Recovery Media and Vista Business N

[DcRComputer]

Good afternoon,

I'd be grateful for a steer in the right direction.

Sony Vaio VGN-AE31ZJ bought new in the UK. Hard drive corrupted and Sony Vaio diagnostics agrees. As usual, Sony recovery media doesn't work with replacement hard drive (3 out of 3 so far) so I used a Vista OEM DVD which allows me to select Vista Business which is what the COA has on the bottom of the laptop.

Vista Business N successfully installs but on trying to enter the attached licence key, it tells me that it's not a valid key and I need to buy another - not fair really.

I guess I have 3 choices: buy another Vista Business DVD with key, ask Sony for a replacement set of recovery media that works (or a COA), or see if the telephone activation service will take the existing key. However, on the last point, I can't get the telephone activation choice to appear on the screen.

Has anyone any idea on how I can take this forward?

All the best

DcR Computer

[Blencogo]

Hi DcRComputer and welcome.

I presume you mean the model VGN-AW31ZJ as I don't think the model you quote exists.

If so, then the specifications of the VGN-AW31ZJ show that this Vaio was released with Vista Home Premium 64-bit SP1 preinstalled:

http://www.sony.co.uk/support/en/product/VGN-AW31ZJ_B/specifications

All I can think of is that the Sony Recovery Discs only support installation on a hard drive formatted with 512 bytes per sector. Advanced Format drives are not supported by the recovery media.

Most hard drives of 500GB and over are now AF drives with 4096 bytes per sector.

The Vaio supports AF drives OK for a clean install - it is just the recovery media that doesn't work.

The COA on the bottom of the Vaio is not a valid activation key as Microsoft say you are only licensed to use the Sony OEM Windows Version - not a retail version. However, it is worth telling the story to the telephone activation desk and hope they are in a good mood.