VGN-CR21Z recovery discs for new hard drive installation

[alleycat32]

Sony support say if I order a recovery disc dvd for Vaio VGN-CR21Z I cannot use it on a new hard drive and have to take the computer to a repair centre where they will fix it. He said the recovery discs sent by sony will not work on new hard drives, only on Sony supplied ones. They will not supply a HDD to me. He said they do not sell spares. I have to use new HDD as old one is ticking and not working. Is all this true? I'm not sure if it's something they have been told to say in order to get the work...

Any advice appreciated,...

Message was edited by: alleycat32

Message was edited by: alleycat32

Message was edited by: alleycat32

Message was edited by: alleycat32

Message was edited by: alleycat32

Message was edited by: alleycat32

Message was edited by: alleycat32

Message was edited by: alleycat32

[rich912]

alleycat32 wrote:
Sony
 support say if I order a recovery disc dvd for Vaio VGN-CR21Z I cannot 
use it on a new hard drive and have to take the computer to a repair 
centre where they will fix it. He said the recovery discs sent by sony 
will not work on new hard drives, only on sony supplied ones. They will 
not supply a disc to me. He said they do not sell spares. I have to use 
new HD as old one is ticking and not working. Is all this true?
Any advice appreciated,...

Hi alleycat32,

No, the information you have been given is incorrect. The recovery disks will work with a new hard drive as long as it is installed in the machine that the disks are intended for.

Did whoever you spoke to give you a name or case number?

Rich

Message was edited by: Thalamus.

[tggifa]

I too have just now had to replace the 200Gb Toshiba hardrive in my VGN-CR21Z/R and without knowing that there nim, I just picked up a 1Tb Seagate on the Internet, thinking it would go staight in, and I could set it up with the Recovery disks I bought just after I got the Laptop. WRONG!! Though I had a brand new 1TB HDD it refused to format by any of the methods available in the recovery disk menu, reporting that the HDD "was not big enough " The new drive was 5 times the size of the old one.

I haven't cracked it yet, but I am not a quitter, - lack of sufficient cash to buy a more recent machine, I have no choice.

I will postagain if I solve the conundrum.

Good Luck

Briefcase

in Scotland

[rich912]

Hi tggifa,

I have a feeling that the problem is that you’ve probably purchased an Advanced Format (AF) drive having 4096 bytes per sector as opposed to the original drive which probably had 512 bytes per sector. The recovery media will not work with an Advanced Format drive.

If this is the case then the only way forward is to purchase and install a retail copy of Windows that will be AF aware and then download and install the Sony drivers and utilities from the support site. The software that came preinstalled is not available for download.

Rich