Hard disk replaced. Lost Sony Vaio update facility, problems with DVD player and rewritable disks

[johfairb]

Recently had my hard disk replaced. Have downloaded original drivers but have no Sony Vaio update facility and am unable to play DVDs or copy files to rewritable disks. Any advice (again) please?

[Blencogo]

What model Vaio do you have?

Did you not make a set of Recovery Discs?

If you install a commercially available copy of windows, there are some programs and software that you cannot download and can only be replaced by purchasing a set of recovery discs from sony.

Your DVD drive is probably a different problem.  Are there any warnings or error codes against the drive in Device Manager?

[johfairb]

Hi Blencogo,

You were kind enough to help me previously with this when I had to restore the camera utility. I sent the laptop to a local computer repair facility and they recovered lots of files for me but they seem to have forgotten to check a few of the utilities. The model is a VGN-SZ4MN/B.

The device manager tells me the DVD drive, a Matshita DVD RAM UJ-842S ATA Device is functioning OK but I can't now play DVDs nor will it allow me to format rewritable DVDs etc.