After updating the operating system on a Sony VAIO laptop from Windows 8 to Windows 8.1, I cannot reset the laptop to factory settings. When I try to reset, I get the error: “The required disk partition is missing” or “The partition is locked.” An alternative method to restore factory settings helped:
Click the button ASSIST when your VAIO computer is turned off.
The screen appears VAIO Care Rescue Mode.
Select Recover or maintain your system.
A language selection window will appear. Select your language.
A window will appear to select a recovery option.
Select Diagnostics (Troubleshoot)
Select Recovery and maintenance.
A window for selecting the operating system to restore will appear (in our case it will be Windows 8.1):
Select Windows 8 (Windows 8.1)
The VAIO Care (Rescue Mode) window appears:
Select an item Start recovery wizard.
A window will appear:
Here the VAIO Care system asks if we want to save our data. In this case, I have already copied all my personal files from the laptop to an external drive, so I don’t need to save any data, I need a full reset to factory settings - completely. If you also need a “clean” reset (without saving personal files and programs), then select "Skip rescue"
A window will appear warning us that all files will be erased and asking if we are sure we want to start the recovery process.
Place a check mark next to the inscription “Yes, I’m sure.”. Next, the button is activated [Start recovery]. Click this button, a progress bar will appear, which will display the process of restoring the laptop to factory settings.
After the recovery process is completed, a window will appear “Recovery complete”
After rebooting, the laptop will be ready to work with a fresh (restored from scratch) system.
P.S. You can also watch a similar video instruction found on YouTube - clack
Sony Vaio series laptops differ from other brands in their individuality, since the company's market was initially focused on the American user. Having its own unique recovery system, users of these laptops always have the opportunity to quickly and conveniently return the operating system to working condition with the ability to save any information.
Types of resuscitation
The system recovery method in Sony laptops is based on VAIO Care technology, which is a software package with which the user can manage the entire system. VAIO Care technology is divided into two types:
- A set of programs installed in the Windows operating system, which is launched either through the “Start - All Programs - VAIO Care” menu, or with a special “Assist” button on the keyboard. When launched, the main window will open, where you can perform almost all key system operations that are located in the Windows Control Panel. Here is a section for optimizing the system, by cleaning the registry and media for used system files, as well as defragmenting it. There is a separate section for system recovery, where you can return Windows to basic settings, “roll back” the system to a certain date, or remove the necessary system drivers with updates. It is important to know that basic drivers for sony laptops are installed along with the VAIO Care version for Windows on the installation disk or from the manufacturer’s official website;
- A version of VAIO Care that boots from MS DOS. In fact, this service is identical in functionality to the recovery environment, which is launched with the F10 button. Both utilities are similar to the so-called “hidden partitions” of recovery on laptops of other brands. You must immediately press the Assist key after turning on the computer, after which the VAIO recovery center menu will launch. Here select the desired keyboard layout language, then click “Diagnostics”. In the next window, select either “Restore” - in this case, user data will not be affected, or “Return the computer to its original state” - all data on drive C will be deleted. The final stage will be to wait for the action and log in;
- Recovery environment using the F10 button, which must be pressed immediately after turning on the Sony Vaio (important - in some models you need to press F10 together with the Fn key). As already mentioned, this set of utilities is practically equivalent to VAIO Care technology, since the result and recovery methods are similar. The choice is offered between saving the data or completely restoring it to the factory settings of the system and then erasing the information, as well as technical questions about the necessary partitions on the hard drive. The only differences are in the interface and some minor functionality.
For a “clean” installation of Windows, when it is impossible to turn on and log in, you must boot from external media that contains the installation image of the operating system. To do this, go to the Boot menu with the F11 key, similarly, the key to enter the BIOS is F2 (although if you have VAIO Care technology, you can enter the BIOS by pressing the Assist button and then selecting to launch the BIOS). In the BIOS you can also configure the priority of loading the media, for example, if there is a disk in a DVD drive, or a flash drive in the USB port, the boot will occur from there. These manipulations are carried out in the BIOS in the “Boot” section, having previously disabled the protection against changing settings by selecting the “Legacy” value opposite the “Boot mode” item in the “Boot” section.
