No recovery CD's with my new laptop - Anyone know why?

[Cut-Throat]

I just bought a new laptop and called Tech Support to have them explain why there was no copy of Windows XP with it.

They just kept repeating that they don't send recovery disks on CD that it was on the Hard Drive.

I asked 'what would I do if I had a Virus or a Hard Disk crash, and wanted to re-install my laptop' - They said - 'Then you have a problem' - I said 'That's why I am calling'. She said - "you'll have to send the machine to us"

- I tried very hard to find out why they did not send out the XP disks with the computer. I was unable to. I threatend to return the machine. I got no valid answer from the women I was talking to. Kept repeating "company Policy".

Anybody know

 

[TromboneAl]

Sounds like more cost-cutting baloney. In the article below it states that "Microsoft requires that every PC bundled with Windows provide some way of restoring the operating system."

But here's a link that will help you create your own recovery CD.

 

[cube_rat]

I just bought a new laptop and called Tech Support to have them explain why there was no copy of Windows XP with it.

They just kept repeating that they don't send recovery disks on CD that it was on the Hard Drive. 

I asked 'what would I do if I had a Virus or a Hard Disk crash, and wanted to re-install my laptop' - They said - 'Then you have a problem' - I said 'That's why I am calling'. She said - "you'll have to send the machine to us"

- I tried very hard to find out why they did not send out the XP disks with the computer. I was unable to. I threatend to return the machine. I got no valid answer from the women I was talking to. Kept repeating "company Policy".

Anybody know

CT - Find out if there is a recovery utility on your laptop.  Sometimes manufacturers place the vanilla O/S on a partitioned drive and you can recover from the partitioned drive.  I had this utility with my Sony Vaio.  If you're set-up this way, it's highly recommended that you back-up the vanilla O/S to CD Roms so you have a hard copy.  If you don't have the utility and a partitioned drive with the copy of the O/S then

 

[rapoole]

CT-

Mind sharing who made it?

rapoole

 

[retire@40]

I asked 'what would I do if I had a Virus or a Hard Disk crash, and wanted to re-install my laptop' - They said - 'Then you have a problem' - I said 'That's why I am calling'. She said - "you'll have to send the machine to us"

And to whom do you return it if the company goes out of business?

I'd return the computer just because I wouldn't put up with crap like that. If everyone did that, maybe the geniuses at the company will get it.

Sometimes I think people at these companies never look at their operations from a customer's point of view. If I were the president of a company like that, I would randomly place anonymous orders once in a while, place some customer service calls, return the product, and test other areas of the business to see how well oiled the company machine is. I would also make every phone call recorded and spend an hour a day listening to some sample calls.

 

[TargaDave]

Sure sounds flakey to me. We have Dell's coming in all the time and always get a set of recovery CD's as well as application CD's. Even bought a cheapy E-machines desktop at Office Depot and got the CD's.

That's a bummer.

 

[TromboneAl]

Someone says "We can save $1 million and cut prices if we don't include the recovery CD's." and so they try it, and they say "I can't believe the customers accepted that!  You know, we could save another million and cut prices if we outsource our tech support."

Even if there's someone in the company saying "This is bad for the customers." the decision makers don't listen, since that person can't compete with saving $1 million and cutting prices.

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

This appears to use the "HPA" protected area of the disk to store the recovery information, and a utility to do the restoration.

A virus or other software operation shouldnt be able to affect the backup area. A complete hard drive failure would be a problem.

If you have access to a copy of windows XP media, you can use that with the cd-key that should be on a label stuck on the system. A full backup to an external hard disk would also be good.

Reviews of this phoenix made recovery platform are very positive, with most reviewers preferring it greatly to standard recovery cd's as you always have with you the ability to recover a hosed system. They probably havent experienced a hard drive failure though.

Would have been nice for them to spring for the extra five bucks to throw in a recovery cd though.

Use it for six months and if it still bothers you, take it back and get all your money back!

Like it or not, this on-line recovery suite using the HPA is probably going to become the standard for all laptops and desktops within the next 6-9 months. A lot of companies are discovering that customers accidentally throw away the recovery media when they unpack the product, or lose it.

My brother in law and mother in law both managed to lose theirs within a few weeks of receiving their machines. On the few occasions the kids have hosed their machines, i've had to manually reload the systems from my cd media. Wish they had the stuff on the hard disks like this.

 

[burch64]

I just purchased a Gateway Laptop and it has all the recovery information on D drive (just a partition of the hard drive) part of the setup instructions said I had to burn my own recover discs, it took me about an hour to burn them, they supplied the blank discs but three of them were bad.

The instructions said the recover discs program would only burn the discs one time.

Jim

 

[Cut-Throat]

My brother in law and mother in law both managed to lose theirs within a few weeks of receiving their machines.  On the few occasions the kids have hosed their machines, i've had to manually reload the systems from my cd media.  Wish they had the stuff on the hard disks like this.

TH,

Yes, this makes some sense. But then, don't you think if someone bothered to call Tech support for a recovery CD, they'd send it right out? Or even suggest that the customer pay for shipping handling? Instead of pissing off the customer?

I suspect there is something more sinister going on here. Someone mentioned that Microsoft is behind this and does not want recovery CD's going out to prevent the easy conversion to a Linux Platform. I don't really understand this, but this seems like a more likely reason than trying to save some money by not including a 5 cent piece of plastic.

One thing I forgot to mention, is that when I got my Laptop, the first thing I do is delete all the 'Freebee software' - So I deleted the recovery software. The helpful woman on the phone told me that I was screwed in the event that I needed to recover and she could not help me. - I said that I could get a copy of XP and load it. - She spent some 'extra' time trying to convince me that this probably would not work, even though I have done this on plenty of other laptops.

This whole thing mostly has me puzzled and I would not return the laptop soley because of this. I am leaning towards returning it mostly because I am hankering for one with a 10 inch screen.

 

[wabmester]

Haven't you guys been following the sinister activities of Micro$oft? They can't figure out how to grow revenue with new products, so they are cracking down hard on piracy.

Earlier this year, they changed their licensing, changed their product activation schemes, and generally got nasty. One of those changes means that OEMs like Dell are forced to ensure that CD's can only be used on the hardware they are shipped with. So, what do they do? They punt. No CD's are shipped, but you can burn your own from your own hardware, and it'll be encoded with your hardware-specific activation key.

 

[Nords]

I suspect there is something more sinister going on here. Someone mentioned that Microsoft is behind this and does not want recovery CD's going out

That's odd, I was able to find plenty of WinXP recovery CDs at Panthip Plaza in Bangkok...

 

[TargaDave]

One of those changes means that OEMs like Dell are forced to ensure that CD's can only be used on the hardware they are shipped with. So, what do they do? They punt. No CD's are shipped, but you can burn your own from your own hardware, and it'll be encoded with your hardware-specific activation key.

Just got a Dell Lattitude 610 in 2 days agos. All recovery CD's included. Have you recently gotten Dell's without CD's??

 

[wabmester]

Just got a Dell Lattitude 610 in 2 days agos.  All recovery CD's included.  Have you recently gotten Dell's without CD's??

I just checked. My most recent machine came with a CD-shaped piece of paper that says "Your new computer does not require an OS CD...." In addition to that, it came with an OS CD! I'm pretty sure their OEM license has changed, but that doesn't mean their box-packers get it right.