I have a question

[BaldEagl]

I've got this old Sony Vaio laptop.  I want to re-format the hard drive but don't have the original discs it came with.  The Sony website no longer has all the drivers either.  I called and the recovery discs are no longer available.  The best I could get out of Sony was send it in and they'd do it for $99.  The machine isn't even worth that anymore so that's clearly not an option.

Can I burn a disc image onto another hard drive then re-format and, when it asks for drivers have it look on that hard drive?  I've got an external USB hard drive I can use.  I'm thinking this should work for video, sound, mouse and modem drivers but would like confirmation.

What about motherboad drivers?

[Dragon]

Unless I'm mistaken, the motherboard drivers shouldn't be lost during the format, and the USB drive should work fine for storing the drivers. 

[Fulmar]

How old is this laptop?  Model, specs?  If you reformat and install windows again, its not as if you will lose all function of the laptop.  Windows will be able to get it up and running.  You may have some minor glitches getting the right video driver or wireless driver.  But I wouldn't really sweat about it.  I formatted my wife's nearly 5 year old Toshiba a couple months back.  A stock version of XP found every piece of hardware.  I only updated the drivers to newer versions.  I believe I did have to search for a Wireless drivers, but otherwise it was a cake.

I'm not sure you'll need to burn an entire image of the hard drive, maybe just the Windows directory.

Have you tried searching for drivers outside of the Sony site?  There are plenty of driver database websites out there.  I found an updated Bios for my P3 motherboard (circa 2000) still on the FTP site for the motherboard company (FIC).

[eagl]

You could try a windows repair installation...  Just install windows right over the existing installation.

You might have some luck copying the current installation onto that USB drive and having windows search it for drivers, and that might be your best option if a simple repair installation doesn't help.

[BaldEagl]

I'll explain a little more.

The machine is old (circa 2001).  It's a Win98 machine that's never been upgraded.  I got it when I worked for a company that ran out of money and laid everyone off.  They owed me a lot of money in wages and expenses at that time and I held this laptop hoping to use it as leverage even though they owed me a lot more than it was worth.  I never saw the money but have had the laptop since.  That's why I don't have any recovery discs.

It's a Vaio PCG-F580, PIII 650 with 128 Mb of RAM.

From the time I got it defrag never worked.  Finally, I'm not sure how I did it, but about a year or two ago I finally got defrag working.  I've been diligently defragging every couple of months since but it's always a very long and tedious process and when you watch the defrag details screen you can see that it's still pretty messed up.  The computer seems to really struggle with even the most basic of tasks (the fan spins up just surfing... forget if it has to deal with Flash or Java).

I was thinking that if I reformatted it and added 128 Mb of memory (the maximum it can accept is 256 Mb) for $22 (I'd have to get 2 chips) I might improve the life of this thing until I can finally get a new one.

I found a download on the internet that had the sound, video and modem drivers and grabbed it.  I've got a wired and a wireless NIC card and have the drivers for both.  I'm just wondering what else I'd be missing.  Are there drivers for the floppy, CD-ROM, mouse (touchpad), mobo, usb ports or anything else?  I also found a site that would sell me a complete original recovery disc but they want $30 which I'd rather not part with in I don't need it.  I have never really done this with a laptop before.

[Dragon]

To be honest, it sounds like it'll make a good door stop.  I can see now why you don't want to put any money into it.

[eagl]

Win98 might run snappy enough on that especially after a re-install.

For that matter, a stripped down version of winXP might also run really well.  My brother has been experimenting with various stripped winXP versions (you have to get a winXP cd, modify the disk image, and burn a new version just like you would "slipstream" a service pack into an older winXP install disc) and he's had good luck running winXP on pretty slow hardware.

If you have a spare winXP license, consider trying that out before you spend the time putting win98 back on the laptop.  I don't think the process of slimming down winXP is all that difficult, and some sites even have cd images you can download that ought to automatically work with any legit license you may already have.

[Chalenge]

Most Sony Vaio systems will have a VAIO recovery wizard. Create a Recovery Media Kit using this wizard and you'll be able to create a set of CDs that will enable you to do a system recovery on your Sony VAIO machine.

[BaldEagl]

Most Sony Vaio systems will have a VAIO recovery wizard. Create a Recovery Media Kit using this wizard and you'll be able to create a set of CDs that will enable you to do a system recovery on your Sony VAIO machine.

Nope.  Not this one.

[Chalenge]

I have never tried to do what you are considering but you could at least image your OS now and fall back to that if you had to. True Image goes for about $50 though so you are not saving much.

[MrRiplEy[H]]

A 2001 laptop is a living dinosaur. Do yourself a favour and invest to a $400 cheap new laptop and amaze yourself by the blazing speed!

[Fulmar]

A 2001 laptop is a living dinosaur. Do yourself a favour and invest to a $400 cheap new laptop and amaze yourself by the blazing speed!

I vote for this.  You're going to have to retire that laptop eventually.  That laptop is almost 8 years old.  I've always been suspicious of the life of laptop hard drives.  They're very mobile pieces of equipment and through the years I can only imagine the bumps and shocks subjected to the hard drive.  A desktop hard drive that old is suspect just from sitting its secure tower.  I replaced my wife's laptop hard drive a few months back after some louder than usual access clicks.  But these are just my opinions.  The cheapest HD's I think I found at the time were 80gb'ers and ran about $52.

Plus with a new laptop you'll have a new battery that will make it portable.  I'm guessing your current one is less than mobile without a long extension cord.

[BaldEagl]

Yeah, I know.  I found a nice little Toshiba for $450 but was hoping to wait until Windows 7 came out so I wouldn't have to deal with Vista.  I was just thinking a good clean-up and $22 for memory would tide me over.

I've got this set up in my kitchen and about the only thing I use it for is web-surfing and checking the BBs.

Plus, if/when I do get a new one I'd probably try to give this to my mother (90+ living in a very small apt. and has never used a computer).

[MrRiplEy[H]]

Yeah, I know.  I found a nice little Toshiba for $450 but was hoping to wait until Windows 7 came out so I wouldn't have to deal with Vista.  I was just thinking a good clean-up and $22 for memory would tide me over.

I've got this set up in my kitchen and about the only thing I use it for is web-surfing and checking the BBs.

Plus, if/when I do get a new one I'd probably try to give this to my mother (90+ living in a very small apt. and has never used a computer).

Vista has got a lot better with SP1 even though UAC still sucks on it. I bought a new HP/Compaq laptop with Vista to my wife recently and after disabling windows search and UAC it chugs along great. Windows search was rendering the machine unplayable with constant disk access and freezes but that was solved with one click and a reboot.

[Fulmar]

Vista has got a lot better with SP1 even though UAC still sucks on it. I bought a new HP/Compaq laptop with Vista to my wife recently and after disabling windows search and UAC it chugs along great. Windows search was rendering the machine unplayable with constant disk access and freezes but that was solved with one click and a reboot.

Yeah, both my in-laws have Dell 1525 laptops.  After using it once to check my email and the 2ghz processors seemed like 266mhz Pentiums, I checked and found 85 processes running on one and 75 on the other in mostly stock configurations.  The 10 differential I attributed to Itunes.  Anyways.  I trimmed them down to about 50-55 and disabled to UAC and they finally ran like they should have.

You would think with a laptop, the goal would be trying to conserve as much power as possible.  Not occupy as much free RAM and CPU threads.