Hotkeys
Drivers for a Sony Vaio laptop, for example for a Wifi module and a Web camera, are located in the system software. And if we take into account that some laptop models have a hot key to turn on the camera (for example, Fn + F12 in Fujitsu), and almost all have a wifi key, then most Sony VAIO models do not have such keys. For example, if we consider the Sony VAIO T14 SVT14115CXS ultrabook, then the hot keys present here after installing the drivers have the following combinations:
- Fn+F1 - enables/disables the touchpad;
- Fn+F2 - turns off the sound completely;
- Fn+F3—reduce sound;
- Fn+F4 - increase sound;
- Fn+F5 - decrease brightness;
- Fn+F6 - increase brightness;
- Fn+F7 - control multiple displays when a monitor is connected to the laptop via HDMI/VGA/SVGA.
Internet and video
Some models of this company have a function for quickly switching to sleep mode, activated by the Fn+F12 key combination.
Since there are no hot keys for controlling Wifi and the camera, you need to make sure that they are initialized and the drivers are installed for them to work properly. To check the Wifi module in Windows 7, you will have to go to “Control Panel - Network and Internet - Network and Sharing Center - Change adapter settings.” In the window that opens, you can see all the network connections and wifi modules that are present on the Sony Vaio laptop. If there is no wireless Wifi connection, you will need to reinitialize the device by installing the driver.
To enable the Web camera, some users will find it difficult to find it, since in many laptop models this device is not in the “Scanners and Cameras” list, since it is not an external camera with a separate driver. Therefore, to check it, you need to go to “Computer Properties (right-click on “My Computer”) - Device Manager - Imaging devices.” The web camera must be present in this list of devices.
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.1. Press the ASSIST button on your VAIO laptop to launch the application VAIO Care (Desktop).
If a window is displayed User Account Control, select Yes.
2. Select Advanced Tools, Restore and recovery And Create Recovery Media.
3. Read the on-screen instructions carefully and select Next.
4. Select the desired media type (in my case, “USB flash drive”).
5. If we select the flash drive, a window appears:
6. Connect the USB, and make sure that it is detected in the “USB flash drive detected” section and click next..
7. Pay attention to the warning and click “Create media”.
And the process has begun:
And finally:
Note
- Keep the recovery disc in a safe place.
Notes on creating a recovery disc
- - the data in the recovery partition was changed using a data modification application;
- - an operating system was installed that was different from the operating system preinstalled on the computer;
- - the built-in storage device has been formatted without using VAIO Care (Rescue Mode) : Recover or maintain your system .
The Sony Vaio laptop series is a rather specific line of computer devices, if not unique. The fact is that in Sony Vaio laptop models it can be done even without an installation or boot disk, the use of which is provided in most cases. However, not all owners of these devices fully understand how to perform such actions. As it turns out, everything is quite simple. This does not require any special knowledge.
Sony Vaio. what you need to know initially
The very first and most important thing is that most models in this series are equipped with a special Assist button directly on the keyboard panel, which activates the call to the corresponding menu.
If there is no such key, in Sony Vaio laptops or any other OS you can do this by accessing the main menu through a special partition of the hard drive. Only in this case should you use (F12, F11, F10 or F9) when turning off the device. Which button is intended to be accessed depends solely on the model. As a last resort, you can simply read the technical documentation.
Using the Main Menu
So, we assume that when you press a key or a button, access to the main menu is achieved. System recovery on a Sony Vaio laptop can be done in several basic ways.
You can use a normal restore, diagnostics, or factory reset. Depending on the degree of damage to the OS or its system components, the required partition is selected.
And if with a regular rollback everything looks quite simple, then to return to the original settings you will have to work a little.
Restoring the system (Sony Vaio Recovery Mode) to factory condition
Let's consider the main algorithm using the example of resuscitating Windows 8 (although this procedure can also be applied to the tenth modification).
After selecting the appropriate section, the download will begin (a logo will appear on the screen), and then you will be asked to select a keyboard layout. We select exactly what is required, after which we go to the diagnostics in the action selection menu.
In the new window you need to select the line to return to the original state. After this, a notification will appear indicating that all user data will be reset. Feel free to click the continue button and select the installed operating system.
Now the most important thing. You can only use deletion of user files, or you can perform a complete cleanup. As a rule, experts recommend choosing the second option. Select the appropriate section and click on the return button, which is located at the bottom of the window.
On a Sony Vaio laptop, system recovery will continue with the logo reappearing, and notifications will be displayed on the screen about the progress of the process and the degree to which the rollback is ready.
When all actions are completed, a sign of their successful completion will be the appearance of a notification prompting you to select the OS language. Actually, this completes all the actions necessary for the rollback.
How long will such actions take?
