Operating systems

**xpuser357** · October 22nd, 2011, 08:43 PM

I went and bought two laptops from Dell. around 400 a piece. They sent a driver disk but you had to burn a backup CD`s. They would install on a empty harddrive. When I bought my laptop I guess it has been 5 years I would get operating system XP home and driver cd Compaq. Is everyone going to burning your back up to run in case of harddrive failure. Stamped CD~S seem to last longer. What IF you burned cd`s and by the time they started to fade your drive fails? These seem to be for win7. Our secretary at work had problem with her laptop win 7 and it was e machine. Which is also Acer. I purchased operating soft ware it was 6 cd`s. 19 dollars when you put in correct serial #
Are they doing the back up on all computers or the most expensive has operating system cd?? Has everyone seen this??

**Platypus** · October 22nd, 2011, 10:19 PM

I think it's normal now with everything - high end or budget. My HP DV9000 series from a couple of years ago was a higher end unit & it didn't have media. It didn't worry me, as I image my systems , and I immediately reverted it from Vista to XP anyway.

**Guts3d** · October 23rd, 2011, 07:35 AM

I do the same as Platypus does, but I bought all of the different media for Windows. I then use the COA on the side of the computer and image it as I like, no bloatware, trialware, etc. Then I ghost the image over to a smaller drive, label it, and put it in an anti-static bag in a safe place. If the computer gets a virus that really messes it up, or the original hard drive goes bad, I am ready to go. The nice thing about this is I can make as many drives as I like, so if I am going somewhere on vacation I can take a spare drive for emergencies.

**xpuser357** · October 23rd, 2011, 09:58 AM

Originally Posted by Guts3d

I do the same as Platypus does, but I bought all of the different media for Windows. I then use the COA on the side of the computer and image it as I like, no bloatware, trialware, etc. Then I ghost the image over to a smaller drive, label it, and put it in an anti-static bag in a safe place. If the computer gets a virus that really messes it up, or the original hard drive goes bad, I am ready to go. The nice thing about this is I can make as many drives as I like, so if I am going somewhere on vacation I can take a spare drive for emergencies.

That seems cool only problem drives cannot update in antistatic bag

**Ferrit** · October 23rd, 2011, 10:47 AM

That's the price you pay these days.
Biggest problem is most people just click off the restore dvd reminder
and then when the harddrive goes they have nothing.
Have to make the restore dvd's right away and put them in a safe place.
Also I believe some of them now allow you to make a restore USB.

**slgrieb** · October 23rd, 2011, 10:51 AM

Except for a couple of used laptops and an HP netbook, I've built every system I've had for the last 14 years, so my manufacturer still supplies an OS disk. The last couple of times I've had a hard drive buy the farm, I've chosen to do a clean install of the OS and software, and just restored my data files. That causes a little more downtime, but I'm always surprised at how much better everything runs. These days, my data resides on a couple of external drives and a 1 TB Western Digital Caviar Black internal, and my system files and essential software are on a 180 GB OCZ Vertex 2, which makes the clean installation an even more attractive option.

**xpuser357** · October 23rd, 2011, 09:51 PM

Originally Posted by Ferrit

That's the price you pay these days.
Biggest problem is most people just click off the restore dvd reminder
and then when the harddrive goes they have nothing.
Have to make the restore dvd's right away and put them in a safe place.
Also I believe some of them now allow you to make a restore USB.

Yeah the dells did offer usb backup. going by how much they put on DVD
it is two full disk and one half disk I guess a 20 gig thumb drive.
Today My sister in law changed her password, turned around and forgot it.
Password was Skeeter. I tried every key in area maybe she slipped and punched wrong key. No luck Luckily we bought two identical laptops and I burned my wife's and sleeved them and stored in darkness. Called Dell support
Just like I thought you had to format drive and reload windows.
Thought you all might need to know: put in disk one turn off computer then restart tapping f12 key until you see loading windows, Then when it promps you to hit enter you have to tap that key constantly after that it is answering and hitting what ever to get it loaded

**Ferrit** · December 31st, 2011, 11:42 AM

Any version of windows 7 should be installed with 2 gigs of ram and more if possible.
Whether you install linux or not has no bearing on the amount of ram you use.
You install the maximum ram because the system works better , that's it.
What you should do for protection is install the linux on a totally separate harddrive,
and not allow those 2 systems to mix.

just an addition to your last post. I WOULD NOT use Vista

**Ferrit** · December 31st, 2011, 02:01 PM

Originally Posted by Niclo Iste

amazing! What are the odds that both he and this other guy would have the EXACT same post

It's beginning to get a little old
He has reggied here as Paul as well
In the chatroom we call em trolls and we quickly gline their whole IP scope

**cookin chef** · December 31st, 2011, 04:10 PM

I usually image with Acronis onto more than one hard drive in case one fails. I rarely use optical disks anymore unless it's an older computer. USB sticks, external hard drives are more the norm.

**petersampsons** · February 22nd, 2012, 12:09 AM

There are many operating system you can use for your computer or laptop. Presently Ubantu, windows and Linux are most popular operating system.

**Ferrit** · February 22nd, 2012, 02:53 AM

Originally Posted by petersampsons

There are many operating system you can use for your computer or laptop. Presently Ubantu, windows and Linux are most popular operating system.

Actually Windows and then OSX are the most popular

**Niclo Iste** · February 22nd, 2012, 09:25 AM

Originally Posted by petersampsons

There are many operating system you can use for your computer or laptop. Presently Ubantu, windows and Linux are most popular operating system.

What does this have to do with the problem?

It's about the same as me asking what's a good way to build a computer and the answer I get is "blue".

**Guts3d** · February 22nd, 2012, 04:52 PM

Hmmm... I always hear "fast", "black", and "quiet". I'll trade you customers!

**NooNoo** · February 23rd, 2012, 03:44 AM

Windows 7 system image to DVD works for me and I keep on about backing up the data files. Most of the get the idea right away, some needed a disaster to learn.