Restore a Sony Vaio PC to its factory settings

You often say that, my computer failed to do an specific action or I didn’t broke my PC, my Windows is slow or is running extremely slow, my computer is virus infected, my computer has no sound or my webcam is not working any more … and so on. Often, the solution of computer problems resumes to Windows reinstall.

All of you should know that this operation is not very pleasant: you have to format your windows drive, reinstall drivers and all the applications and it can also be expensive if you pay some professional support. What if I tell you that for Vaio PC’s this operations is made with some few clicks? No disks, no flash usb memory, no other external devices … just few clicks.

Vaio PC’s has a tool called VAIO Recovery Center. This tool allows you to create backup points and restore your windows, to create hardware diagnostics, or you can have the possibility of reinstall programs or drivers, wipe and erase data, creating recovery disks or erase all data and restore your entire system to factory settings.

In this tutorial, I’ll show you how to restore your Vaio PC to it’s factory settings. In other words how to restore your computer to it’s original settings (in the exact state you bought it).

For that you have to:

1. Back-up all your data. Restoring to factory setting means to erase all data and reinstall Windows, drivers and preinstalled applications. If you have a single drive (C:) you have to backup your data to external drive or disks.

2. Start VAIO Recovery Center. Click on Start button and then click on All Programs. From the program list select “VAIO Recovery Center“.

3. Restore complete system menu. From the left menu of Vaio Recovery Center select “Restore complete system“

4. Start button.

5. Select “Restore C: drive” and hit Next.

6. Read the information on this new window, select “I understand” and hit Start.

7. “Are you sure?” If you made backup for all your data and really want to restore your Vaio as it was when you bought it you have to make sure that have it plugged in to a stable source of energy and press YES.

8. So … next you should sit back and relax. Your computer will start showing the next messages
Shuting Down
Windows is loading files …
Restoring your operating system
Please wait a moment while Windows prepares to start for the first time…
Windows Vista setup: The initial setup may take up to 15 minutes. Do not turn off the computer. Click OK to continue the setup process and wait until the “Set up Windows screen appears”. Select OK