition?????

emmal — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 04:25:58 GMT

Hi,

Thanks for your message.

I disbaled my Goback and my computer now realises the recovery partition is there.

So I went off quite happily to start my backup disks, but the computer does not recognise that I have a blank disk in. It keeps tellin me to insert one.

Why are things never straight forward?.

Thanks
Emma

Re: Deleted Recovery Partition?????

Blencogo — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 09:44:26 GMT

Hi Emma,

What discs are you using? Have you tried one of Sony/Verbatim/TDK and try DVD+R if you were trying DVD-R before.

I don't want to worry you unnecessarily but the Sony DW-D56A drive is the worst drive ever made. I don't think there are many still working. You can try a firmware update or a Full Recovery. When was it last working OK?

Read this thread if you have a few spare hours: -

http://club.vaio.sony.co.uk/clubvaio/GB/en/forum/viewthread?thread=31787

I think someone reported a fix here: -

http://club.vaio.sony.co.uk/clubvaio/GB/en/forum/viewthread?thread=36622

What are you trying to do? Do you intend to run a Recovery?

Re: Deleted Recovery Partition?????

emmal — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 14:31:42 GMT

Hi,

Thanks for your all your help.

The full story is that I want to download verion 3 update from sony vaio, however it crashes on me when I try to do it. I contacted Sony and they told me to do a system restore, however when I tried the computer couldnt see the recovery partition.

I can now see that (thanks) but my cd drive wont let me burn anything so I am unable to make the back up disks to do a restore to try to resolve the update 3 download problem.

I was using the verbatim disks but have recently changed to sony but it didnt make any difference. Unfortunatly I cant remember when it was last working ok as I very rarely used it.

I have read most of the link you suggested and I have tried all the fixes mentioned in that thread. However I will have a look at the other link you mentioned.

Do you think I need a new cd drive, if so are they easy to pick up?

Thanks
Emma

Re: Deleted Recovery Partition?????

Thalamus. — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 14:42:25 GMT

The full story is that I want to download verion 3 update from sony vaio, however it crashes on me when I try to do it.

Hi Emma,

Try this to update the Vaio update program..

Downloaded the vaio update from Vaio-Link , then go to the folder SOAVUD-01451800-UN.exe (your folder may be named slightly different) in C:\update

Then extract the files from SOAVUD-01451800-UN.exe, something like win-Rar should enable you to do this, once the files are extracted click and run the set-up.exe file..

Re: Deleted Recovery Partition?????

emmal — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 14:49:57 GMT

Hi,

Me again.

I have just read the fix that you mentioned and I must admit I cant understand a word of it (not very computer literate Im afraid).

I have a Sony VGN-FS115Z with a Sony DW-D56A drive. So where do I look? When I clicked on where I think I should be it mentioned flashing and ruining the drive (getting nervous now especially as I have goback uninstalled).

If you get a minute please could you point me in the right direction.

One again thank you for all your help.
Emma

Re: Deleted Recovery Partition?????

Blencogo — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 15:53:40 GMT

Hi Emma,

To Download the Sony DVD Drive Firmware Update for your FS115Z Click here: -

Sony DW-D56A Firmware Upgrade to PFS2

Read the instructions carefully and follow the installation procedure.

It may help - if not then a replacement will probably be needed.

Re: Deleted Recovery Partition?????

emmal — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 18:42:36 GMT

Hi,

Unfortunatly no change, oh well all is lost (sob sob).

Any suggestions as to what would be a good replacement and where I could get it from?

Thanks
Emma

Re: Deleted Recovery Partition?????

Thalamus. — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 18:51:44 GMT

Hi Emma,

Did you try following my earlier post to update the Vaio update 3.0 program..

Re: Deleted Recovery Partition?????

emmal — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 19:04:19 GMT

Hi,

Sorry.

Yes I did try it but I still get the same error message:

Error Code:-5009 : 0x8002802b
Error Information:
pAPP:VAIO Update 3
PVENDOR:Sony Corporation
PGUID:9E158BB9-37B9-464B-837E-CC1D5766291B
$11.50.0.42618
@Windows XP Service Pack 2 (2600) BT_OTHER 55456.19

I must admit it means nothing to me.

Emma