Can anyone help me get sony vgn-fs285h recovery disks for free I'm not working and can't afford to purchase them

[dee1664]

My grandmother has asked for a laptop for her birthday and has never used a computer ever before, so we decided to purchase a 2nd hand laptop. The problem is that we've inherited all the spyware, viruses of the previous owner. I also tried to do a factory reset on the laptop, but found that the hidden partition has no data in it for an F10 recovery. I would really like to get my grandma a fair chance of learning to use computers, but feel a bit discouraged because of the current situation. Is there anyone out there that can possibly help to solve this problem or that can supply me a site to get the recovery disks for free. Sony vaio vgn-fs285h laptop, windows xp home edition. Thank you in advance. Dee.

 

[Someone Somewhere]

Windows XP is obsolete, and full of security holes that are no longer going to be fixed.

Have you considered using another OS, like Ubuntu or Kubuntu? They're easy to learn and avoid a whole pile of malware.

 

[hang-the-9]

+1 ^, a Linux setup just used for web browsing and email will work just as well as Windows, just will look a bit different.

Plus you'll have the coolest grandma on the block once she starts talking in the local coffee shops about how she's running Linux

 

[dee1664]

Windows XP is obsolete, and full of security holes that are no longer going to be fixed.

Have you considered using another OS, like Ubuntu or Kubuntu? They're easy to learn and avoid a whole pile of malware.

 

[dee1664]

Thanks "someone somewhere" for your response to my problem but, I don't think it is a pratical solution for my grandmother aged mid 70's who will be shareing her experiences with other grandmothers and they will not be using ubuntu and she'll have nobody who will understand what she'll be talking about with this type of OS....their response will be ubuwhat? never heard of it. Get windows XP we use it and it's good starter system for us.

 

[Someone Somewhere]

I suspect you will also get a large number of calls, not just her friends.

You do not want to be left supporting XP - Microsoft no longer fixes security flaws in it, and there are many. Expect it to be full of malware after first use. Good luck explaining Cryptolocker.

One option that comes to mind would be ChromiumOS/ChromeOS. Very easy to use, quite lightweight, and bulletproof.

 

[dee1664]

Thanks "hang-the-9" for your response as well but, again I have to say that the solution is not a practical one for my grandma as she wants to do more than just web surfing and emailing. She wants to join her friends that are already learning windows xp as a beginner learner and seem to be happy even though there are those security holes, they won't be using the computer in the way that it will effect their securtiy as they are just using it for simple applications. I know I could just install a fresh windows xp but this particular computer you need to have the original installed drivers in it for you to have administrative privleges and if anything goes wrong there is nothing I could do to restore the computer to its original state. Thanks anyway for your input

 

[Someone Somewhere]

they won't be using the computer in the way that it will effect their securtiy as they are just using it for simple applications

Unfortunately, that's not the case.

There's malware out there that will encrypt all your data (documents, emails, photos, whatever), then charge you several hundred dollars to decrypt it. Or malware that will steal your internet connection or CPU power (and thus electricity) to make money for the writers or harm websites, or spyware that logs your every keypress and grabs your credit card numbers, bank info, passwords, email contents, then does identity theft.

Sure, she may not have any need for that right now, but may want to soon. And you don't want to have to make her un-learn XP and re-learn a new OS.

 

[dee1664]

Thanks again "someone somewhere", but with my experience of using all kinds of different versions of Microsoft Operating Systems I beleive that even the most current and updated versions of MS OS's are still vunerable to all of which you spoke of. I think as long as she doesn't use the ie and uses a different browser such as "Firefox or Google Chrome", she should be ok or at least as ok as any of us are on any MS OS's that are available today. Thanks

 

[Someone Somewhere]

Less vulnerable.

There are exploits out there that will get it without even opening a web browser, if your PC isn't behind a hardware firewall. A properly updated version of 7 or 8 usually requires you to do something dumb like open a malicious attachment.