Originally Posted by
olympus
I've just ordered a new high spec Toshiba laptop which will come with Windows Vista pre-installed. There are however no original Windows CDs or recovery discs supplied; the operating system files are on a separate partition on the hard drive.
First of all, what are the implications of providing the operating system like this? Do many other manufacturers do it this way?
It is common practice not to provide Windows disks these days for preinstalled OEM Windows, the manufacturer is usually the one that will take care of reinstalling the OS in the event of problems during the warranty period.
This was certainly the case with my IBM (Lenovo) notebook.
I wouldn't be so worried about Vista, but if you already have an XP CD handy then installing it on a separate partition is easy if you follow the guide in Saab's link to APC mag website.
That way you can keep Vista and use it, but if you need an XP fix it will be there waiting for you.
I highly recommend using Gparted to create and modify partitions as suggested in the article.