Feckin Dell...

Zangetsu

The intellegent folks over at dell for some reason send out there machines with no OS disk, just the pre-install. I have to format to fix the problem I'm having, I have a licence key on the bottom of my laptop but no disk...

Is there anywhere I can download vista, burn it and load it with my key?

Thanks,
Zangetsu

Mountjoy Mugger

Is there a partition on the HDD with an image?

They haven't sent out the OS on its own in a long time - just a recovery CD.

Zangetsu

Nah no partition, it just came as a C: drive with the windows install on that...

aidan_walsh

It may be a hidden partition.

Zangetsu

Just had a look, only 1 partition in disk management... Thanks for the replys btw.

Mountjoy Mugger

I think the best thing to do is ring them and ask for your recovery disk. A bit rich to pay for a licence and not get the OS.

Zangetsu

I logged a call with them this morning. They are sending out a disk but said it would take 10+ working days, I'm fairly stuck without a laptop.

Worst policy EVER lol.

Mountjoy Mugger

I suppose you could get the loan of a disk and use your own PID on it.

Zangetsu

Going through my phonebook atm, it seems I'm the only fool running vista lol... Might just downgrade, make life easier...

SickBoy

I've seen this before where OS recovery CDs were not included with the system but if memory serves me correctly, when ordering those systems there was an option for a recovery CD to be included for an extra few €s.

Zangetsu

<instert pissed off confused I'm going to kill everyone at dell smiley face here>

Does XP still let you have 30 days to activate or are they asking for the product key before the install?

Mountjoy Mugger

You still get 30 days.

Well, it did for me on a laptop recently.

kaizersoze

Zangetsu wrote: »

<instert pissed off confused I'm going to kill everyone at dell smiley face here>

Does XP still let you have 30 days to activate or are they asking for the product key before the install?

It'll need the product key to install. If you're using Vista business you can install XP Pro legally and use the Vista key. It's odd though. Every Dell system I got since Vista came out had the OS disc with it.

SickBoy wrote:

I've seen this before where OS recovery CDs were not included with the system but if memory serves me correctly, when ordering those systems there was an option for a recovery CD to be included for an extra few €s.

That only happened in the few months before Vista was launched.

Biggins

Sadly, thats just one of Dell's crazy practises.
Welcome to the world of hell ...sorry, I meant "Dell" - stuff it, there's no difference!

andrewh5

Biggins wrote: »

Sadly, thats just one of Dell's crazy practises.
Welcome to the world of hell ...sorry, I meant "Dell" - stuff it, there's no difference!

It may be but it is illegal - if you purchase a PC pre-installed with an OEM version OS they MUST supply a CD/DVD to recover the system with!

Zangetsu

running SuSE now

MunsterCycling

You'll never go back...

MC

cdebru

Zangetsu wrote: »

The intellegent folks over at dell for some reason send out there machines with no OS disk, just the pre-install. I have to format to fix the problem I'm having, I have a licence key on the bottom of my laptop but no disk...

Is there anywhere I can download vista, burn it and load it with my key?

Thanks,
Zangetsu

There would have been a recovery partition on the hard drive originally press F12 when booting should get you a boot menu

if it is not there then it may be because someone did a fresh install when they got the laptop and reclaimed the 10gig recovery partition


Stupid way to do things anyway as recovery partition is not much good if the hard drive went.

Anyway what version of vista was it I should have a Dell home premium disk here
barring that if you get a full version of vista ( The microsoft vista disks contain all versions of vista on the one disk) you can select your license type and install it then use your key then you make an automated call to a free phone number to activate takes about 10 minutes.

Epic Tissue

Zangetsu wrote: »

Going through my phonebook atm, it seems I'm the only fool running vista lol... Might just downgrade, make life easier...

So, who's fault is it? Dell's fault? Vista's fault?:rolleyes: