Recovery disc not included with new laptop?

[Guest]

Hi - I'm looking at buying a Compaq laptop from either Best Buy or
FutureShop. Both come with Windows Vista Premium preinstalled, but neither
include a recovery disc.
Is this new?
I have always received copies of Windows OS for recovery with previous PC
purchases. Is it the norm now to be expected to create your own recovery
discs from the hard drive after purchase?
Thanks.

 

[Zim Babwe]

These companies have been "cheating" customers out of a disc for the last
few years. Normal practice currently. If you do purchase a Compaq or HP,
then get ready for lots of crappy add-ins that you don't need.

If you do purchase a new PC, after running your antivirus update, you can
burn a copy of the DVD. Do that day one!!!

 

[ThePro]

Nowadays HP/Compaq laptops comes with a program that allows you to burn your
own recovery CDs the first time you boot the computer.

ThePro

 

[amarok]

I bought a pc from hp (compaq) with win xp preinstalled on it and
there was no discs with the package...
There was an option in controlpanel to create my own recovery discs
but there was a fault on the software.....so I called hp...and without
problems they send my
new recovery discs with xp and the following software installed on my pc for
free...
there should be no problems calling hp support for the discs....

regards

mike

 

[MeNotKnow]

I think they stick all the recovery files in a D: partition and have you
make a bunch of CDs from that yourself.

 

[Jan Hyde]

libbybd <[email protected]>'s wild thoughts
were released on Wed, 7 Mar 2007 08:01:20 -0800 bearing the
following fruit:

Hi - I'm looking at buying a Compaq laptop from either Best Buy or
FutureShop. Both come with Windows Vista Premium preinstalled, but neither
include a recovery disc.
Is this new?
I have always received copies of Windows OS for recovery with previous PC
purchases. Is it the norm now to be expected to create your own recovery
discs from the hard drive after purchase?
Thanks.

My last computer had a partition on the hard drive with all
the recovery stuff on it. If yours is the same watch closely
as your machine boots up, to see if you get any options for
recovery.

 

[John Barnett MVP]

Any PC manufacturer has to give you an option to re-install the operating
system should anything go wrong. The option they offer will depend upon the
manufacturer but, in general, they include a set of recovery disks or a copy
of the operating system on a hidden partition on your hard drive. Check the
user manual or ask the salesman which option the manufacturer uses. If there
are no recovery disks then the operating system backup should be on the hard
drive in a hidden partition. The user manual will tell you how to create a
recovery DVD or will give you instructions on how to access the recovery
partition from the windows pre-install environment.

--
John Barnett MVP
Associate Expert
Windows - Shell/User

Web: http://xphelpandsupport.mvps.org
Web: http://vistasupport.mvps.org

The information in this mail/post is supplied "as is". No warranty of any
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reliability or content of this mail/post. The Author shall not be liable for
any direct, indirect, incidental or consequential damages arising out of the
use of, or inability to use, information or opinions expressed in this
mail/post..

 

[Guest]

Thanks everyone, for the replies...I will check out the machine when I start
it up.
Just got it. Looking forward to trying out Vista - I'm remaining optimistic!

 

[Guest]

I just bought a new HP and the recovery information is on a small drive in
the battery pack. I am not sure how that works but that is what they told me.
It even shows up on my drive list as its own individual drive. My question is
if I loose my information or my system becomes corrupt, or if something
happens to my battery such as it loosing power or if it should stop working
what will happen then?

 

[ThePro]

I doubt that. What is the exact model of HP laptop ?

ThePro

 

[Guest]

I just bought a new compaq desktop with vista preloaded. I didnt get any
discs with it and was told by the salesman that I would be given a prompt to
burn a dvd boot disk copy on first startup. I was not; and have not been able
to find any instructions for doing this from a preloaded version of vista. I
can see the partition D, but I have no idea how to create a dvd boot disc.
"PC world" didnt even include basic operating instructions of any sort and I
am concerned. Ive only had this computer since friday and it has already
crashed several times ..............HELP!

 

[Don]

I just bought a new compaq desktop with vista preloaded. I didnt get any
discs with it and was told by the salesman that I would be given a prompt to
burn a dvd boot disk copy on first startup. I was not; and have not been able
to find any instructions for doing this from a preloaded version of vista. I
can see the partition D, but I have no idea how to create a dvd boot disc.
"PC world" didnt even include basic operating instructions of any sort and I
am concerned. Ive only had this computer since friday and it has already
crashed several times ..............HELP!

You have every right to be concerned. In fact, I would take it back and
let them deal with it. A new machine shouldn't be having such problems.

 

[Guest]

Hi Don..
I daresay you are right, though taking it back is impractical for several
complex reasons. I really need to know how to create this bootdisk mainly
though. I feel I can cope with most shortcomings if only I had that

 

[Guest]

STOP PRESS... I have now found the bootdisk creation thing... right under my
nose! typical!<blush> (tucked away in the Start Button menu) D'oh!