Bought a Dell, no windows backup CD included

blah

Did anyone else know about this?
I got a dell laptop delivered on Friday and there was no Windows XP backup CD included. I emailed Dell and they fobbed me off saying they don't include them anymore and there's a backup copy on the hard drive. What am I supposed to do when the HD breaks, or when Windows becomes corrupted? I didn't know about this in advance, I bought a desktop from Dell 3 years ago and a backup CD was included with that (good thing we've needed to reinstall Windows a couple of times).
I think this is pretty lame policy.

tuxy

blah wrote:

What am I supposed to do when the HD breaks

get a replacement from dell

or when Windows becomes corrupted?

this will not affect the backup on the hidden partition

osmethod

Send them back the laptop and get a full refund...!

It is quite possible for the hidden partition with the backup os installed to become corrupted.

osmethod

quarryman

Hidden partition?

never heard about this new policy. Takes up HDD space then.

Capt'n Midnight

next time you ring get the persons name.

If there is an image on the HDD then your laptop must be able to record it on to CD and they can tell you how to do it. IHMO the 40c or whatever they save by not providing media is lost by all the extra support calls and loss of goodwill, bean counters. If they can't tell you how to make the image or your laptop does not have a CDRW , then start screaming at them.

Wertz

I can confirm this too...bought laptop from dell outlet...it arrived (haha; thta's another story) sans xp disk. it did have a copy of works 7, but no reinstall disk or diagnostics disk.
I assumed it was because I had previously bought my desktop from them (a couple of years ago) and that I had an install disk from then.
I thought about contacting dell but since I have the old install disk I thought, "Why bother with the agro?"...

Mothman

Got Laptop from outlet store couple weeks back,

XP disc came with it...

In fact I got discs for all the software that was pre installed.

Wertz

Mothman wrote:

Got Laptop from outlet store couple weeks back,

XP disc came with it...

In fact I got discs for all the software that was pre installed.

*bothers with the agro*

JDxtra

blah wrote:

Did anyone else know about this?
I got a dell laptop delivered on Friday and there was no Windows XP backup CD included.

This is news to me.

As far as I know the only time you should not get a backup OS disk from Dell is if you order your PC with no operating system (I typically do this with servers for example).

ac00785

I bought a Dell Inspiron 9100 and noticed the HD was partitioned into three:

Dell Utility FAT
Local Disk NTFS
Local Disk * CP/M Concurrent DOS, CTOS

I rang up Dell Support and requested the Backup Disks ie. Drivers, WinXP etc.. They do not send the Disk as standard and only send them if requested.

Mac daddy

blah wrote:

Did anyone else know about this?
I got a dell laptop delivered on Friday and there was no Windows XP backup CD included. I emailed Dell and they fobbed me off saying they don't include them anymore and there's a backup copy on the hard drive. What am I supposed to do when the HD breaks, or when Windows becomes corrupted? I didn't know about this in advance, I bought a desktop from Dell 3 years ago and a backup CD was included with that (good thing we've needed to reinstall Windows a couple of times).
I think this is pretty lame policy.

Very simple answer you get what you pay for..
Alot of company's are doing this now - pre install the OS on it - BUT if you want the restore cd you will have to pay extra cash..

As for the operating system cd's - Not really included anymore just these optional restore cd that you can use.

jesus_thats_gre

quarryman wrote:

Hidden partition?

never heard about this new policy. Takes up HDD space then.

http://notebookforums.com/showthread.php?t=70272

Trev C

I got a Dell inspiron a while back and got all the CDs. I would find it hard to believe that they wont ship OS cds anymore. After all what happens when the HDD fails??
Ok so Dell replace the HDD, but will they send an engineer to reinstall everything for you? Surely it is more cost effective to just send the HDD by courier and let the user reinstall the OS (image) from a CD.

Mutant_Fruit

When i was getting my laptop from college, i checked out dells website myself, and it turns out they have an option to not supply the OS discs and suchlike. By choosing that, you save a whopping €0.01. My advice, bitch at them til they send them out.

