Re installing XP on Sony

[Dan Williams]

On Thu, 3 Mar 2005 16:55:26 -0600, Jim Isbell, W5JAI
<jim.isbell at gmail.com> wrote:
> I have a Sony Vio laptop and it has one partition on it, one 4 gig and
>  1 gig of unassigned space.  (was assigned as drive "D" but I
> unassigned it thinking I could add it to "C"...of course, I couldnt)
> Windows XP is installed on the 4 gig partition and the remaining 1 gig
> is un assigned.
> 
> BUT...no mater what I do when it boots it has Sony Vio logos and if I
> look at the directorys I find a bunch of crap that was left over from
> the days when it was running a Sony derivitave of Win ME. Lots of ISP
> advertisements desquised as optional ways to connect to the internet.
> (I use a Sprint cell phone and Sprint software to connect to the
> internet and dont need ANY ISP or phone line methods of connection and
> would love to get some more space by deleting them.   I cannot delete
> the directorys because they are protected.  If I could just erase the
> unused directorys I would be happy but also just cleaning the whole
> thing off and installing XP would be fine to since there is nothing on
> that drive that I need. I cannot delete IE and that takes up a bunch
> of room.  I use Netscape and IE is an abomination I need to be rid of.
> 
> I want to clean that damned thing completely off and reinstall XP.
> The version of XP that I have is the Home edition UPGRADE.
> 
> I dont know what I need to put on there first to get the upgrade to
> work but I have ME Upgrade and WIn 98 and WIn 3.1.  Usually just
> starting from 3.1 and upgrading step by step works but I cant get this
> damned Sony crap off the HD and it takes up over 2 gb of HD space.
> 
> Any help would be appreciated, even if it is to tell me that Sony
> fixed it so their crap must stay, at least then I would quit trying to
> recover the lost space.
> --
> Jim Isbell
> "If you are not living on the edge, well then,
> you are just taking up too much space."
> W5JAI
> UltraVan #257
> CAL - 27   #221
> 
I would suggest booting with knoppix and then deleting the extra
partition (write down the details). If XP will still boot and doesn't
complain. Use partition magic or similiar to expand the main
partition. If it doesn't work. Then delete all partitions and boot
from the home edition cd. It should ask during the upgrade for a valid
install cd to be put in. ME or 98 will do for that.
nb. I would check the sony website for the latest drivers for
everything and burn them to a cd.

Dan