Help reinstalling Vista

Hello,
I bought a Sony Vaio Z, as well as an Intel X25-M SSD. Although they haven't arrived yet, I'd like to get straight exactly how to swap the HDD. I found a tutorial for the physical process, but what I don't know how to do is reinstall vista.

I assume that with the disks fresh installing the OS is a pretty straightforward process. But will it have everything I need? ie, will it have the appropriate drivers, be able to interface with different hardware components, and software to interface with the unique Sony stuff like the graphics processor switch and two programmable buttons above the keyboard? Or, are these BIOS level? Basically, I just want to make sure that a fresh installation of vista will control the Vaio Z just as smoothly and completely as the Vista + stuff it comes with. If not, I will have to look into backup/restore options.

Thanks for reading

 

no a fresh install will not have all the drivers but you can download them off the web site now and put them on a cd and install them when you do the fresh install

or you can use acronis image and make a image of your hard drive then put in the intel and install it just like it was on the other hard drive

or you can use the disc it comes with and then use pc decrapifier and get rid of the bloat ware

 

True that, but I would just put the drivers (download from the Sony website) AND ALL THE FILES YOU WANT on an external hard drive.

THE MOST IMPORTANT DRIVER IS THE WIRELESS/ETHERNET Driver. Without this driver, you won't be able to download anything after you reinstall vista unless you have access to another computer. All the other drivers come secondary.

Once that's done, take out your old drive, store it somewhere safe, and install the new drive. Put the Vista disc in the drive, select the drive as the bootup device, and boom there you go.

Once Vista is done, install all of the drivers you downloaded from the Sony website.

To make sure that you have a starting point, I would use Acronis True Image to image the hard drive, put it on a DVD, and store it away in a very safe location. If a virus totals your system, you just pop the disk in, and your computer will look like nothings ever happened.

Good luck.

 

i was just listing all possible options and i didnt know if he had an external driver so i said CD

 

Hey, that's great, it's all there from Sony. Thanks for the replies - I'm glad I got a quick solution.

Do I have to install all the drivers? I don't have blu-ray or RAID, so I assume the corresponding drivers are unnecessary? Also, not installing the smartWi driver won't affect anything else, right?

Last, could I use a USB flash drive to install the drivers from, or do I have to use a CD or external HDD?

Again, thanks for the replies.

 

can somebody answer my questions? Help is much appreciated.

 

nope jump drive is fine just put them on there

you dont need blu ray or raid or the wimax just get the wifi driver

 

OK, thanks for the reply. Hope it all works.

 

I received all components, but strangely no Vista disks arrived, so I imaged the HDD with acronis. So now I have all 6 parts of the image on a flash drive, and another flash drive to boot from, but it's not working. It will load a black screen, then output the test "no operating system detected." Does anybody know what I'm doing wrong? Thanks for reading.