Posted on 08/29/2007 12:28:17 PM PDT by holymoly
Edited on 08/30/2007 1:03:32 PM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
Or you can just re-install the OS and any apps you use from scratch, using the OS and software CD’s that SHOULD have come with your purchase.
I sometimes reccomend people do that anyway when purchasing a new computer. OEM’s tend to include alot of useless crap in thier installs.... stuff that you’ll never use, eats up resources and can be difficult to remove cleanly.
Just make sure you have a functional copy of the drivers for your Network card burned to a CD and you should be good to download any of the other drivers you might need from the manufacturer (free of charge). That way you’ll also be getting the latest patched drivers (ones that ship installed are often outdated by the time you bring a new system home).
It can take a few hours to get everything loaded up and ready to go though.
My point is the same; why should he change?
I suspect you got BS'd. A basic warranty (Dell's is a year) is fine on a PC...if anything is going to happen, it'll happen in the first few days after power-on - generally.
“I had a user email me the other day asking me for a new spreadsheet! That’s right, a new BLANK spreadsheet. “
Can I get a copy?
I’ve lost my patience and research the hell out of anything I buy over $20 so I have no need for these drones. They have 2 chances before I refute their rude pushiness. I use the “nNG” method:
•first response - ‘no’
•second response - ‘NO!’
•third response - ‘Get the %@#$ out of my face you little...(get creative here)’
Don’t get me wrong, I know its not polite but BS’ing me isn’t very polite either. And I’ve come to enjoy the ‘G’ response because it allows for some creativity. Things like “Ok I do have one question, if I was going to partition this and try to run BeOS fro example, I’m just curious if you would GTF out of my face?”
Oh, absolutely. I didn't know (at the time) that Packard Bell (and Compaq) were placing used parts in their systems. I did strongly suspect the speil about the CPU burning up was bull.
I was upgrading from a 386 w. DOS 5/Win 3.1 at the time. I admit I should've done more research, but hindsight is always 20/20.
“Or you can just re-install the OS and any apps you use from scratch, using the OS and software CD’s that SHOULD have come with your purchase.”
It’s rare they give you the OS and App CDs anymore hence the need to create the restore disks. The last actual genuine windows disk I’ve seen come with a PC was Win98...
Now THAT was an OS. Did exactly what you told it to do....no more, no less.
My old company was still running DOS on a bunch on PCs in their manufacturing facility. 15+ years old, and still worked great!
What a lot of OEMS do now is instead of coming with separate disks, they put the original system image onto a hidden partition of your hard drive. So if your OS gets corrupted or you have some other software-related problem, you can reload the original image directly from the hard drive. Of course, this doesn’t help much if your hard drive fails. And it takes space on your hard drive that you can no longer use, so if the box says “100GB HD” your C: partition may give you only 90GB of usable space, with the other 10GB reserved for the restore image and inaccessible.
When I get a new computer, I make the requisite backup disks “for posterity” (translation: I’ll never use them.) Then I fdisk to get rid of the hidden partition and install a clean copy of XP Pro, which I can then set up the way I want. This generally ends up being faster than cleaning up an OEM installation. And I should have enough XP Pro licenses to last me until the next OS hits the market.
“It’s rare they give you the OS and App CDs anymore hence the need to create the restore disks. The last actual genuine windows disk I’ve seen come with a PC was Win98”
Really? I seem to get em every single time. Of course most of the purchases I make are through the business sales division... maybe that makes a difference.
They probably believe the BS themselves, because even in today's IT market, if they actually knew what they were talking about they wouldn't be stuck working in retail.
FWIW if you really need product knowledge from staff, do your shopping when the part-time workers are there. A kid in high school works there because he's interested, while an adult works there because he isn't qualified for anything else.
Gosh I miss DOS. That said, I gave up on PC's a year ago. I'm a sysadmin and I'm forced to run Windows systems all day; every day. I choose MAC for my home!
Flame on! (ducking)
A lot of buyers expect that the recovery disks come in the box, but they don't. It's fairly easy to make a set, although customers complain about having to do so. Truthfully, if it were up to me, I would put a complete, commercial boxed copy of Windows in every PC box and tell the buyer to call Microsoft when they have Vista problems.
BTW IBM/Lenovo (and probably others) will send you the recovery disks for free if you are unable to make a set, such as if the service partition or MBR is corrupt.
Unfortunately the factory recovery disks do not have the repair and recovery console functionality of a commercial Windows disk. The only thing you can do with them is to nuke and pave.
Of course, if you're out of warranty and need a set, you're going to pay full price, but that's only fair.
(grin) ...nothing like dork flame wars.... (adjusting Linux-geek suspenders)
Should have billed their department for a blank worksheet DVD.
Burned an Excel file called Blankworksheet.xls to DVD and charge them $45.00.
These big tech stores often use their tech support folks to make these recovery disks. I suspect that they have them on hand for each model they carry.
As for making your own I had difficulty doing this as the software had difficulty verifying the burn (probably due the burner operating at max speed...not good).
If you call them and just ask for the recovery disks they will charge you.
Your best bet is to call the manufacturer tech support and complain that their creat backup disk software is faulty. I got HP to send me the recovery disks free of charge!
I hear you, I do systems and tech support, and I had a user come to criping that her comeputer was broken. I had to turn it on for her.
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