Unfortunately, many owners of laptops of this model range will have to be disappointed. The fact is that if you choose a full clean with a return to the initial state in Sony Vaio, system restoration will take about several hours (usually up to three). Therefore, whether you like it or not, you will have to be patient. It is also important to remember that the process must not be interrupted under any circumstances. You need to make sure that the power is connected in advance, because otherwise, if the restoration is not completed, no one will guarantee that it can be done again.
The problem of impossibility of recovery may also be that some kind of virus is firmly entrenched on the laptop. Therefore, before proceeding directly, it is advisable to check it using some disk utility like Kaspersky Rescue Disk. This program is considered one of the most powerful and is capable of loading its own interface even before the OS starts. In this case, you can choose a graphical shell or command line support in the form of DOS mode. Naturally, if you wish, you can specify the desired language (Russian is supported).
Instead of a total
It remains to add that the process of rolling back to any state is quite simple, as can already be understood from the material presented above. The most basic thing to pay attention to is choosing the means to access the recovery menu using a dedicated button or function key. And, of course, when cleaning, you should think a hundred times about deleting only user data or applying a complete wipe. Perhaps, if there is extremely necessary information on the hard drive, it would be wiser to refuse deep cleaning. Well, the rest is up to the user.
Hello friends, in this article we decided to tell you how to restore laptop to factory settings. Let's start with the manufacturer Toshiba (who is interested, you can read a separate article -), the second we will consider the Sony laptop, the third HP pavilion. Separate articles are written for laptops, and,. Well, then we will try to supplement the article with information on products from other manufacturers; judging by your letters, this topic is of interest to many of our readers.
- Good day, I wanted to ask you how to restore a laptop to its original factory settings? I know that these settings are located in a hidden partition of the hard drive, but I carelessly deleted this partition and now when I try to roll back to factory settings I get an error. I have not created recovery DVDs and in general, I have never had the opportunity to restore a laptop to factory settings. What is the way out of my situation?
- Hello admin, please explain what I should do. A Toshiba laptop, it has a hidden partition, also a C: drive and a D: drive. I didn’t touch the hidden partition, but on drive D: I deleted everything, and now I can’t roll back to factory settings, they say Toshiba laptops use a hidden partition and some other folder HDD RECOVERY, which is located on the disk, to restore factory settings D:. What should I do now?
- I bought a Toshiba laptop, the instructions for the laptop say, if you want to roll back to factory settings, press the F8 key, the recovery program will start. I pressed it, but Additional download options are launched and that’s it... And then what to do? And another question, when you first started it, a message appeared - We recommend that you create a resuscitator media on a USB flash drive or DVDs, using the Recovery program, it will help you restore the contents of the computer to the original factory state, even in the event of serious damage to the computer. Explain how to use this resuscitator media in case of problems?
- Hello, tell me how to restore a Hewlett-Packard (HP) laptop to factory settings if the laptop does not boot at all. When loading Windows exits with an error.
- Admin, answer this question. All laptop manufacturers equip them with a special RECOVERY program, located in a hidden section. Using this program, you can roll back the laptop to factory settings in case of serious problems with the operating system. Question – Is there any alternative to this program?
How to restore a laptop to factory settings
When does the thought of restoring our laptop to factory settings occur to us? That’s right, when we no longer understand what’s going on with it, and most importantly, the laptop itself doesn’t understand what’s happening to it, because of the dozens of unnecessary partitions created on it, four installed operating systems, thousands of different programs and three antiviruses.
- Note: Before performing a factory reset, you can copy all data from the C: drive and desktop using .
Many users may notice that in such a situation you can reinstall Windows with all programs, drivers and everything. But I, in turn, will notice restore laptop to factory settings, for an inexperienced user, much easier. Then you won’t have to worry about finding and installing drivers for all devices; you just need to reinstall the necessary programs and that’s it. The only thing that confuses many people in this situation is that many have never tried restoring the laptop to factory settings even once in their lives. To introduce you to this restoration is the purpose of our article; I hope after reading it, you will have a better idea of how this can be done.
I have to restore factory settings on various laptops quite often and I want to say that the recovery mechanism itself is almost the same on all laptops, but of course there are always nuances that are better to know in advance.
First rule. During a factory reset, the AC adapter must be connected to the laptop at all times.
You reboot the laptop and press a certain key on the keyboard when loading, then the factory reset program starts, this is where you need to be careful. The factory reset program may offer you the option of restoring just the C: drive or restoring the entire hard drive. If you select drive C:, then only it will be restored to factory settings, and the remaining partitions with your data will remain untouched. If you choose to restore the entire hard drive to factory settings, then all the partitions you created, with all your files, will be deleted and your laptop will be in the same condition as at the time of purchase.
