Planning for the worst

[pax anglia]

Here at pax anglia Towers we try to plan for all eventualities but thus far one important possibility has been overlooked. In the event of my HDD going "belly up" I would not envisage too many practical problems in fitting a replacement. However I run WinXP and the PC was supplied with the OS preloaded ie: I do not have an Installation Disk, only a Recovery Disk. Does this mean that I would have to return the box to the manufacturer for replacement of HDD and re-installation of OS should the need arise?
It is probably prudent to ask now as the Warranty expired last week!

Your comments and suggestions are most humbly solicited.
Thanks
p a

[amanoffewwords]

Pax,

In the case of Dell, Fujitsu and Gateway (the ones I have experience of) the recovery disk is effectively an OEM version of Windows xx. In other words it's bundled with the hardware and is usually customised for the manufacturer's pc - if they're clever they might also prevent the OS from be installed on a machine of a different brand.

So you should be able to complete the re-install yourself.

HTH
amofw

[Background Noise]

Not sure that's the case with XP - as PA said I think all you get is a recovery disc. Think you have little option but to buy the software. There are various articles online about why that is - anti-piracy being one, monopolistic battle against Linux another.

Cheapest Win XP Home OEM I've seen in UK is £63.92 inc VAT. Search for it using 'Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition OEM Full Version' as search string or PM me for link if required. I bought it no questions asked, on it's own, without buying hardware at the same time.

[Agent86]

PA.
I would think your "Recovery Disk" would restore your system to "as new" state. Generally all you need to do is set the Bios to boot from CD (this may be already done), stick the CD in and reboot.

Hopefully, after the associated dire warnings of "all info on your hard drive etc etc" installation will then take place.

Another disaster plan is to buy another hard drive NOW, stick it in as a slave, copy everything from the original, and then REMOVE it. This then gives you a snapshot which you can be confident in if the HDD grind to a halt.

Then every 3 or 6 months repeat the drill. Hopefully the hard drive doesn't crash during one of these copy sessions :(

MAx

[WideBodiedEng]

On my Dell it's hidden in the Windows\Options folder. Look for *.cab files (Cabinet files)
When you added any new hardware did you get the "Insert your Windows CD...." messages followed immediately by the machine actually going ahead and loading the software / drivers etc for the hardware anyway? So whatever you do don't do as I did and format the drive!! - A long time and a lot of trouble ago on another machine. If you did then Windoze is hidden on your HD.
Compare the *.cab files with the contents of your CD.

[pax anglia]

Thanks everyone.
My machine is a Mesh and I'm pleased with it up to now. Another thread on HDD failure started the cogs whirring and I wondered where I would stand in the great scheme of things should disaster strike. I think some PCs are supplied complete with the OS Disk........but I know some aren't . Another of life's little mysteries!
Thanks for your responses one and all, I'm much better informed now.

W B E

No, when I added scanner and printer I wasn't instructed to insert Win CD

Edited to take into account W B E's response which appeared as I was typing this post.
Overtaken by events again !

[amanoffewwords]

The Mesh website has this:

For licensing purposes in association with Microsoft, all MS Software is incorporated on one CD - The blue MESH Recovery CD, which is included with your MESH system package. This has been exclusively designed with Microsoft to provide you with a full working backup of your Windows Software. Please consult MESH Technical Support prior to reinstallation.

i.e. it's an OEM disk - which you can only obtain if you buy the hardware with it - it will restore the system to Mesh's standard (which may or may not include the cab files option) and no more. Nothing wrong with that, you just can't customise it, that's all.

[pax anglia]

amanoffewwords.......

Many thanks......all is becoming clear.

[Mac the Knife]

Agent86 - this works fine for 95/98 and maybe 2000/NT, but probably not for XP because of the copy protection features. Maybe one could get away with it if you used an identical HDD and changed the volume ID to be the same as the original disk (and then maybe not).

There are a couple of utilities out there that allow you to change the volume ID of FAT or NTFS HDDs - search for "change volume ID" on Google.

[mainfrog2]

This is just an idea but maybe each copy of xp is identical it is only the licence code on the sticker on the machine that makes it different. Therefore if you can borrow somebodies full xp disc but use your licence key to allow it to work maybe that could solve the problem. I think when you pay up for your computer or your copy of xp you are really paying for the licence for the program which you've already done when you bought your pc.

If you were a company and wanted xp on 100 computers you'd probably get 100 licences and one disc, is that correct?

[Jet II]

Companies buy just the one disk and a license for however many machines they want to load it on.

The corporate version of XP Pro does not have copy protection so they can use the same disk on all of their machines.

It is this version of XP that you get if you buy a pirate copy. (of course nobody on this site would do such a thing)