OEM Question for Vista

[Garet Jax]

I want to buy a new Lenovo laptop. I will probably get it with Vista. Does Lenovo ship everything I need to re-install on the same machine and basically get it back to where it was when it was first shipped?

 

[NoelS]

Garet Jax,

If you're talking about a Restore disk or partition, probably, but if it doesn't you can always make your own recovery disks with a good backup program (I use Acronis True Image).

What led you to decide on Lenova? I'm looking for a new laptop myself (12 or 13 inch) with 2.0 or 2.2 GHz CPU.

Noel

 

[Garet Jax]

Originally posted by: NoelS
Garet Jax,

If you're talking about a Restore disk or partition, probably, but if it doesn't you can always make your own recovery disks with a good backup program (I use Acronis True Image).

What led you to decide on Lenova? I'm looking for a new laptop myself (12 or 13 inch) with 2.0 or 2.2 GHz CPU.

Noel

Noel,

Lenovo because I have used Thinkpads at work for years - very solid - and they have a deal on right now for ~35% off the price.

It is more that I frequently install heavy enterprise level IBM software and their installs don't always go smoothly. One little oversight and you can kill your ability to upgrade or install over IBM stuff.

I really need the ability to put in a disk and say restore so I can start again. This is why I know so little about OEM software. I have always bought OSes as FULL/RETAIL so I could start fresh. I also hate bloatware and other than the OS - FULL/RETAIL versions don't come with it.

 

[mechBgon]

Which one are you looking at? Maybe it's posted among the nitty-gritty details. Also consider using Acronis TrueImage or another imaging program, and you can back out of problems pretty quickly that way.

 

[Garet Jax]

Originally posted by: mechBgon
Which one are you looking at? Maybe it's posted among the nitty-gritty details. Also consider using Acronis TrueImage or another imaging program, and you can back out of problems pretty quickly that way.

I am looking at the R61i 15 inch.

I am also asking this because I am thinking about getting Office Basic 2007 and would hate to lose the software in case of a restore.

I will look at Acronis TrueImage. Any opinions on how it compares to Ghost? Will I need a second attached harddrive or can I backup to a network drive?

Thanks.

 

[mechBgon]

Originally posted by: Garet Jax

Originally posted by: mechBgon
Which one are you looking at? Maybe it's posted among the nitty-gritty details. Also consider using Acronis TrueImage or another imaging program, and you can back out of problems pretty quickly that way.

I am looking at the R61i 15 inch.

I am also asking this because I am thinking about getting Office Basic 2007 and would hate to lose the software in case of a restore.

I will look at Acronis TrueImage. Any opinions on how it compares to Ghost? Will I need a second attached harddrive or can I backup to a network drive?

Thanks.

I haven't tried Ghost. I do use an older version of TrueImage on one system. It can store backup images on external media or drives, and/or it can carve out a hidden partition from vacant HDD space and use that. I use the hidden-partition approach, and it can recover a basic Win2000Pro installation very fast, about 3 minutes on a Cheetah 15k.3 SCSI drive. And that's using the slow method, rather than Snap Restore. So you might try the trial version out on a spare system, if you have one.

I can't tell if Lenovo includes a Windows DVD or not. It might be worth calling them to find out.

 

[Garet Jax]

Originally posted by: mechBgon

Originally posted by: Garet Jax

Originally posted by: mechBgon
Which one are you looking at? Maybe it's posted among the nitty-gritty details. Also consider using Acronis TrueImage or another imaging program, and you can back out of problems pretty quickly that way.

I am looking at the R61i 15 inch.

I am also asking this because I am thinking about getting Office Basic 2007 and would hate to lose the software in case of a restore.

I will look at Acronis TrueImage. Any opinions on how it compares to Ghost? Will I need a second attached harddrive or can I backup to a network drive?

Thanks.

I haven't tried Ghost. I do use an older version of TrueImage on one system. It can store backup images on external media or drives, and/or it can carve out a hidden partition from vacant HDD space and use that. I use the hidden-partition approach, and it can recover a basic Win2000Pro installation very fast, about 3 minutes on a Cheetah 15k.3 SCSI drive. And that's using the slow method, rather than Snap Restore. So you might try the trial version out on a spare system, if you have one.

I can't tell if Lenovo includes a Windows DVD or not. It might be worth calling them to find out.

Thanks for trying to find it. I called them an hour ago and they were closed. :-(

 

[NoelS]

Garet Jax,

Acronis and Ghost are comparable in lots of ways, and I've used them both. Started with Ghost 2-3 years ago and ran into several problems with it, so switched to TI. I did have one problem with TI 9, but have had good results with TI 10 and now 11.

You can d/l a free 15 day trial of 11 to try it out. If you own Ghost now, that would be a chance to compare them. Get it here: http://www.acronis.com/homecom...ng/download/trueimage/

I doubt if anyone includes an actual Restore DVD anymore - most of the manufacturers save $$ with a Restore partition. After all, it comes out of YOUR HDD!

Noel

 

[corkyg]

I got a new Lenovo T-60 last summer. It came with a complete DVD of Vista versions. It came with Business installed and I upgraded it to Ultimate using the Lenovo supplied Microsoft disk and a key I purchased from Microsoft TechNet. No problems.

In Addition, I got the Ultrabay SATA HDD adapter and that allows me to duplicate my main HDD via a bootable thumb drive created by Acronis TrueImage 11. Works great!