Cannot re-install Windows 8 on Sony Vaio

Discussion in 'Windows 8' started by Travers, Mar 21, 2014.

  1. Travers

    Travers MDL Novice

    Mar 20, 2014
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    #1 Travers, Mar 21, 2014
    Hi everybody,
    I have a Vaio laptop (SVT111A11M) that shipped with OEM Windows 8. I was going about my bi-annual fresh re-install, when I found that it wasn't working, I get an error informing me that my recovery partition is not there. A quick google told me that this is a known problem since updating to 8.1.
    After looking for a solution from Sony, Microsoft and the internet in general (including this great forum) the only fix that I've found and tried was using RW-Everything to recover my Windows key from my BIOS and trying to use Microsoft's own download to re-install, which of course doesn't work because that is retail only and my key is OEM.
    The only offer Sony had was to sell me recovery disks for £50 (for my laptop without a disk drive!) which I'm loathed to do.
    Can anybody here help?
    Thanks in advance for all answers!
    Dave
     
  2. Mustafa Can

    Mustafa Can MDL Member

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    #2 Mustafa Can, Mar 21, 2014
    Is your recovery partition is really deleted or trying to enter recovery partition gives that error? Check it with DiskPart, automatically deleted partitions are not normal.

    Also, what version of Windows 8 you have? Maybe you can use MSDN discs if you don't have CoreSingleLanguage or CoreCountrySpecific, which MSDN version not available.
     
  3. Travers

    Travers MDL Novice

    Mar 20, 2014
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    #3 Travers, Mar 21, 2014 (OP)
    @Mustafa
    Thanks for the reply.
    From what I can tell the partition is there and is healthy.
    I tried the reset process again and got a different error. Could not find C:/......winload.efi

    I'm not entirely sure how to find out if I have CoreSingleLanguage or CoreCountrySpecific...
     
  4. s1ave77

    s1ave77 Has left at his own request

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    #4 s1ave77, Mar 21, 2014
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  5. Travers

    Travers MDL Novice

    Mar 20, 2014
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    #5 Travers, Mar 21, 2014 (OP)
    Ahh, thanks s1ave77. So I simply have "Core", I presume that rules out the others.
     
  6. pisthai

    pisthai Imperfect Human

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    #6 pisthai, Mar 21, 2014
    By the way and just a guess: It's possible that you need to enable the hidden Recovery Partition in BIOS of your machine. After done that you need to use the Hot-Key for to access and run!

    Had you ever check that?
     
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  7. yukikochan

    yukikochan MDL Novice

    May 19, 2013
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    #7 yukikochan, Mar 21, 2014
    Create a Usb stick with the install files for windows 8.1 and you can then use the recovery option thats built into windows after pointing it to the usb stick
     
  8. Tito

    Tito Super Mod / Adviser
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    Nov 30, 2009
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    #8 Tito, Mar 21, 2014
  9. Travers

    Travers MDL Novice

    Mar 20, 2014
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    #9 Travers, Mar 21, 2014
    Last edited: Mar 21, 2014
    (OP)
    @pisthai

    Thanks for replying! My BIOS doesn't have such an option - I've re-installed several times pre-8.1 without any issues at all. I'm right in thinking that the BIOS itself is unaffected by any Windows updates, aren't I?

    @yukikochan

    Thanks! I was actually just thinking of trying that when I discovered I'd left my USB stick at home (I'm at work).

    @Tito

    I will be trying that ASAP. Thanks.
     
  10. pisthai

    pisthai Imperfect Human

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    #10 pisthai, Mar 21, 2014
    That's right, the BIOS isn't affected by updates of the OS! Even the Windows internal partitioning system will not affect the hidden Recovery Partition, that you could only do with 3. party Partition Apps. If your Laptop still has that hidden Recovery Partition, you could use such 3. party Partition apps for to un-hide and/or copy that partition (to an external drive as example)!
     
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  11. CorporateRAT

    CorporateRAT MDL Member

    Aug 4, 2012
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    #11 CorporateRAT, Mar 21, 2014
    It really depends on what sony uses to create recovery partition. It might be just hidden partition with custom recovery image created with adk. Anyway this would be useless since the partition contains windows 8 image and you would have to upgrade to 8.1 every time you want to reinstall. Waste of time. Just use information Tito provided. By the way 50 for recovery disks is total rip-off.