Do you have a windows XP key on the bottom of your laptop? And which one is it?

blah

I read the user manual thats installed on it last night (RTFM!) and it mentions this Symantec thing which can be used to reinstall windows. It's already set up, if Windows goes corrupt, press ctrl and F11 on booting up and then you can restore everything to the way it was when you first bought it. I did send them an email last week, I got this badly written, presumably standard response

Dear Customer,

Thank you for contacting Dell Online Customer Care.

Dell no more supplies CD's for the back of software's, however
the backup is available on the hard drive which can be retrieved
any time. For further information on how to retrieve the back
up from the hard drive, you can contact Dell Technical support
at http://support.euro.dell.com/uk/en/ecare/Form/Home.asp or
you can call direct on 0870 908 0800.

Thanks
Regi Thomas

and I got this email twice, even though I only submitted one "missing component" complaint on their website. I 'm annoyed that I didn't get the CD, when I expected it. Also, I'm not in the UK so that "call direct" number is useless.

It's home edition, and assume theres a key on the bottom of the computer, I have the OS installed so I know I also have an OEM licence

calex71

Hmmm i got a desk top from them a few weeks ago and got a recovery cd,
do whats been suggested above keep bitching an email a day to the same person should yeild results b4 friday, tell them you've deleted the hidden partition, (does this void the warrenty??? silly question but anythings possible with dell)

Trev C

yeah id defo hound them for it, ask for it to be escalated etc. As someone has said if you pay for the licence key then your entitled to the cd (its the licence that MS charge for from what i understand). The standard response you got is probably from their teams in Bangalore India.

Capt'n Midnight

When you are talking to them again find out what thier procedure is for hard drives that die outside the warranty period. If they say they will replace the OS then demand confirmation in writing, otherwise you start screaming..

Anyone remember the fun with Win95 and people getting a sheet of labels so they could go out and buy 20 floppies and have them imaged...

Infini

It's the same thing with my laptop. Mine's a sony VAIO and the boot CD's were included in my HDD. There IS an option on mine that allows me to Create reinstall CD's but they only work on my Laptop. It's probably some new anti-piracy thing or something to tie an OS to a specific PC.

Fusion251

blah wrote:

Did anyone else know about this?
I got a dell laptop delivered on Friday and there was no Windows XP backup CD included. I emailed Dell and they fobbed me off saying they don't include them anymore and there's a backup copy on the hard drive. What am I supposed to do when the HD breaks, or when Windows becomes corrupted? I didn't know about this in advance, I bought a desktop from Dell 3 years ago and a backup CD was included with that (good thing we've needed to reinstall Windows a couple of times).
I think this is pretty lame policy.

Usually when you don't get "Back up" discs from companies there's an Image on a separate drive that you're meant to burn on a cd or dvd yourself, the reason for that is to keep the price of selling Microsoft OEM's down.

So just burn the image from the partition. If you don't know how call their support line and they'll tell you i'm sure.


Fusion

blah

Well I'm annoyed that I should have to go to the trouble to burn the image onto the CD. There wasn't any option to do it when it first logged in and I suppose I could figure out how to do it.
I didn't see anything notification included on or with the laptop saying, "no re-install cd, here's how to create your own backup."
Why should I have to go to any trouble when I've paid them €1500?
And how much is my time worth?
Is it worth hounding them for the re-install CD, calling them continuously (is it an 1800 number), and just getting aggravated. And why should it be necessary to call them more than once (all I've done so far is fill out a form on their website). They know that it's more trouble than it's worth which is why they don't bother including the CD, just to save a few cent.

ac00785

All you have to do is ring their tech support 1850 235 235 and request them to send out the backup CDs. They will courier them out next business day. Ensure you have your Service Tag and/or Customer number.

Trev C

I doubt tech support will help ya (could be wrong) but they normally refer you to customer care dept who deal with missing/wrong shippments and enquires on purchases.

pickarooney

If you want to dual-boot, what are you supposed to do?