i have an issue. i have a laptop i sold and need to restore to factory settings. the recovery partition is gone and the back up discs are missing. i know i can just get replacement from sony, for ridiculous amount of money, but i dont have time for that as i need to ship it tomorrow or the next day at latest. is there an archive or repository of such things that i can't find?
Honestly, id just install a retail version with the added OEM files. It will detect that its a Sony Vaio and pre-activate and be geniune... then just download any drivers needed. If you like I can refer you to posts that can help you achieve the above.
It's the best way, really the only thing I think that should be added is lan drivers and wireless drivers because if those work you can dl everything else
yeah i would do the same, as a matter of fact i repaired a Sony laptop for my brother and using the original disks only overloaded the computer with crapware, i did better by installing a oem copy and download network card drivers which by the way, are the only thing needed. the rest is trash trust me.