Why no installation discs?

I hope I'm putting this in the right place, if not, I apologize.

Okay, this might be "old hat", but I can't help but wonder why in the name of "making PCs cost less" most if not all manufacturers have given to not putting the installation discs in the box for the software that is installed on it. I mean, what if your pre-installed MS Word or whatever stopped working and you needed to re-install it, with no CD, you can't very well do that. And since when did it make sense to have to do a full system restore or rebuild because one application screwed up?

I'm probably telling my age here *lol*, but when I first started going to college not even 8 years ago, our professors would tell us it was important to back up our personal data and make sure we kept the installation cds for the OS and any applications near by incase of a system "agggh" In other words, Windows got "very sick" or hard drive crashed.

I know, piracy is nasty, but IMHO, I would be more willing to buy another computer from a company that allowed you to have the installation cds. (Maybe this is a MS fiasco, I don't know.)

Any input is appreciated. Thanks.

 

Didn't you get the recovery cd's?
And yes you can have original cd's boxed but then you have to pay for it.

 

H/P has been selling pc's without an install disc.
I bought one.
H/P support told me that the Recovery Console made the install disc un-neccessary.
The computer that I have now has the disc and I wouldn't buy another computer without one.

 

Hi shae
I recently bought an emachine and it came with the disks,also my old ones had them.

 

You can request the FREE recovery CDs from HP if the PC is less than 30 days old. Some vendors like HP put the recovery data in a partition on your hard drive. If the HD crashes, then you may not be able to reload the factory version of windows that came with the PC because the recovery CDs may not be available for redistribution.

 

My hp is less than four and a half months old and it came with eight install disc's. I called hp to see why so many and the guy I talked to was in another country and misunderstood me and sent eight more

 

About time HP listened to the users! Must be a new policy. Desktop units built between 2002 and 2003 did not come with recovery CDs.

 

my comp was just released to retail sale 130 days ago and it did have them. It could be a new policy. But like it was said in an earlier reply. They will send you a set free within the first thirty days and then after that you have to buy them for an average of $25.00 US.

 

Back up, back up, back up. I can not stress it enough. Back up every thing and keep it handy. For thoes lucky enough to have a CD burner, back up your entire system on CD and do a system save frequently.

I have an older machine, and had it not been for these so called quircks of mine, I would have had the pleasure of restoring from scratch three times. I learned after the second go around. It is no fun to have to start from scratch when your system takes a nose dive.

Thanks
Wildman

 

I happened to have found this interesting little article about this "little" issue. Granted it's from about 4 years ago, still makes ya wonder...

TechTalk

 

How exactly do I do a backup?I would just like to know how it's done,although I have the disks.I have a cd burner.--thanks
Does it take a certain program to do it?
Rita

 

The best method of backing up windows AND your data is to IMAGE the entire hard drive. The image file can be stored on removable media or another partition in your hard drive.

Bootit ng is a ONE STOP imaging software. It is very reliable because it does NOT run in windows. It includes a partitioning software to partition your hard drive if you want to store the image file in your hard drive. You can try the full program, FREE, for 30 days. Bootit ng costs $35.

There are several decent imaging software, like Image for Windows and Drive Snapshot, that run from within Windows.

 

How feasible is it to image a hard drive onto CDs, how many CDs would you need to backup e.g. 10 gigs? Do the different imaging applications use different compression ratios?

I'm guessing a DVD burner or a second hard disk would be more practical...

 

High compression mode will reduce the image file size by about 40%. Some programs will give you a choice between no/med/high compression. You would need about nine CD-R discs to image a 10GB partition.

A DVD disc can hold about 4GB of data.

Applications and data rarely go bad (unless you have a bad HD). That's why I partitioned my hard drive to separate the OS from everything else. The 700MB WXP partition resides in the C primary partition. That way, I can quicky create/restore the OS.

A modern PC can process the image file at a rate of 600MB/min (hard drive to hard drive).

 

Thanks for the information. Imaging is something I need to look into.

 

I am not the one to give instructions on how to use a CD burner, seeing as how I do not have one, thus I leave this to much better qualified individuals.

I do however have some back up capability that came installed on my machine, this I use on a weekly base, it places the recovery on a hidden section of my D drive.

If I got anyone to even think about backing up their machines, no matter what method they use, I am a happy camper. It is worth whatever method one utilizes.

Thanks
Wildman

 

I acquired this XP Home OS from my niece.....she lost ALL the Discs whilst moving home.....so I if suffered any kind of melt-down I would be in real doodoo......how does one go on in that event. 'Backup' isn't in Accessories and I can't put it in without the XP Disc so I struggle by with Nero.
All suggestions greatfully received....just don't mention spending money, it gives me palpitations of the Wallet...



Cochise,

 

I asked 'Leo' Ron.....did the search for I386 and although several came up none had winnt.exe or winnt32.exe in 'em.......... .....What's Bills' address??.....



Cochise,

 

Hi Ron, Custom built OS by RAMCOM, don't know if they are large or small.....I have the product key and all that jazz and it's guts is basically Intel, but would Bill understand my problem and smile kindly on me.....I doubt it............ ....

Please accept my apologies 'Shae', I appear to have nicked your Thread...




Cochise,

 

These bastards think they own the computer too!

 

I don't know squat about no XP and such, so all this is guess work on my part.

I would be looking for every damn file that had *.cab and placing a copy of it in some folder on that machine.

I would be on the WEB serching for every method of recovery I could get a hit on and hoping that the *.cab files would be enough to get me to a good starting point.

I would be on the machine manafacture's WEB page trying to gather every bit of imformation that would help in case the machine went belly up.

I would be looking for a back up method that would work on that machine, and if the machine is working I wouldn't be taking to long before I at least had some sort of good recovery method, and a good start point.

Yes I would have quiet a bit of home work to accomplish, but I know it would be better than having to start from scratch. (BEEN THERE & DONE THAT).

Thanks
Wildman

 

So can I take it then that there is no way of getting the necessary disks to cover my botty in case of 'Deathly Disaster' other than stuffing more dinero into Big Bills' mattress?....



Cochise,