Quote:
Originally posted by Dragonlich
...but luckily, there's a solution to your "problem". First of all, HP allows you to make a bunch of recovery cd's, which will allow you to re-install windows in case of a harddrive failure. Furthermore, your Windows license and key are usable with every (similar) Windows installation medium available. That means you can use your Windows XP Pro US key with any official Windows XP Pro US install cd. It is even legal to copy one from your friends, or even to get it somewhere else (download it), as long as you use your own license and key. And finally, HP allows you to buy a set of recovery discs from them for a reasonable fee.
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Not entirely true. I can burn a set of CD's (only once, mind you), which will use the same image to restore my computer to it's original shipped state. This isn't the same thing as reinstalling Windows.
Secondly, the recovery CDs they are offering me are the same thing that I burnt myself.
Lastly, this computer came filled with all sorts of shit, 90% of which I don't want. Nowhere on their retail website did they make it clear that:
1) I'd be getting a computer filled with shit, and not be given any way to reinstall the OS w/o said shit.
2) They would be using a significant portion of the HD space I paid for to house this "recovery partition" farce.
3) That I would not be getting any OS media.
While you might argue that they never told me I would be getting any media, either, I think it's fairly disingenuous to "sell" me an OS and leave me with no options as to how I want to use it. On top of that, giving me 3+ days of runaround when I try to obtain the disks from them is completely unacceptable.
As an aside, I've downloaded the free 360 day trial of 64-bit Windows from MS, so in the meantime I should at least be able to use that. While my problem might not be as terrible as I initially thought, I'm still pissed off just on principle and might return the machine anyway.