New machine - No XP CD. Implications?

squibs

I'm looking at tiny.com for a new machine (laptop). It looks as if I take the standard warranty then the machine does not ship with XP disk or recovery disk.

I assume that part of the purchase price is a license fee which goes to ms which buys me the right to use XP on the machine I have bought. What if I need to reload the OS, though?

How widespread is this policy?

dahamsta

As far as I'm aware, in these cases the OS is loaded into a "hidden" partition on the machine, if you need to reload the OS it comes from there. Presumably they have some whizz-bang way of kicking off a recovery.

adam

kasintahan

squibs wrote:

How widespread is this policy?

Almost universal.

Some manufacturers (Packard Bell) let you burn your own copy (once) in addition to being able to restore off the hidden partition (via a function key on boot).

squibs

So if the drive dies, you need to buy a new copy of XP? That's criminal.

zuma

I thought it was illegal not to provide a physical CD with either WinXp or a recovery Image???
Packard Bell shipped(unsure about now) recovery CD's with their new machines and an invisible 2GB partition was on th Hard Drive.

Mac daddy

There called options,

I was doing a bit of work on a packard bell lappy a couple of weeks ago needed the cd the owner of the laptop did not have one, so they rang packard bell they have a optional recovery cd for sale something like 45 euro's.

Pretty sure its not illegal either, tiny do it all the time and i remember reading a article in one of the pc mags a couple of months ago, they asked the same question and where told its a option...... and they don't have to supply it.

Capt'n Midnight

OT - tiny ? I've heard more bad stories than good, might want to ask in the laptop forum

beller b

I've found the best option is to use something like Norton Ghost.. Get your PC the way you want it then burn a complete copy of your drive to DVD.Much better than reinstalling windows anyday..

squibs

beller b - of course! Great idea. Thanks!

irishgeo

i would not buy a tiny r time pc as the main company whihc owns both is going down the pan ala compustore.

SouperComputer

irishgeo wrote:

i would not buy a tiny r time pc as the main company whihc owns both is going down the pan ala compustore.

most of Tiny and Packard Bell\NEC laptops are FIC stuff. Some of it is great and some not so good. Read some reviews and see how you get on. At the end of the day, you pays your money and takes your chance as they say!

Oriel

Time and Tiny have just gone into administration, so I'd stay away from them if you're big into your aftersales.

squibs

I ended up going for a dell - see my post in the laptops forum.

John R

Lucky you, apparently people who had bought from them are not going to get their PC or their money back.