PC Makers Find New Ways to Destroy User Experience

by JEFF WEISBEIN on NOVEMBER 17, 2012

BestTechie

 

install Ubuntu 12.x

only needs a gig or so to install and its more or less Linux version of win8,support touch screen.

problem solved.

http://www.ubuntu

or Linux mint 13 "editor fav"

http://www.linuxmint

 

I knew it was going to be tons of partitions for recovery files etc.
60GB is not enough but to be honest those recovery files are necessary IMO.

 

Really? Windows has over 90% of the desktop market share.

Statements like this me make me laugh.

 

I'm sure that was referring to the dominance of iPads and not Macs.

 

But they aren't "crushing" Windows either.

 

first thing i do out of the box is format the system when i buy one and install fresh.

 

actually lenovo is one of the better guys, they make it easy to reformat your had drive via lenovo system update which automatically detects all the drivers that you need and installs it in your system. no hassle installing one by one or searching websites, etc..

but yeah I agree. any manufacturer that uses 50% of the SSD for "system files" is completely out of their mind.

 

Find online local dealer which assembles PCs for free or for a small charge (in case you don't know or don't want to deal with this kind of job), buy your own components & you will actually get a PC cheaper by at least 10%.

 

I don't think my mom or sister are going to be able to install linux, let alone find replacement software and gather the necessary drivers. In this case Linux is a non-starter.

And furthermore, PC manufacturers have been doing this for years and years. It's nothing new. Getting worse? Yes. New? No.

The specifications need to be reported differently. You can't say a car has x amount of cubic meters space, and include the engine compartment in that spec.

 

I haven't seen a preformatted drive with seven partitions ever before.

 

Did it say 7 partitions? What could they possibly be doing with 7 partitions?

A new system should come with 2 (maybe 3 at most) partitions.

1 for the system.
2 for the restore.
3 for the diagnostic, and this would be a tiny one, a few megs at best.

 

It is more or less explained in the article.

 

Defined maybe, but not explained. Ed Bott pointed out he could NOT explain the purpose all of them, or why some were so large.

And of course, installing an alternative OS is just a cop-out, and a waste of money since you paid for the Windows license. Ed Bott is right,

And I agree, why isn't anyone filing a lawsuit over this. Folks are paying for a 128Gb SSD but not getting full use of it - for no apparent reason.

 

I never use preinstalled images on bought hardware.

On desktops, I buy them without OS.

On laptops, when I must have the OS installed by manufacturer, I wipe it clean.

Cheers,
Mrk

 

A few months ago I helped a friend set up her new Sony Vaio laptop. On a 750GB hard drive it had Windows 7 and three partitions- recovery, OS and applications, and the third was mostly empty.

After confirming the laptop was running properly and charging the battery, I used the built-in imaging program to create a backup image of the hard drive as it was on arrival and the image was slightly over 55GB !!!
-Absurd !!!

Windows 7 (Home Premium 64 bit) requires less than 10GB.
What Sony had done was load about a dozen trial subscriptions for multimedia, office, and security software, all of which was destined for uninstall.

Not nearly as dramatic in terms of the percentage of wasted space as with the Lenovo PC but bad enough.
They all do it and included reinstall media is becoming a thing of the past.

 

I took a look at the Lenovo Forum, re: Yoga 13 IdeaPad to see what the owners of this product had to say about the situation. I assumed they would be outraged, however there was an air of calmness that took me by surprise.
One user rolled up his/her sleeves and provided a step by step solution to reformatting and repartitioning the hard drive making sure that all the required components were still there and that the system was still recoverable. Lots of GBs were freed up. Users implemented it and posted back success stories. No mention of deleting unwanted preloaded applications, so it seemed that most of it was for W8 and Lenovo system files.
A Lenovo employee stated that he was monitoring the posts (they are identified as such) and he followed up with the product managers on this subject. It appears that the designers of this madness will get the message (at least at Lenovo). Also it appears that the Yoga 13 has a second SSD slot so if the owners want to add more storage capacity it is available to them.
The users seem to really like this product. If Lenovo heeds the warnings then their brand will not suffer. It was a bonehead decision.

 

one things for shore i smell bloatware...


winxp atm installed on my rig uses under 2 gigs hdd space ~ 600megs ram

linux install is 1 gig hdd swap-file ~ 600megs hdd install for the os or something and about the same ram use as winxp under a gig for the Os with your AV and all that running at the same time.

win8 ? 60 gigs of hdd space use virus stile partitions spam and 8 gigs ram min hemmm ya ok whatever.........

say what ?
format time.
chances are too its full of phone home you agreed to the legal agreement spyware.
what a bad joke.

as for the win8 cd key it should still be good for the same version of windows that its for "bet ya its not"

tried that before in the past and the cd keys stickers on the side of old dells computers and the like.
their about as useful as a slimy frog sticker on your box when it comes to reinstalling win if you own a real install cd\dvd.

 

I like the recovery partitions, it makes it easy to talk people through it over the phone, or otherwise let people reinstall/restore fairly easily.

I don't like it that there is no cd/dvd included with most new PCs, you rely soley on the hdd partition. Most have a feature to burn this to a dvd, which IMO is a critical step. We here probably take it for granted that we can install our own OS. The average users I know would
A. be paranoid about installing from cd/dvd
B. not have access to an OS source disc
C. lost a hdd with restore partition, and having no cd/dvd of the image, pay some outrageous fee to have it restored or just buy a new copy of the OS, or even a new computer!

A win7 image should be no more than 3 dvds IMO. Mine is only 1 dvd worth when compressed on high. I understand the included software takes up more space, but I cannot understand why they would go to such extremes.

Average users have it easier with recovery partitions, but the manufacturers really should make more of an effort to have them back it up on cd/dvd right way. Personally for the price of a piece of polycarbonate, I think they should just include the dvds.

I'm with Mrkvonic on this though, I roll my own or don't smoke at all

Sul.

 

not going to happen, because.... they just want you to....

 

I remember buying my first few PC's years ago. They came with nothing. I could choose my poison. Some came bundled with software. If you wanted you could have them, install it. You received all packaging and manuals (bound hard copy type) with the software.

Today I do it like Mrkvonic does it.