ShadowBorn Posted September 19, 2012 Share Posted September 19, 2012 A friend of mine asked me to troubleshoot her laptop, it turns out that it had been wiped using Dban, the problem is she doesn't have a recovery disk, i do have a full backup file from a few months ago, is there anyway i can create a recovery disk with any info from the backup file? any help would be great! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Founder Brian Posted September 19, 2012 Founder Share Posted September 19, 2012 Depends on what program you used to back the system up with. Some are dos based that load an image file from the DVD and restore the system. Others require you to install a fresh copy of Windows, then the restore program and then it loads the image file and restores the system. The DBAN erase she did likely made recovery a difficult if not impossible task. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShadowBorn Posted September 19, 2012 Author Share Posted September 19, 2012 I'm not sure of the program, i believe it was backed up with the windows recovery program that came with the laptop, would i be able to locate that info in the backup? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShadowBorn Posted September 19, 2012 Author Share Posted September 19, 2012 Not sure, I think it was backed up with windows as she did not have an anti virus at that time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mw86 Posted September 19, 2012 Share Posted September 19, 2012 Sadly Brian is right. I would install windows with a regular windows disk. Download as many drivers as possible and get it ready to work with. You did not mention the backup program or function you utilized to make said backup file you have. Was it a image backup program, a burning program, windows own system backup system or a software for backups your friend had installed? Get windows on their best you can and use the product key located on Sony Vaio chassis. Whichever backup process you used to make backup reinstall that. Select the backup on the program and maybe the restore will go without any problems. Try to have the backup located on an external drive so as restore is working the source file isnt on the drive being restored to. Goodluck Shadow Born I hope it works out. Hopefully you can gather all the drivers needed from Sonys website.- - - Updated - - -In that case you need another windows pc same type windows 7 im guessing. Go to the backup location in control panel but select the link on lef that says you can burn a bootable restoration disk. Burn said disk and boot from it with the external hd with backup file plugged in. When you boot from disk you burned select the backup file from hard drive and proceed. If it gives you trouble. Use the windows install dvd from a friends computer and do like i said in first part of my post... Then redo these steps by booting from this dvd once a basic windows installation already exists. This is because the restore backs up just the data part if your installation and not windows itself so a windows install disk is still likley additionally required. I think you should do available wjndows update s after driver installs if you had to install windows clean to perform the restore.- - - Updated - - -You may need to scour internet and download the install dvd if you have no windows disk around... Its legal since the product key on the sony vaio is the unique part of the install not the disk. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShadowBorn Posted September 19, 2012 Author Share Posted September 19, 2012 Okay, so I scoured the internet, got a copy of vista home prem x 64, like it had, created a bootable iso, then used windows dvd usb tool to make a bootable disk, now it tells me the boot mgr isn't there, (curse filth filth), any ideas? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Founder Brian Posted September 19, 2012 Founder Share Posted September 19, 2012 @ShadowBorn can you post the exact message? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShadowBorn Posted September 19, 2012 Author Share Posted September 19, 2012 CDBOOT: Couldn't find BOOTMGR Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Founder Brian Posted September 20, 2012 Founder Share Posted September 20, 2012 CDBOOT: Couldn't find BOOTMGRDownload this: Best Free Partition Manager Freeware and free partition magic for Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows Vista and Windows XP 32 bit & 64 bit. MiniTool Free Partition Manager Software Home Edition. Delete any existing partitions, make a new one and then install Windows. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mw86 Posted September 20, 2012 Share Posted September 20, 2012 I think another way is in recovery console booted from windows disk running command like fixmbr or fixboot its been awhile last i used that.Partitioning your drive will be important and Brian posted a great resource for that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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