notebooks and system recovery

[sothsegger]

I'm considering getting a new pc notebook (MS XP). But I've been warned that, unlike my pc desktop (MS 98) which I bought in 2000, the new notebooks (as well as the desktops), running MS XP, do not come with system recovery disks. Worse still, if you have to recover, you need to call microsoft for instructions. If your warranty has expired, you may have to pay. Is all this true? It makes me hestitant to buy a notebook...

 

[jpeyton]

Mine came with recovery discs, and most of the big companies provide them (Dell, HP, IBM).

Even if they don't come with recovery discs, as long as they come with the OS installed, they have to come with a copy of the OS on a CD. You can add the drivers yourself (from their website), and most of the utilities they bundle in are crap anyways.

Whenever I buy a new notebook, the first thing I do is reinstall the OS.

 

[DaveSimmons]

I don't thinks so. The Toshiba we got last year came with an XP Home recovery CD.

Last I checked, Dell was listing the Windows CD as one of the items included with a system, you might check their website (for desktops and laptops) to see if they still list it.