I have a SONY/VAIO/ i7 notebook bought 3~4 yrs ago. I exchanged harddisk twice in the first 2 years. Fortunately I bought extended warrantee for 3 yrs. Nevertheless, every time I sent to SONY for reparation, I had to re-install all software. Forget about pictures, personal files - they were all gone.
SONY computer a piece of junk except its design so close to Apple computer. Toshiba probably the only computer that shows a good reliability.