Advertisement
If you have a new account but are having problems posting or verifying your account, please email us on hello@boards.ie for help. Thanks :)
Hello all! Please ensure that you are posting a new thread or question in the appropriate forum. The Feedback forum is overwhelmed with questions that are having to be moved elsewhere. If you need help to verify your account contact hello@boards.ie
Hi there,
There is an issue with role permissions that is being worked on at the moment.
If you are having trouble with access or permissions on regional forums please post here to get access: https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058365403/you-do-not-have-permission-for-that#latest

Dell - No media

  • 20-10-2004 7:23pm
    #1
    Lafcadio
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 6 ✭


    I want to buy a cheap laptop. I notice that Dell cheapies come with XP Home or Professional. When you go to customise and buy it says "No media" beside both OSes. Does this mean that you don't get the OS separately on a CD/DVD? What are you supposed to do if your HD fails or virus destroys your PC?

    Is this the case with all the Dell notebooks or only the cheap ones and does anyone else think its a serious flaw?


Comments

  • #2
    Optikus
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,415 ✭✭✭Optikus


    Im guessing this means that it comes with windows preinstalled.. so you won't get a full XP Cd just a recovery disk.


  • #3
    RicardoSmith
    Closed Accounts Posts: 8,264 ✭✭✭RicardoSmith


    Its a flaw all right. It ok in a big company where they don't use the CD's that come with the PC anyway. But for home users its asking for problems.

    Another problem is that even if you get the CD its usually customised for the manufacturer and you can't install it on another PC, and you can't slipstream the CD with the latest patches like you can with a retail disk. My Sony OS disk is like that and its a royal pain in the butt.

    The best option is a full retail copy if you can afford it. Or linux. But then again you can't always do the "best" thing but compromise on whats affordable or whats most convenient for you.

    Such is life.


  • #4
    heggie
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,879 ✭✭✭heggie


    With all (dont know of any exception) manufacturers i've come across you always just get a backup partition, noone seems to be doing disks with pc/laptops anymore


  • #5
    RicardoSmith
    Closed Accounts Posts: 8,264 ✭✭✭RicardoSmith


    heggie wrote:
    With all (dont know of any exception) manufacturers i've come across you always just get a backup partition, noone seems to be doing disks with pc/laptops anymore

    I think its still an option. My Sony came with disks, and all the Dells delivered over the past few months at work come with disks. We've over 700 dell recovery disks in a box at the moment. We re-image them anyway.


  • #6
    sceptre
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 19,608 ✭✭✭✭sceptre


    heggie wrote:
    With all (dont know of any exception) manufacturers i've come across you always just get a backup partition, noone seems to be doing disks with pc/laptops anymore
    Some still do but as you say many or most don't. Microsoft wanted to get rid of supplied full version media by February 2002 IIRC but people kicked up a stink (and so did the OEMs as a result) so they dropped the idea. Looks like it came back to life and mostly worked due to their not telling anyone the second time


  • Advertisement
Advertisement