Where is the laptop factory reset program located?
Usually in a hidden section of the laptop, which is called the “Recovery Partition,” the volume is up to 20-plus gigabytes. You can see it if you go to Computer Management->Disk Management. It is advisable not to delete this partition, otherwise you will not be able to restore the laptop to factory settings.
Owners of a Toshiba laptop need to know that in addition to the hidden RECOVERY partition, they also have a HDD RECOVERY folder located on the D: drive; this cannot be deleted either.
Note: Friends, if the hidden partitions on your laptop are not deleted, but the factory reset program is not working, read our article -.
Why create laptop recovery DVDs?
As soon as we bought a laptop and turned it on, on the screen, immediately after the Windows desktop appears, a service window from the laptop manufacturer appears with a proposal to create laptop recovery DVDs. That is, we will create this same hidden partition with factory settings, but on DVDs. This is done in case the hidden section of the laptop, for some reason (usually due to the user’s fault), becomes damaged or is deleted completely.
To create recovery DVDs, you usually need 3 blank CDs. If there are serious problems with your laptop, for example, you cannot load the operating system at all, and your hidden partition has been deleted, we can restore the laptop to its factory state using previously created recovery DVDs.
Hotkeys for restoring laptops to factory settings
ASUS – When the ASUS splash screen appears, press F9
Acer - Alt+F10
HP pavilion - when turning on the laptop, press the esc key. Enter the start menu, then press the F11 key
Samsung - F4
Sony vaio - F10. New Sony VAIO laptops use a special button Assist, try pressing it when loading. Loading VAIO Care, select from the menu Start troubleshooting (Recovery) -> Select keyboard layout Russian -> Diagnostics -> VAIO Recovery Tools -> Windows 8 -> Run the Recovery Wizard(System recovery in step-by-step mode).
Toshiba - F8 or on the latest models 0 or even sometimes you need to press Fn+0
Packard Bell - F10
Dell inspiron - when the dell splash screen appears, press Ctrl+F11
Fujitsu Siemens - F8
LG-F11
Lenovo-F11
So, first we restore the Toshiba laptop to factory settings, press F8 when loading (if you have one of the latest models of Toshiba laptop, then immediately when you turn on the laptop, press and hold 0), a window appears Additional download options. Choose Troubleshooting your computer and press Enter.
Selecting language settings.
We select the Toshiba HDD RECOVERY recovery tool or it may be called Toshiba Recovery Wizard.
In the next window, we are warned that drive C: will be restored to its original state, that is, everything will be deleted from it and its state will be restored to the state at the time of purchase of the laptop, drive D: will remain untouched.
You cannot interrupt the operation, so make sure that the AC adapter is connected to the laptop. Click Yes and start the process of restoring the laptop to its original factory state.
A factory reset process is in progress.
The software and drivers are being installed.
Choose a username and password for your account. We set the date and time, they are usually correct by default. If you wish, you can register your laptop to extend the warranty.
First launch of Windows. That's all
How to factory reset a Sony laptop
When booting, press the F10 key and enter the Windows Boot Manager, select using the keyboard Launching VAIO Recovery Center.
A window appears in front of us, in which we can familiarize ourselves with the recovery options.
For example, we choose Recover drive C: and in the next window we read information about what will be restored.
Disk C: is restored to its factory state, all software is reinstalled, but not software installed after purchasing the computer, it will have to be installed again. This program deletes all files on the C: drive, but does not affect files on other partitions.
If you and I choose Completely restore the system, then everything on the C: drive and all other partitions will be deleted. After recovery, all disk space will be occupied by drive C:
How to restore an HP laptop to factory settings
If the laptop does not boot at all due to system errors and you want to restore its original settings, then, in order not to lose your data, you can boot it from any Live CD, then transfer important files to a portable hard drive, then restore the factory settings, since Restoring factory settings will delete all your data from your laptop.
Press the key when turning on the laptop Esc.
We enter the boot menu, as we see, the F11 key is responsible for restoring factory settings - System Recovery. Press the F11 key.
A window appears HP Recovery Manager. Here we need the item “ Restoring the system to its original condition when shipped from the manufacturer».
Click on “ Restore without creating a backup copy files" and click Next.
Now you need to disconnect all external devices: printer, scanner, mouse, click Next and the process of restoring the HP laptop to factory settings will begin.
Is there an alternative to the laptop's built-in factory reset program? Yes there are, these are programs and and they have much more opportunities.
