Windoze Help & support... LMAO

[Cunninglinguist]

So, I have this clients laptop in for repairs. It's a Vaio PCG-k13. It is FUBAR. Removed thousands of viruses/adware/malware/et al. I salvaged the important data, tried the factoy restore (located on a hidden partition), and it doesn't work... Big surprise.
So, I cloned the drives, sliced, diced and cleaned them up, put them back in with a fresh copy of PC-Cillin. So far so good.

Go to windows update and.... Blank page. That's a new one for me.

Google for "windows update blank site"
First hit:

WINUP: Blank Page Appears When You Use Windows Update
When you try to access the Windows Update Site, a blank page may appear without any text or graphics. Additionally, you may receive the following error ...
support.microsoft.com/?id=231917 - Similar pages

Looks promsing...
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=gp;[ln];kberror&style=error]

The Knowledge Base (KB) Article You Requested Is Currently Not Available

Unbelievable...

 

[Cunninglinguist]

I have a piece of equipment made by Byttecc newegg description here, but it's been really flaky with 3.5' drives. I was trying to aviod disassembling the laptop.

I used Acronis.Disk.Director.Suite.v10.0.2089 because partiotion magic wasn't working. It's a very nice program BTW.
Check this out. I cloned all of the partitions on the Vaio, had my way with the C drive. Booted up the laptop and had it delete the current C and replace it with my C on a USB HD.
It did it all within windows in 1 reboot.
I was amazed.

It still doesn't change the fact that I can't reinstall Win XP because I don't have a disk, and the hidden partition is fubar.

I was digging around in it, and I came across this file snyhdrcv.ini
It looks like:

[code:1:182bbb1ae7][RDVD]
RDVD1=rcvprt.img,sony.img,sony.i01,sony.i02,sonydnt.img,sony1p_0400914.pac,sony,art,createcd,i386,drivers,support,appinfo.ini,bitindex.ini,blids.ini,module.ini,CDVD210318805.EXE,DNDD120330701.EXE,MSWB180329702.EXE,OSTE010332808.EXE,WDVD150332404.EXE,WTVL050331402.EXE,XNAV020334504.EXE,DFVer.txt,hdrver.txt,P1Ver.txt,autorun.exe,autorun.inf
[SDVD]
SDVD1=rcvprt.img,sony.img,sony.i01,sony.i02,sonydnt.img,sony1p_0400914.pac,sony,art,createcd,i386,drivers,support,appinfo.ini,bitindex.ini,blids.ini,module.ini,CDVD210318805.EXE,DNDD120330701.EXE,MSWB180329702.EXE,OSTE010332808.EXE,WDVD150332404.EXE,WTVL050331402.EXE,XNAV020334504.EXE,DFVer.txt,hdrver.txt,P1Ver.txt,autorun.exe,autorun.inf
[PDRCD]
PDRCD1=rcvprt.img,sony.img,sony,art,createcd,i386,support,appinfo.ini,bitindex.ini,blids.ini,module.ini,DFVer.txt,hdrver.txt,P1Ver.txt,autorun.exe,autorun.inf
PDRCD2=sony.i01,sony,support,autorun.exe,autorun.inf
PDRCD3=sony.i02,sony,support,autorun.exe,autorun.inf
PDRCD4=sonydnt.img,sony,support,autorun.exe,autorun.inf
PDRCD5=sony1p_0400914.pac,support,autorun.exe,autorun.inf
PDRCD6=drivers,support,CDVD210318805.EXE,DNDD120330701.EXE,MSWB180329702.EXE,autorun.exe,autorun.inf
PDRCD7=support,OSTE010332808.EXE,WDVD150332404.EXE,WTVL050331402.EXE,autorun.exe,autorun.inf
PDRCD8=support,XNAV020334504.EXE,autorun.exe,autorun.inf
[BOOTCD]
BOOTIMG=BootDisc.iso
[SIZE]
TOTAL=4032702722[/code:1:182bbb1ae7]

SDVD1=rcvprt.img,sony.img,sony.i01,sony.i02,sonydnt.img,sony1p_0400914.pac,sony,art,createcd,i386,drivers,support,appinfo.ini,bitindex.ini,blids.ini,module.ini,CDVD210318805.EXE,DNDD120330701.EXE,MSWB180329702.EXE,OSTE010332808.EXE,WDVD150332404.EXE,WTVL050331402.EXE,XNAV020334504.EXE,DFVer.txt,hdrver.txt,P1Ver.txt,autorun.exe,autorun.inf

Basically it tells you how to create a backup CD set or DVD, which the sony program refused to do. These are all known issues on the net.

So I tried several progs to make the DVD and none of them (including NERO) support *.img files.

Any thoughts??