OEM System Restore Discs
Chris | Live Tech Support | Video Help | Add to iTunes
http://live.pirillo.com/ – Do you remember the last time you went to restore your computer? Of course you do. You looked in the box, shuffled through all of the papers and discs… and found NO restore disc.
My degree is in English Education. Some day, I seriously want to give Grammar lessons to the community. Come on people! Nouns! Verbs! Sentence structure!!!!
Calming down…… breathe in, breathe out…….. calming……. ok. I’m good.
One of our chat room members, JJ, asked me if I know why Microsoft no longer ships actual recovery discs. It’s cheaper that way for Microsoft! Ok, seriously though…
I think the reason discs are no longer shipped with new computers boils down to manufacturers. For one thing, this cuts down on piracy issues. Companies want to make sure that the copy of Windows you bought with your computer STAYS with your computer, and isn’t given to someone else to use. The biggest reason, though, most likely deals with customization. Each manufacturer has Windows customized the way they want it to appear on your computer. Instead of having to use a disc to reload the Operating System, you simply push a key combination on start up (or something to that effect, depending on manufacturer) and restore the computer to factory settings. You no longer have the mess of installing Windows, looking for drivers, and all infinite other things you must do to get your computer up and running again. This simplifies the task for you, and ensures your computer is restored the way the manufacturer intended.
However…
I personally would rather have the discs in my possession. I am a ‘hands on’ kind of guy. I prefer doing all that myself! Also, what about computers I can no longer use? I have an old IBM Thinkpad that just doesn’t run the way I need it to anymore. Since I have a legal copy of Windows, and the key for it, I have to call Microsoft and say “well yeah. The computer doesn’t work, but I own Windows, so now I want to use it on another computer”, and get the disc shipped to me. What a pain! And we wonder why so many people are moving away from Microsoft? Look at all the people who have had it with Vista and are moving to Macs or Linux. It’s insane, I tell ya!
Wait. That’s a rant for another video. As always, I love your feedback! Leave me a comment, shoot me an email… just comment!
Want to embed this video into your blog? Use this code:
Formats Available: MPEG4 Video (.mp4) Flash Video (.flv) MP3 Audio (.mp3) Microsoft Video (.avi)
6 Comments
Chris Elrod
August 23rd, 2007
at 6:49am
I’m not necessarily a hands on guy, but as an owner of a repair store I think it is in the best interest of the consumer to have a restore disk. It would be even better if the restore disk had just the operating system and drivers and have a seperate disk for the programs and give you the option of picking the ones you want. Without the disks what does a customer do when the hard drive fails? They will have to take it in for repair (good for me) but will make it difficult to get the drivers and any full version software that came with the system. You buy the software with the computer and should have the disk as a part of it.
kiko
August 23rd, 2007
at 4:13pm
I just bought a new Dell desktop ( Inspiron 530) – I got a Vista CD ( plain Vista no trialware), plus a cd of all drivers, plus a cd of flatscreen driver plus a cd of Soundblaster driver plus a cd of NVidia video card driver plus a cd of ms Works…plus there was a recovery partition with a quick restore with all the trial crap which I wiped, formatted and added to the OS partition….so if I want I can do a complete restore, add all drivers and go from there with a very clean install…so not everyone is doing it…though a friend just got an HP laptop and got – a laptop – with a recovery partition…better to name names rather than point fingers…to paraphrase..the pointing finger points…and having pointed…moves on…
kiko
August 23rd, 2007
at 5:40pm
geez Chris deleted my comment about all the cd’s I got with my new pc..now I know I’m on the right track
kiko
August 23rd, 2007
at 5:41pm
no he didn’t – what’s up with your system not refreshing Chris?
GiM
August 23rd, 2007
at 6:31pm
Well, if you run an “genuine” IBM machine, and if you did not play with original HDD configuration, then you are able to write the Recovery CDs you need to restore the IBM machine later, even on a new HDD, I gues F11 at boot (I do not have an IBM one) will give you some options like back-up from main partition, run PC Doctor – very good to verify the hardware, re-install the software as factory default – and maybe regain some speed with a new instalation of the operating system, write Restore CDs – if the machine has an CD Writer – any thing from 2 to 8 CDs, and others options, or in Windows from Start menu / All Programs / Think… you will have the same options. As I said, if you did not erase the hidden partition in which with F11 can boot and access this utilities. But if you have already discover it and if you take it for use on other purposes, it was your option…
Certainly this is the situation with HP (and I worked for HP computers technical support for years), and I guess for other big names too.
About the OEM version of the operating system, you had paid it very little – special price (
GiM
August 23rd, 2007
at 6:45pm
About the OEM version of the operating system, you had paid it very little – special price (less than 50 USD fof XP Pro, less than 25 USD for XP Home) just to be used on that machine. If you have the Recovery CDs, then you will be able to install on the original PC/motherboard and with the apropiate drivers. On any other PC the software started from Recovery CDs will verify even the serial number and will stop to work if it does not corespond.
But you can always have a Retail version (about 150 USD for XP Pro) which will allow you to install 3 times (or how is said from Micro$oft, on the same machine with 3 different hardware incarnations – as you will get only 3 activation codes peared with the 3 hardware combinations)… I want to have 3 lives…