VGN-S56GP recovery

[nomeames]

This is regarding my old vaio. I tried restoring it by pressing F10 and got this error message "INF file txtsetup.sif corrupt or missing, Status 4. Press any key to restart". I have the recovery discs but I can't use them as the drive (optical) is out of order. My questions are:

1. Can I copy the txtsetup.sif file from recovery disc onto the recovery partition? I have noticed they are of different size. The one on recovery partition is 462KB and the one on recovery disc is 461KB.

2. If I want to change the HDD from current 80GB to 160GB (I am guessing thats the max I can go on this model?), is there a way I can restore the OS from recovery discs to the new HDD?

Thanks for any suggestions.

[Blencogo]

Hi nomeames and welcome.

There are probably more files corrupted than the one you mention.

I presume your imported Vaio is the same as the European VGN-S Series so keyboard and palmrest must be removed to get at the major internals.

As almost complete disassembly is needed to replace the hard disc, I would replace the Optical drive while you have it apart. I think that is the only way to reinstall the original system.

[nomeames]

Thanks for replying Blencogo. I took the hard drive out earlier and formatted the partitions leaving the recovery partition intact. I still get the error same error message (Status 4). I could not take the palmrest out as I was unable to remove the two white latches (guess those are for the speakers). I partially lifted the palmrest and removed the hard drive.



As far as replacing the optical drive, do you think I would need the exact same model or a compatible one will do? (Driver?). Can I use an external DVD-RW drive instead?

[Blencogo]

No, Use one of the same type and size - replacement Sony drives are expensive but you should be able to find one for £30/£40.

I attach the S-Series Manual as a .pdf which may help you disassemble the palmrest!

[nomeames]

Thanks Blencogo ! ! You are a star. I could tear it all apart. I guess its time to go shopping for me. The hard drive too is in bad shape.



So now I am stuck with a failed hard / optical drive. Currently the drive partitions are (roughly):
Recovery partition: ~5 GB
OS: ~20 GB
Data: ~35 GB

Now If I buy a new HDD with higher capacity, how do I go about restoring the OS and possibly the recovery part ition too?

[Blencogo]

The best way is to use Acronis True Image.

You can copy an exact image of your hard drive to DVDs or better still an external USB hard drive. You can then copy the image back to your new hard drive complete with OS, programs, updates, data and settings. You can adjust your drive sizes also.

Read up on it - I think you may need a working DVD drive to boot the Acronis recovery but it may be possible without. It is very clever and useful software.

[nomeames]

The hard drive has been formatted and has bad sectors. I tried copying the recovery partition back but it failed and the HDD is virtually unusable. Do you think making an image of this would do any good? Besides, I suspect the bad sectors on the HDD 'might' be marked as bad in the new HDD too? I was thinking of replacing the optical drive and install a higher capacity new HDD.

If I manually partition the hard drive keeping the recovery partition and OS partition same as before, would I be able to install OS using the recovery discs / recovery partition?

The other option for me then would be to buy the OS cheap from ebay and activate it using the product key from the COA sticker at the back of laptop?

[Blencogo]

You should be able to install onto a new HDD using the Recovery Discs - you will need to fix the CD/DVD drive first!!

I don't think you will get the Recovery Partition though.

[nomeames]

OK. Here is the update. I replaced the HDD (100GB from 60GB) and also the ODD. Strangely, the recovery discs didn't work and I got message "bootmgr.exe missing press ctrl alt del to restart". Then I took the HDD off and manually created a recovery partition (using external HDD dock) and copied the files from my recovery discs onto the recovery partition and voila...that worked. It gave me the option to recover it back to the factory settings.

After restoring it back I found out why the recovery discs didn;t work. For some strange reason, the ODD which is DVD +/-RW is only acting as CD ROM. I have read and burnt DVDs before but it doesn't take DVDs any longer. Even the new one I bought (DVD +/-RW) is not reading DVDs. I uninstalled the device and let the driver load automatically...didn;t work. I uninstalled the driver and reinstalled it..still it doesn't work.

Just wanted to thank you blenco for your help and support.

[Blencogo]

Check that you have something like WinDVD, Roxio or similar installed.  This will provide the DVD codecs required.