Recovery,
Backup and
Troubleshooting
Guide
See the back side.
Printed in Japan
© 2012 Sony Corporation
Introduction
Refresh your computer first if the computer
becomes unstable. If the problem persists,
recover the computer.
Recovering your computer will delete all the
data on the built-in hard disk drive or SSD.
The main settings and personal data on
your computer are retained when you
refresh the computer.
To refresh your computer
1
Press the
ASSIST
button while your
computer is off.
The
VAIO Care Rescue Mode
screen
appears.
2
Select
Recover or maintain your system
.
Follow the on-screen instructions until
the
Choose an option
screen appears.
3
Select
Troubleshoot
and
Refresh your
PC
.
For details, refer to the on-screen
User
Guide
.
Save important data in advance. Copyright
protected data, such as digital broadcast
data or music files organized by digital
media playback apps, may not be available,
even if the data is retained in the same
location after you refresh your computer.
Refer to the help file included with the app
you are using for instructions.
The apps installed at the time of delivery
and installed from
Windows Store
are
retained, whereas all Desktop apps that you
installed after the purchase will be erased.
2
Turn off your computer.
3
Press the
ASSIST
button to display the
VAIO Care Rescue Mode
screen and
select
Start from media (USB device/
optical disc)
.
Follow the on-screen instructions until
the
Choose an option
screen appears.
4
Select
Troubleshoot
and
Recovery and
maintenance
.
Follow the on-screen instructions until
the
VAIO Care (Rescue Mode) : Recover
or maintain your system
screen
appears.
If the display language selection window
appears, select your desired language
and
OK
.
5
Select
Start recovery wizard
.
6
Follow the on-screen instructions.
To perform the custom recovery, select
Tools
and
Start advanced recovery wizard
.
If you cannot recover your computer using
the USB flash drive, connect the drive to
another USB port on the computer and try
recovering the computer again.
To recover from the
recovery area
1
Press the
ASSIST
button while your
computer is off.
The
VAIO Care Rescue Mode
screen
appears.
2
Select
Recover or maintain your system
.
Follow the on-screen instructions until
the
Choose an option
screen appears.
3
Select
Troubleshoot
and
Recovery and
maintenance
.
Follow the on-screen instructions until
the
VAIO Care (Rescue Mode) : Recover
or maintain your system
screen
appears.
If the display language selection window
appears, select your desired language
and
OK
.
4
Select
Start recovery wizard
.
5
Follow the on-screen instructions.
To perform the custom recovery, select
Tools
and
Start advanced recovery wizard
.
To recover from Recovery
Media
On the model without a built-in optical disc
drive, connect an external optical disc drive
(not supplied) to the computer. If an AC
adapter is supplied with the external optical
disc drive, plug the AC adapter into a power
source.
1
Insert Recovery Media (optical discs) into
the optical disc drive or connect a USB
flash drive to the USB port on your
computer while the computer is in
Normal mode.
About recovery
What is recovery?
Recovery is the process of restoring the
built-in hard disk drive or SSD back to its
original factory condition. Refresh is the
process of reinstalling the operating system
with the main settings and personal data
retained.
There are two ways to recover your
computer:
From Recovery Media
From the recovery area
The 64 GB or 128 GB SSD equipped models
do not support the refresh function. If you
check the capacity of the SSD, press the
ASSIST
button while your computer is off to
display the
VAIO Care Rescue Mode
screen,
and select
Start BIOS setup
.
When do I have to perform recovery
or refresh?
If your computer has become unstable
If your computer has been infected with
a computer virus
If your computer is experiencing
problems which cannot be solved
through troubleshooting
If you have formatted the C: drive by
mistake
What is a recovery area?
The recovery area on the built-in hard disk
drive or SSD contains data for system and
app recovery. Typically, you cannot modify
or delete data in this area, however, there
are commercially available apps designed
for this purpose.
Why do I have to create Recovery
Media?
Recovery Media are used to restore your
computer back to its original factory
condition. If Windows does not start and
you have deleted the recovery area, you will
need the Recovery Media to perform
recovery. Create the Recovery Media
immediately after the computer is ready for
use.
About backup
What is a backup process?
The backup process creates a backup copy
of your data stored on the built-in hard disk
drive or SSD and saves it to another
location.
Why do I have to back up my data?
Due to unexpected events or computer
viruses, you might lose various data stored
on the built-in hard disk drive or SSD. To
restore the lost data, its backup copy is
needed. It is strongly recommended that
you back up your data regularly.
Creating Recovery Media
You can create Recovery Media using
VAIO
Care
. For detailed information how to create
the Recovery Media, refer to the on-screen
User Guide
. Connect your computer to the
Internet and update the computer using
VAIO Update
before creating the Recovery
Media.
You cannot use BD-RE, BD-RE DL,
DVD-RW, DVD+RW, DVD-RAM, CD-R, and
CD-RW media as Recovery Media.
You can use optical discs and a USB flash
drive as Recovery Media. However, it is
recommended that you use DVD-R media,
since you may accidentally delete the data
on the USB flash drive.
The types of media your computer supports,
the number of necessary discs, and the
capacity of the USB flash drive you need will
be displayed during the Recovery Media
creation process.
USB ports that are compliant with the USB
3.0 standard do not support recovery with a
USB flash drive that is compliant with the
USB 3.0 standard. On models without the
USB ports that are compliant with only the
USB 2.0 standard, be sure to create
Recovery Media using the USB flash drive
that is not compliant with the USB 3.0
standard. (Except for SVE111)
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Recovering your computer
