Windows XP Install CD??

[Ron Reaugh]

Greetings --

Not a thing. Some OEMs simply prefer to keep costs down by
providing the minimum required. Hiring a tech support person who need
only say "Insert the Recovery CD and restore the PC to its original
state" is a lot less expensive than having to hire a support tech
sufficiently competent to walk the average user through a repair of
the OS.

That makes Dell or Gateway the only good vendor choices.

 

[Carl]

My new Compaq Presario has a partition on the HD with recovery files
including the OS.
The manual urges you to copy the entire partition immediately so you have a
set of recovery CDs.
It took 6 CDs to copy the partition.
You can do it only one time.
You can use the Recovery CD set as often as you wish -- I suppose.
Carl

 

[Jason Haynes]

How recently were the systems delivered? Please define "fully functional"?

My Gateway was shipped in May 2002 and my neighbor's Dell was shipped just
over a week ago. By fully functional, I mean it's the same cd that would
come in the box if you bought it an OEM version at retail, except the
vendors apply their label to the disk.

 

[Jason Haynes]

Home or Pro? I wonder if there's any difference surrounding that?

Nope. Doesn't matter.

 

[Chris Lanier]

Greetings

Most companies today offer you the Recover/Restore Disk.

 

[Bruce Chambers]

Greetings --

Well, it certainly makes them "better" than many other OEMs in
this respect, but the provision of an installation CD probably
shouldn't be the sole criterion by which a PC manufacturer is judged.
And, to be honest, I would consider that presence or lack of a true
installation CD as a pass/fail step in the purchasing decision.

Be that as it may, when people do ask my opinion of PC
manufacturers, Dell and Gateway are generally at the top of the list.
Sony and Toshiba make fine television and stereo equipment, HP used to
make very good business-class printers and file servers, and Compaq
used to make good business-class servers and workstations, but I
wouldn't recommend _any_ of their consumer-grade PCs to my worst
enemy.

Bruce Chambers

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[Ron Reaugh]

Greetings --

Well, it certainly makes them "better" than many other OEMs in
this respect, but the provision of an installation CD probably
shouldn't be the sole criterion by which a PC manufacturer is judged.

It's a sufficient condition. However if the company will offer their system
with no OS included and lower the price ~$100 then the advanced user has an
option. Folks should know about this and it DOES give Dell and Gateway a
leg up.

And, to be honest, I would consider that presence or lack of a true
installation CD as a pass/fail step in the purchasing decision.
Right.

Be that as it may, when people do ask my opinion of PC
manufacturers, Dell and Gateway are generally at the top of the list.
Sony and Toshiba make fine television and stereo equipment, HP used to
make very good business-class printers and file servers, and Compaq
used to make good business-class servers and workstations, but I
wouldn't recommend _any_ of their consumer-grade PCs to my worst
enemy.

Finding/becoming a good clone builder is where I've been for so long which
is the reason this whole issue has escape me until now.

 

[Ron Reaugh]

My new Compaq Presario has a partition on the HD with recovery files
including the OS.
The manual urges you to copy the entire partition immediately so you have a
set of recovery CDs.
It took 6 CDs to copy the partition.
You can do it only one time.
You can use the Recovery CD set as often as you wish -- I suppose.

Right but they aren't XP install CDs but just a recovery disk image.

 

[Ron Reaugh]

Thanks.

My Gateway was shipped in May 2002 and my neighbor's Dell was shipped just
over a week ago. By fully functional, I mean it's the same cd that would
come in the box if you bought it an OEM version at retail, except the
vendors apply their label to the disk.

 

[Ron Reaugh]

Greetings

Most companies today offer you the Recover/Restore Disk.

Except apparently the top competitive companies who care about customer
needs/wishes like Gateway and Dell.

 

[Ron Reaugh]

I'm getting conflicting reports on whether Dell supplies an XP install
CD(not a recovery CD) with their currently shipping systems. Has anyone
recently(last year) gotten any Dell desktops/laptops? Was a Dell XP install
CD included?

 

[Paul Riemerman]

My Dell 2300 was delivered from the factory 11 months ago -- it has a full
XP Home OEM CD.

Paul Riemerman

 

[Malke]

My Dell 2300 was delivered from the factory 11 months ago -- it has a
full XP Home OEM CD.

Paul Riemerman

All my clients who bought new Dells this past year (at least a dozen
machines) got full OEM XP cd's, as well as cd's for drivers and apps.

Malke