Buying laptop from Newegg- recovery media?

nedfunnell

Senior member
Nov 14, 2009
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It's been years since I bought a laptop from Newegg, I am hoping someone can enlighten me on how they handle recovery media. I am thinking of picking up a cheap refurb for my mom:
http://m.newegg.com/Product/index?itemnumber=34-300-055
The description on the site is not very detailed about if they include recovery media or not. I care because the unit comes with a 120gb HDD, which I'd want to replace- but I'm not sure if it includes OS/driver discs or a utility to create one.
Has anyone bought a return from the egg before who could comment? Their customer service email told me they had a 5-7 day delay in email responses due to the holiday rush.
 
Feb 25, 2011
16,777
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Most laptops today don't include recovery media, period. (New, used, from Newegg or not.)

You can usually get them for a few bucks from the manufacturer. Or if the laptop still has the original manufacturer image on it, there may be a utility you can use to burn your own.

When I get a computer I know I'll be futzing with, I usually just download the drivers and save them somewhere, then install them over a generic Windows install with I do a reinstall. I also keep regularly updated restore images around for my main PC and laptop.
 

Ramses

Platinum Member
Apr 26, 2000
2,871
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I was able to download, legally from MS, a dvd image for windows 8 to reinstall on my recently purchased Toshiba. Worked fine, it found the key in the bios or whatever it does, was activated when install was done all on it's own. Took a fair bit of google'ing to figure it out for some reason.
 

fire400

Diamond Member
Nov 21, 2005
5,204
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HP EliteBook Folio 9470m;

'cuz i just bought an win8 i5 HP elite ultrabook from a pawnshop for $40. no post on laptop or external monitor. pulled out the 180gb SSD and wiped it with 1's and 0's and the 4GB memory module.
then I realized I could still file an onsite warranty claim on it, which I did. I asked the technician if I will get a new win8 product key with the new motherboard... he said "no."

long story short, I forgot to extract the win8 key from the working SSD, which was still intact and had a windows directory 'cuz now access to the original BIOS key from the motherboard is gone...
"belarcadvisor" gives accurate keys unlike other key extraction software, or "produkey x64."

so now i'm without a product key for the HP, which I'm not too worried about.

=[[(update: threw 8.1 pro x64 into the unit to start up for fresh install with nothing on SSD, and the product key was pulled automatically from the new motherboard upon installation.) ;; Hp-rep had no idea what he was talking about, concerning product key licensing. **CHEERS** ]]=

almost any win ISO can be had on torrents/etc., dating back to win VISTA. the XP ISO's are a little more difficult because of VL editions, retail and special corporate editions. vista/7/8 are practically give away's.

if the COA is absent or hard to read, then extract the key from the original OS environment from the original HDD/SSD.
if you need an ISO to boot from CD/DVD/USB/network, that should be the last thing on your mind.
if it doesn't even come with an OS, then try linux or purchase a key for super cheap, or if you want windows for free, legally, just do 'preview editions.'

edit: you can clone HDD's as well, but if you're cloning to SSD, alignment and partition-re-sizing might/can be a headache if you're using free cloning software(s).
 
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