Laptops sold without O/S and driver discs

[tornado33]

A mate just rang me with some issues with his new Vista Toshiba Laptop. I was astounded when I asked him "did you get a Vista and driver disc with it and he said "no" In fact there isnt even a detailed instruction manual. So what are you supposed to do if you want to reinstall the operating system eg, because of a HDD crash or just wanting to do a clean reinstall?

My Dell lappy came with a XP CD and a separate driver CD. How can it even be legal to sell a Windows computer without that version of Windows on a backup disc, along with all the necessary drivers and utilities for the installed hardware.

I think its disgraceful to sell computers without the installed software on accompayning discs, and it certainly should be made illegal in Australia. Bloody hell how much does a couple of discs cost anyway? They mass produse these discs. Their margins cant be that tight.

My mate bought it from Domayne, and its not a cheapie, its a c2d 2.1 ghz with 2 gb ram, yet they didnt include the discs and a printed manual.

Moral of the story, check these are included before buying. Any maker not willing to include them is not serious about after sales backup.

Just curious, any other Toshiba, or any other brands owners get machines without software discs?

[leroyxx]

My Acer laptop didnt come with any disks either - brought approx 2 months ago...

it came with utilities to make a recovery disk straight off though, which i did.

[KenZomgWtfBbq]

My laptop has a partition where stuff is stored. I got no CDs.

[thrillhouse]

My Toshiba laptop (Vista 32) came with CDs to make a recovery disk, and also the ability to roll back to XP. Haven't done either.

Nothing explicitly marked with DRIVERS or VISTA INSTALL.

[SLATYE]

Most laptop manufacturers (and probably most of the major desktop manufacturers too) just use a recovery partition now. This generally makes sense. Users aren't going to lose the backup partition unless the HDD dies (in which case they'll take it to a repair shop, and the shop will have access to the required disks). On the other hand, they may well lose CDs, which would be a problem.

There'll generally be a note in the manual suggesting that you make backup DVDs from that partition. As you've said, how much do DVDs cost? Not much, so you've really got no excuse for not making the backup.

For reference, my laptop came with a driver CD (somewhat necessary, since it didn't come with a HDD). The manufacturer has also made all the original software that would have come with it (including Nero and PowerDVD CD images) available online. It didn't come with an OS.

[romanx]

A lot of companies, especially Acer aren't supplying a cd for drivers and OS's anymore. You usually find them on the second partition they supply. Check in the root of the C:\ and in the second partition. Make a back up of Vista at it's basic install state and burn it to a dvd.

[Aetherone]

Originally Posted by tornado33

So what are you supposed to do if you want to reinstall the operating system eg, because of a HDD crash or just wanting to do a clean reinstall?

You fire up the boot manager (usually boot/bios hotkeys) and it re-images from the recovery partition. If your HDD dies, the replacement HDD arrives with the factory image ready to go just like the first time the machine was booted up.

This method has a couple of advantages over the supply of recovery CDs.
1. the users cant lose the recovery media. Which they do. Often.
2. this doesnt require two or three disks to hold the complete image. So no swapping, and no losing disk #3. Which they do. Often.
3. HDD recovery is a lot faster and easier to walk noobs through over the phone. The vast majority of computer owners are n00bs.

[da_ilks]

Originally Posted by tornado33

<snip>

rofl @ it should be illegal not to supply CD's. A couple of mins of research before jumping up and down wouldn't have gone astray. As everyone said, the majority of manafactures don't provide CD's/DVD's anymore. They provide a backup partition, or the tools to create a recovery disc. If you really want the media, most will provide it to you if you contact them, but there's a fee involved. I think Lenovo charge $50

[WuZMoT]

My asus laptop came with a vista recovery dvd and a vista recovery partition - so i guess this gives me two options...

I chucked the discs and blasted the recovery partition away in favour of an XP install, drivers from asus.com.tw :P

[bl4ck32]

Originally Posted by WuZMoT

My asus laptop came with a vista recovery dvd and a vista recovery partition - so i guess this gives me two options...

