sony vaio recovery disks, or recovery disks 'generally'-can theydo a 'partial' restore?

[dave]

to gain drive space, I want to remove (more or less permanently) all the
original sony vaio 'apps' on my hard drive, but I'd "like" to have the
option of RE-installing same later (hopefully from the recovery CD's) if
I "later" have a need for any of it...

so, tried sticking in disk one recovery CD today, and "screen 2" of it
said something to the effect of "these cd's will only restore the entire
drive to the original config, destroying all original data during the
process" - so, judging from that, it seems I would _not_ be able to
restore just an app or two 'later' from the CD's...

UH-oh :-(

question: has anyone here ever TRIED restoring just an app or two from
"recovery CD's"? in particular, stuff like quicken, picturegear,
screenblast acid, etc?

thanks an advance for illuminations,

dave

ps-if it matters: sony vaio model pcv-rx830, running xp home...

 

[Rodney Atkins]

I think it depends on the manufacturer. I had a Compaq desktop a few
years ago that would let me do that, but my current HP laptop does
not---it's all or nothing.

 

[Sharon F]

to gain drive space, I want to remove (more or less permanently) all the
original sony vaio 'apps' on my hard drive, but I'd "like" to have the
option of RE-installing same later (hopefully from the recovery CD's) if
I "later" have a need for any of it...

so, tried sticking in disk one recovery CD today, and "screen 2" of it
said something to the effect of "these cd's will only restore the entire
drive to the original config, destroying all original data during the
process" - so, judging from that, it seems I would _not_ be able to
restore just an app or two 'later' from the CD's...

UH-oh :-(

question: has anyone here ever TRIED restoring just an app or two from
"recovery CD's"? in particular, stuff like quicken, picturegear,
screenblast acid, etc?

thanks an advance for illuminations,

dave

ps-if it matters: sony vaio model pcv-rx830, running xp home...

Sony *might* utilize command line switches that can be run from a command
prompt or script. If these exist at all, info about what they can do and
can't do should be pursued via Sony tech support and/or Sony's
documentation. Be sure to check the support documentation at their web site
for more info as well.

You might also try examining the folders and files on the restore CDs using
Windows Explorer. You may find something similar to a "Sony Support" folder
and it may contain an independent setup.exe file for their support tools.
If you run into any readme files while exploring these disks, check them
out.

 

[Bernie]

to gain drive space, I want to remove (more or less permanently) all the
original sony vaio 'apps' on my hard drive, but I'd "like" to have the
option of RE-installing same later (hopefully from the recovery CD's) if
I "later" have a need for any of it...

so, tried sticking in disk one recovery CD today, and "screen 2" of it
said something to the effect of "these cd's will only restore the entire
drive to the original config, destroying all original data during the
process" - so, judging from that, it seems I would _not_ be able to
restore just an app or two 'later' from the CD's...

UH-oh :-(

question: has anyone here ever TRIED restoring just an app or two from
"recovery CD's"? in particular, stuff like quicken, picturegear,
screenblast acid, etc?

thanks an advance for illuminations,

dave

ps-if it matters: sony vaio model pcv-rx830, running xp home...

You should have at least two disks. One is the system restore disk and the
other is the applications disk, just insert the applications disk. Some Sony
specific apps are on the system restore disk but the ones you mentioned are
not. The applications CD does not require a format and reinstall of the OS.