I will shortly be getting myself a new laptop and will be getting with XP.
(home edition presumably)

Question..............

Am I entitled to a XP CD with this laptop as I know of a few people that
have bought one with it already installed and no CD (reputable dealers)

On average I usually need to wipe and reformat every 2 years so I will need
a CD for this.

thanks

where are you buying it?

custom built or major pc mfg?

"Scudo" wrote:

> I will shortly be getting myself a new laptop and will be getting with XP.
> (home edition presumably)
>
> Question..............
>
> Am I entitled to a XP CD with this laptop as I know of a few people that
> have bought one with it already installed and no CD (reputable dealers)
>
> On average I usually need to wipe and reformat every 2 years so I will need
> a CD for this.
>
> thanks
>
>
>

It depends on the company some companies will inclued the OEM cd and some
will only have the pc partioned for a recovery partition. But usally you can
contact the company and they wil send a recovery cd or a Oem OS cd.

"Scudo" wrote:

> I will shortly be getting myself a new laptop and will be getting with XP.
> (home edition presumably)
>
> Question..............
>
> Am I entitled to a XP CD with this laptop as I know of a few people that
> have bought one with it already installed and no CD (reputable dealers)
>
> On average I usually need to wipe and reformat every 2 years so I will need
> a CD for this.
>
> thanks
>
>
>

The manufacturer will most likely choose between one of the three options
below:

(1) Ship an OS CD with the unit.
(2) Ship a "restore" CD or CD's.
(3) Ship the unit with a restore partition on the hard drive.


--
------------------------------------------
Donny Broome
www.broomeman.com/tech
------------------------------------------



"Scudo" <me@nospam.fictional> wrote in message
news:Z2lof.67767$fk2.40817@fe3.news.blueyonder.co. uk...
>I will shortly be getting myself a new laptop and will be getting with XP.
> (home edition presumably)
>
> Question..............
>
> Am I entitled to a XP CD with this laptop as I know of a few people that
> have bought one with it already installed and no CD (reputable dealers)
>
> On average I usually need to wipe and reformat every 2 years so I will
> need
> a CD for this.
>
> thanks
>
>

Scudo wrote:

> I will shortly be getting myself a new laptop and will be getting
> with XP. (home edition presumably)
>
> Question..............
>
> Am I entitled to a XP CD with this laptop as I know of a few people
> that have bought one with it already installed and no CD (reputable
> dealers)


OEM vendors are required by their agreement with Microsoft to give you a
means of reinstalling, should it be necessary. They can do this in one of
three ways:

1. An OEM copy of Windows 2. A restore CD 3. A hidden partition on your
drive, with restore information.

If you don't have 1 or 2, you should have 3, but you should contact your
vendor to find out.

Personally, I find both 2 and 3 unacceptable (especially 3; a hard drive
crash can leave you with nothing), and would never choose to buy a computer
that came with an operating system unless I got a complete generic
installation CD for that operating system.


> On average I usually need to wipe and reformat every 2 years so I
> will need a CD for this.


If you are reasonably careful with your system, you should *never* need to
reinstall Windows, short of a hard drive
failure.

--
Ken Blake - Microsoft MVP Windows: Shell/User
Please reply to the newsgroup

Scudo wrote:
>
> I will shortly be getting myself a new laptop and will be getting with XP.
> (home edition presumably)
>
> Am I entitled to a XP CD with this laptop as I know of a few people that
> have bought one with it already installed and no CD (reputable dealers)

One should always have the CD for the OS you want to use. Chances are
that the cd you get, however, will be a proprietary cd constructed
solely for your make/model of laptop.





--
http://www.bootdisk.com/

Scudo wrote:
> I will shortly be getting myself a new laptop and will be getting with XP.
> (home edition presumably)
>
> Question..............
>
> Am I entitled to a XP CD ....


"Entitled? No, you're not. A reputable OEM will provide one; a
bargain-basement company will not.

Legally, the OEM has met it's contractual obligation to Microsoft by
providing a means of returning the PC to its ex-factory state, whether
it's a Recovery CD or a Recovery Partition. They are not legally
obliged to provide a true installation CD as part of the sale.
Reputable, customer-service aware OEMs, like Dell, MPC, and Gateway, do
provide a full OEM installation CD, that does permit custom
installations and repairs. Many uncaring OEMs, especially those who
sell their computers through department stores and chain outlets, such
as Compaq, HP, eMachines, Toshiba and Sony, however, in an effort to
save pennies and reduce their support costs by having to hire support
people that can only say "Boot from the Recovery CD to return your PC to
its original condition," provide only a CD bearing a disk image of the
hard drive as it left the factory. These Recovery/Restore CDs cannot
perform normal installations, nor can they be used to do any sort of
customizations.

Essentially, it boils down to "You get what you pay for."

> with this laptop as I know of a few people that
> have bought one with it already installed and no CD (reputable dealers)


"No CD" and "reputable" are mutually exclusive terms, to my way of
thinking.




--

Bruce Chambers

Help us help you:
http://dts-l.org/goodpost.htm
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html

You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on having
both at once. - RAH

"Scudo" <me@nospam.fictional> wrote in message
news:Z2lof.67767$fk2.40817@fe3.news.blueyonder.co. uk...
>I will shortly be getting myself a new laptop and will be getting with XP.
> (home edition presumably)
>
> Question..............
>
> Am I entitled to a XP CD with this laptop as I know of a few people that
> have bought one with it already installed and no CD (reputable dealers)
>
> On average I usually need to wipe and reformat every 2 years so I will
> need
> a CD for this.
>
> thanks
>
>

Or, you may want to not worry. Invest in a good image program and then
maintain reference images of your computer drives with all updates, changes
and program installations. Then, when you need, just restore the last
reference image. If you need repair support where the OEM requires you to
return the computer to the "as built" configuration, just do so. After the
repair, restore your reference image.

Don

if it is a branded laptop, it should come with a 'restore cd'. this shall
have all the programs preinstalled at the factory.

"Scudo" <me@nospam.fictional> wrote in message
news:Z2lof.67767$fk2.40817@fe3.news.blueyonder.co. uk...
>I will shortly be getting myself a new laptop and will be getting with XP.
> (home edition presumably)
>
> Question..............
>
> Am I entitled to a XP CD with this laptop as I know of a few people that
> have bought one with it already installed and no CD (reputable dealers)
>
> On average I usually need to wipe and reformat every 2 years so I will
> need
> a CD for this.
>
> thanks
>
>