Hard Drive with pre-installed OS...?

[Anomaly1964]

Ok if this is a DUMB question, write it off to my newbness...

But I was thinking, 99.9999% of all computers have windows on them as the OS. When building a computer, would it not be easier to install a hard drive that ALREADY has the OS installed on it so when you booted up for the first time...BAM...you are running Windows?

When building my new SB gaming rig, I would LOVE to buy an SSD drive that already has window 7 on it...

So, if this is a DUMB idea, what am I missing?

 

[Slugbait]

This is the way it's done with SysPrep or third-party utilities. However, it's primarily for wide distribution across multiple machines with the same hardware configuration and a licensing agreement. OEMs do this every day: they create a Master disc, then clone it to thousands of discs, then drop the discs into boxes. For another example, you're building a server farm that will have all the same hardware, apps, and configurations for your mission critical lab...much easier to install and configure once, activate everywhere.

Assuming you mean something like buying a mass-produced disc at 7-11, the problem with your idea starts with chipset drivers. Then it moves on to the other drivers. And do you want to give some company a "right" to include bloatware (because they certainly would, ya know...)? It doesn't happen often, but companies have apologized profusely for shipping apps, games, or hardware pre-infected with malware. Of course, monitoring the licensing agreements would be a nightmare...and there WILL be pirated discs available that end up being good for only 30 days once WGA shuts you down.

There are a lot of other reasons why it probably wouldn't work. But 7 installs pretty quickly on magnetic media, and even faster on SSD, so you're really not losing much time here.

 

[thescreensavers]

I thought you could not do this because of driver issues?

 

[Anomaly1964]

Thanks for the reply Slug...

 

[VirtualLarry]

Check Craigslist or Ebay. Some people sell HDs with Windows or Linux pre-installed. Not really legal (in the case of Windows), but they do.