If you bought a Sony VAIO SZ that came loaded with Vista, you did not get installation disks. Your only option for re-installation of Vista was to do it from the hard disk restore partition, which would put it back to "factory" condition, i.e. with all the crapware loaded. Removing the crapware is difficult and time-consuming -- some of it is buried so deep in the machine that it is almost impossible to dig out. Worse than the crapware, it's not possible to repair Vista OEM without an actual Vista installation disk -- your only option if Vista gets too damaged is restore-to-factory-condition.
Well, there is now a solution to this problem. I came across this site:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=185737
It gives complete instructions for creating a
clean Vista install disk
with all of the necessary SZ drivers. I tried it last night, and it works. It took a few hours to do, including all the downloads, but I wound up with a clean Vista installation disk with SZ drivers. This will work with any version of Vista.
Obviously, you still have to have a valid key (your OEM key will work) and activate through Microsoft. This is
not pirated software, but merely a way for owners of OEM licenses to create install disks that were not provided with their computers.
Enjoy!