VAIO User Guide

Concept

# About Recovery

Recovery is the process of restoring the built-in storage device back to its original factory condition. Refresh is the process of reinstalling the operating system with the main settings and personal data retained.
Refresh your VAIO computer first if the computer becomes unstable. If the problem persists, recover the computer.
There are two ways to recover the computer:

- From Recovery Media

- From the recovery area

Note

- 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 VAIO 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 VAIO computer has become unstable

- If your VAIO computer has been infected with a computer virus

- If your VAIO computer is experiencing problems which cannot be solved through troubleshooting

- If you have formatted the C: drive by mistake

## Which apps should I use to recover or refresh my VAIO computer or create Recovery Media?

Use the following apps.

### VAIO Care

- Creating Recovery Media

- Checking your computer hardware

### VAIO Care (Rescue Mode) : Recover or maintain your system

- Recovering your VAIO computer

- Rescuing (backing up) your data

- Erasing all the data on your built-in storage device

### Windows Recovery Environment (Windows RE)

- Refresh

Hint

- Refer to the help file included with VAIO Care and VAIO Care (Rescue Mode) : Recover or maintain your system for more information.

- You can also recover your VAIO computer from Windows Recovery Environment (Windows RE).

## What is a recovery area?

The recovery area on the built-in storage device 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 VAIO 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.
Related Topic
Creating Recovery Media
Refreshing Your VAIO Computer
Recovering from the Recovery Area
Recovering from Recovery Media
Notes on Recovery