What is a reinstallation CD?

[TheJoonSpirit]

Does a reinstallation cd take the settings from another computer and place them on a new computer when the OS is loaded? Or is it a copy of the OS without the settings from another computer?

 

[MattTheTech]

well it would be like taking a XP computer thats working fine, taking out its hard drive.. and sticking it in a completely different machine..

XP is really picky sometimes when it comes to huge hardware changes all at once.. so it may not like it

and thats _if_ the cd has no checking to see if its the correct computer..

 

[dexmanone]

A reinstallation cd is a cd loaded with "stuff" (software) you paid for when you bought the computer. Stuff is programs, including the operating system. So, if you break one of your programs, you should be able to "reinstall" it from the cd. The cd is designed to only work on the computer it was purchased with. Meaning you shouldn't be able to take that cd, and put it on another computer. More than likely the other programs the pc came with, like money programs or games or whatever, did not come with separate cds. So they are all on that one reinstallation cd.