The fix for that involved returning the machine to Sony, which is no longer an option. What I didn't know was that a later update was issued to prevent the possibility of a more serious problem - the Machine Name and Serial Number could vanish from the bios. I recall updating the bios early on - a Sony fix to prevent the fan from running continuously. Incidentally I did find the reason why my System Reinstall disk won't load: Thanks to you (and also Mike Walsh) it is up and running again. I would be very grateful for suggestions as to how to proceed. Could this be used to activate a generic OEM Windows XP? The laptop has a Windows COA on the underside. I have managed to recover some files from the old disk, including the 'Drivers' folder, but it has too many bad sectors to be any use going forward. So you can guess I am pretty disappointed having done what I could to provide for this situation only to find that the restore fails with no clue as to why. The new disk has zero bad sectors and is the same make, model and size as the original. The only possible changes made to my laptop since the DVDs were made are: new battery, RAM increased from 512Mb to 1Gb and now a new hard disk. I guess there is a check to prevent them being used to restore to a different machine. I burned the DVDs soon after purchase so I thought I was covered in the event of a disk failure but the restore process fails with no information given, just the message 'check model number OK'.

A utility enabled this partition to be saved to DVDs, one for 'System' and a second for 'Applications'. Instead there is a (now inaccessible) hidden partion designed to restore the machine to 'ex factory', thereby losing all data and updates.

Sony has now withdrawn support and did not provide Windows disks when the laptop was purchased. Prior to then it had been totally trouble-free. After sitting unused for about 7 years my Sony Vaio (VGN-BX196VP) suffered a hard disk failure when powered off after the first boot.

Free sony vaio recovery disk download