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If a customer buys a PC with XP installed should they also have a copy of the XP CD?

A

Arkitech

Diamond Member
I bought a Compaq Presario a few months ago with XP Home installed, I ran into a probably earlier this week and thats when I realized that I don't have an XP CD if I wanted to reinstall. Would I be able to contact Compaq for a copy of the CD or is it the trend for companies not to issue out OS CDs anymore?


Here's the thread I have going in OS if anyone is interested.
 
Usually they will send you a recovery disk with the computer. that includes all the software. at least my laptop did.
 
Originally posted by: Mak0602
Originally posted by: Joker81
Usually they will send you a recovery disk with the computer. that includes all the software. at least my laptop did.
Click to expand...

yes it includes that recovery software
Click to expand...

I could'nt find my recovery software so I went to the website unfortunately the software that they have available won't help to repair the XP installation. I just find it odd that PC manafactureres no longer send a copy of the OS with the PC.
 
There's got to be a restore disk somewhere.

It is my understanding that MS pushed PC vendors into creating restore disks because including a regular install disk for an O/S was too inviting for piracy and black market sales.

The PC companies weren't too reluctant because a restore disk is much less hastle to walk somebody on the phone than a retail OS disk. You can automate a restore CD easier and have it bring the system back to shipping form.

It's a win/loose deal. It's easier for most tech inept people to restore, but it prohibits you from using it in a system that wasn't made by that manf.
 
it's a copy of the os... however it puts all that crap you dont need on your computer.

i was told a couple of years ago that it was *illegal* for a company to sell you a pc without a way of reinstalling/repairing the OS installation that came with the pc
 
They send either a recovery CD or, more recently, have a 'recovery partition.'

You almost never get a vanilla operating system Cd.
 
you should have a CD key. You could get a copy of it and just use the CD key you own...or is that not legal?
 
Originally posted by: Arkitech
I could'nt find my recovery software so I went to the website unfortunately the software that they have available won't help to repair the XP installation. I just find it odd that PC manafactureres no longer send a copy of the OS with the PC.
Click to expand...
No longer? I remember trying to help fix my cousin's old Compaq with an AMD 400MHZ chip. They only gave him a repair disk as well. This doesn't seem like a new concept. I guess some of the larger OEMs have been doing this for years. I agree, it's pretty annoying.
 
Nope, it says in the documentation that they no longer ship their computer with a recovery disc. You'll have to contact their tech support to have them send you the recovery disc. And they charge you for that also. What a piece of crock.

Unbelieveable.
 
Originally posted by: vi_edit
There's got to be a restore disk somewhere.

It is my understanding that MS pushed PC vendors into creating restore disks because including a regular install disk for an O/S was too inviting for piracy and black market sales.

The PC companies weren't too reluctant because a restore disk is much less hastle to walk somebody on the phone than a retail OS disk. You can automate a restore CD easier and have it bring the system back to shipping form.

It's a win/loose deal. It's easier for most tech inept people to restore, but it prohibits you from using it in a system that wasn't made by that manf.
Click to expand...

Here's what I found on the Compaq site about restoring the system - link

If you don't feel like following the link there's basically a couple of options that they give you. 1 is to create a restore point but unfortunately that goes out the window if you did'nt create a restore point before the problem happened. 2 is to boot the machine up in safe mode with command prompt and then follow a few instructions to restore the system. But again this is a moot point if you can't get the OS to boot up in safe mode.

I guess I'll have to try and call customer support and see if they would send me a copy of the OS.
 
Originally posted by: kt
Nope, it says in the documentation that they no longer ship their computer with a recovery disc. You'll have to contact their tech support to have them send you the recovery disc. And they charge you for that also. What a piece of crock.

Unbelieveable.
Click to expand...

No kidding!
I thought part of MS licensing agreement with the OEMs is that they had to send it with the PC..?
😕

Guess not.
 
my old compaq 233mhz didn't come with a windows cd either. just a bootable restore cd that put all the original software back on.
 
Originally posted by: bernse
Originally posted by: kt
Nope, it says in the documentation that they no longer ship their computer with a recovery disc. You'll have to contact their tech support to have them send you the recovery disc. And they charge you for that also. What a piece of crock.

Unbelieveable.
Click to expand...

No kidding!
I thought part of MS licensing agreement with the OEMs is that they had to send it with the PC..?
😕

Guess not.
Click to expand...

It does, with --that-- pc. 😉

 
Originally posted by: iloveme2
my old compaq 233mhz didn't come with a windows cd either. just a bootable restore cd that put all the original software back on.
Click to expand...

I wish I had one of those right now.
 
This is kind of cool I'm in a chat session with one of the Compaq tech staff. Beats calling up and waiting on the phone for hours. Hopefully they'll give me a location of where I can download the restore disk or either send me a copy of the OS.
 
Your best bet is to hijack a copy of XP from a buddy and use the key from your computer... its still perfectly legal and you lose all the Compaq litter that comes with restoring
 
This isn't anything new, Compaq has been doing it for years. As annoying as it is from the perspective of an advanced user, it makes great sense for them.

-geoff
 
This is kind of cool I'm in a chat session with one of the Compaq tech staff. Beats calling up and waiting on the phone for hours. Hopefully they'll give me a location of where I can download the restore disk or either send me a copy of the OS.
Click to expand...

But first, they will need the location for where to fvck you.
 
That's unreal.

I guess that's reason number 4538 not to buy a consumer Compaq product.
 
Originally posted by: xxAgentCowxx
Your best bet is to hijack a copy of XP from a buddy and use the key from your computer... its still perfectly legal and you lose all the Compaq litter that comes with restoring
Click to expand...

It's not legal at all.

You have a PID to install an OEM version of WinXP that your OEM provided you.

It does not allow you to install MS retail WinXP. In fact, an OEM PID won't work with retail media.
 
Originally posted by: NogginBoink
Originally posted by: xxAgentCowxx
Your best bet is to hijack a copy of XP from a buddy and use the key from your computer... its still perfectly legal and you lose all the Compaq litter that comes with restoring
Click to expand...

It's not legal at all.

You have a PID to install an OEM version of WinXP that your OEM provided you.

It does not allow you to install MS retail WinXP. In fact, an OEM PID won't work with retail media.
Click to expand...

you can always download an oem version of xp and install it with your legal key. what's illegal about that?
 
Originally posted by: ggavinmoss
This isn't anything new, Compaq has been doing it for years. As annoying as it is from the perspective of an advanced user, it makes great sense for them.

-geoff
Click to expand...

I just bought a Compaq Presario laptop a couple months ago and I got the Windows XP Pro disk....
 
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