Don't any laptops come with a Recover CD nowadays?

[radhak]

Still helping my neighbor with her laptop purchase.

Its been a while that I bought a laptop, but both BestBuy and CompUSA claim that none of their laptops come with a Recover CD. BestBuy sells one for an extra $40, and CompUSA does not even have that! And salesmen at neither place had an answer to 'what happens if the software crashes 6 months later?' !!

Googling for it gives me an idea : maybe there's an option/program to write a Recover CD at home?

Can any Acer laptop owners confirm that? How about Dell, Lenovo or Gateway?

[Lee4847]

I had an HP crash. I called them and for $15 cost I was sent the two CD set.
I guess it is cheaper for them to send a set IF it is necessary. Sometimes their is a utility that makes the CD's if the user runs it before the crash.

Lee

[twistsol]

Macs come with restore disks. With most PC's now, you need to order them separately or there is a utility to burn your own set.

[crokett]

What's a restore disk?

Seriously, companies figured out they could save the 3 bucks or whatever to not included them with each PC shipped. So now you order them if you need them. Most times there is a separate partition on the HDD that has the same recovery stuff that the CD does. Personally I take other steps to make sure I don't need them.

[cgallery]

My best advice is to call the manufacturer after you unpack and setup the machine, and tell them you didn't get a restore disk. When they tell you they only ship one if necessary, ask them if you need to return the unit and buy a different brand. Most outfits will volunteer to send a disk to prevent a boomerang (return).

Also, keep in mind that once the machine is out of warranty, getting restore media is much more difficult. Most manufacturers won't even talk to you on an out of warranty machine w/o charging you. So if you have to pay $50 to $75 for a support call, plus $15 for media, it starts getting kinda pricey. So better to take care of this up-front.

FINALLY, an alternative to restore media is to simply get generic media for the O/S. A little more work to install from generic media (because you have to go find drivers yourself). But when you're done, you don't have a machine full of manufacturer-loaded crud.

[rjwaldren]

My recent laptop purchase (Nov09) had a utility to generate recovery DVD's in addition to a recovery partition to take it back to factory config. Too few users actually use it though. Personally its the first thing I do, followed by an immediate fdisk

I've been repairing alot of laptops lately and found that most major companies will provide the disk for a nominal fee (usually an inflated shipping charge). The catch is they may only retain stock for items for 3-5 years. There are sites that sell them for most model for $19-$150. That price range is no joke, one site will be selling the same disk set for $19 that another sells for $150

[Woodwerker]

Or you can make one yourself which is what they expect you to do..
When my sony crashed I called for the disc. They quoted me $35 plus shipping (fedex overnight). I needed the disc, so I agreed. When I got the bill on my CC it was only for the Shipping no charge for the disc.
Go forward I will make my own, though they should send it new with the PC

[footprintsinconc]

i bought a compaq last year in june or july. didnt come with them either. infact, there should have been a sheet that looked like a cd that tells you to make your own......its fairly simple, the instructions were on that sheet.

[LinuxRandal]

A couple of issues over the years with making your own, have been:
1. People don't check to make sure they are good, until they need them.
2. (don't know about now) used to be some manufacturers "restore" disks, were actually a pointer to the hidden partition on the hard drive, not actually on the media itself. (issues when your hard drive failed)

[Brian G]

I purchased a Gateway NV78 from Best Buy in January. It came with a recover CD made by the Geek Squad as part of the purchase at no additional charge. I don't recall for certain, but it may have been a freebie special.

I do recall that the first thing that opened on start up was an option to create a recover CD.

[phrog]

I had to replace the HD in my aunt's Dell a couple years ago and called Dell customer support. They sent me a recover CD for the Windows operating system and another CD with all the "freebies" that had come with the original purchase. They charged me NO S&H. I did have to give them the SN when I called.

[herb fellows]

computer

http://www.google.com/reader/view/#s...log%2Frss.aspx

This is a url for a computer on slickdeals, might be worth a look for her, about $300.
These things tend to go quickly though.

[herb fellows]

I had an HP crash. I called them and for $15 cost I was sent the two CD set.
I guess it is cheaper for them to send a set IF it is necessary. Sometimes their is a utility that makes the CD's if the user runs it before the crash.

Lee

Yeah, it's especially cheaper for them if they charge you $15!

[gsmittle]

Macs come with restore disks. With most PC's now, you need to order them separately or there is a utility to burn your own set.

I had no idea Winderz boxes didn't come with restore disks.

g.

[dbhost]

No laptop yet, but I will make sure that a restore disk comes with mine. I kind of need to since I plan on blowing windows out and running it in a VM underneath RHEL just in case I feel like using some piece of hardware that absolutely insists on Windows, OR I feel like living dangerously....