I chucked the discs and blasted the recovery partition away in favour of an XP install, drivers from asus.com.tw :P

I wouldve thought the easiest thing would be to download a copy of vista, and use a program like jellybean to find out your legit key....then you have both available to use?

[orchidophile]

I would have thought that you don't just pay for vista as a working piece of software, but as an installable hard copy. If you don't get one, or they try and charge you for the original disc then you're being ripped off.

Even OEM copies have original discs.

Backup partitions do not a secure backup/recovery option make.

And surely you wouldn't be suggesting some kind of software piracy would you bl4ck32? Cos that would be naughty.

Just some thoughts.

[SLATYE]

Originally Posted by orchidophile

Backup partitions do not a secure backup/recovery option make.

Nor do CDs/DVDs, unless you can figure out how to stop people losing them.

The people who don't have this sort of software available and don't know how to get it (by borrowing the disc from a friend, for example) are the same people who won't be replacing the HDD in their laptop by themselves. They'll take it to a shop to get the drive replaced or return it under warranty. If they return it under warranty, they'll get a new drive with the recovery partition, so they're safe. If they take it to a shop, the shop will just use one of their Windows CDs for the reinstallation (using the laptop's product key).

You don't buy Windows. You license it. MS don't have to provide the CDs/DVDs at all; they only do because they know that nobody would buy it otherwise.

[bl4ck32]

Originally Posted by orchidophile

And surely you wouldn't be suggesting some kind of software piracy would you bl4ck32? Cos that would be naughty.

not at all, but i was in the same mind as you that the business supplying the OS has to give you a hard copy of it by law either way.

Obtaining a copy of it (borrowing or by other means ) and finding out your key cant hurt.

[booksacool1]

It pisses me off no end when mates don't have XP cd's on their laptops, and ask me to 'reinstall windows'.

I have the windows cd - no problem, but the drivers I have to manually install, one by fucking one. Also if its not an OEM edition, I might have to go through the whole activation process. Yuck.

[EclipZ]

Originally Posted by tornado33

A mate just rang me with some issues with his new Vista Toshiba Laptop. I was astounded when I asked him "did you get a Vista and driver disc with it and he said "no" In fact there isnt even a detailed instruction manual. So what are you supposed to do if you want to reinstall the operating system eg, because of a HDD crash or just wanting to do a clean reinstall?

My Dell lappy came with a XP CD and a separate driver CD. How can it even be legal to sell a Windows computer without that version of Windows on a backup disc, along with all the necessary drivers and utilities for the installed hardware.

I think its disgraceful to sell computers without the installed software on accompayning discs, and it certainly should be made illegal in Australia. Bloody hell how much does a couple of discs cost anyway? They mass produse these discs. Their margins cant be that tight.

My mate bought it from Domayne, and its not a cheapie, its a c2d 2.1 ghz with 2 gb ram, yet they didnt include the discs and a printed manual.

Moral of the story, check these are included before buying. Any maker not willing to include them is not serious about after sales backup.

Just curious, any other Toshiba, or any other brands owners get machines without software discs?

I bought a similar Toshiba with Vista in January and it certainly did have a printed paper manual - but it was only the basics, the full user manual was in PDF format on the unit and on Toshiba's website.
It also had an insert which described how to make backup copies of the install media for recovery, sure enough the software creates everything you need and also lets you choose whether you want it on many CDs, 2 DVDs or even 1 Dual Layer DVD.

A lot of the drivers that are included on that media also work with XP, or you can go to the Toshiba Australia website and download every single driver like I did when I installed my retail copy of XP (hence making the authenticity sticker for the Vista license on the rear of the notebook somewhat useless).

There are many reasons why so many manufacturer's don't include the original media anymore, not the least of which is as Slatye stated - you are buying a license to use the software, not discs which usually end up as landfill.
Think of the environmental impact of a large organisation buying 10000 of the same model, will they likely need that many recovery discs or will they be wasted and end up in the bin?