Helping people with computers... one answer at a time.
You should always get installation media with a new machine. Period. If you can't, or it's too late, we'll look at one partial alternative.
You've always said a person should try to get a full install disk when purchasing a computer. Any suggestions on how to convince a manufacturer you want more than a recovery disk? Reason I ask is I'll probably be getting a new computer some time next year after Windows 7 has been out for a while. I contacted Dell, HP, Acer, Gateway and Toshiba customer support. They all say the same thing: no full install disks are available for consumers... even for an additional price. That means I'll have to spend another $200 - $400 to buy a full install disk (if rumors about Windows 7 prices are correct.)
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First, I've never had a problem getting installation CDs with my Dell computers at the time of purchase. It's an option I have to specify, and it adds maybe $20 to the final price, but it is so worth it.
If you're asking after the purchase - say a year later you realize that you didn't get any - then perhaps I'm not surprised they might be reluctant to just hand out another copy, even for a fee. I'd guess that the manufacturers need to protect themselves from people trying to get copies they aren't really entitled to.
There really is no true alternative to having installation media, but I'll throw out one idea to help mitigate the problem in case you find yourself in this situation.
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People often wonder why I'm so passionate about this issue. Windows is on your machine, after all, and you probably received a "recovery disk", so why isn't that enough?
The problem is that recovery discs typically don't include Windows. What they will often do is reinstall Windows from a "spare copy" that's been placed on your hard drive - either in the I386 folder, or in a separate recovery partition.
That's just peachy ... when it works.
The scenario that should scare you deeply is total hard drive failure - which happens more often than you might think. When it happens everything on your hard drive is gone. Poof. Everything. Including those "spare" copies of Windows.
Your "recovery disk" no longer has anything to recover from or to.
In other words: you're screwed.
The only way to be prepared for this eventuality is to make sure you have copies of everything so that you can reinstall everything to a completely empty replacement hard drive.
And that means having a Windows installation (not recovery) disc. (It actually also means having installation disks or saved downloads for all the software on your machine, not only Windows. Windows, though, is typically the most important since once installed you may be able to download updates to much of the software you're used to having.)
So order one with your new machine and if the manufacturer won't provide it ... seriously consider purchasing your new machine elsewhere. There's simply no excuse for not making it available at the time of a new machine purchase.
So, what if it's too late, or you just must have a particular machine for which the installation media is not provided?
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Once that new machine arrives, as soon as is practically possible, take a full, image backup.
Once you realize you're in this situation with an older machine, as soon as is practically possible, take a full, image backup.
I regularly recommend Acronis TrueImage Home for this purpose - in fact I use it myself. But there are many alternatives out there as well. You're looking for two things:
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A backup program that will backup absolutely everything on your machine: your data of course, but all programs, Windows the registry, even temporary files and the recycle bin - absolutely everything. We often refer to this as an "image" of the drive, since it includes a copy of every file.
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The ability to restore your backup image to an empty, unbootable hard drive. This is often referred to as a "bare metal" restore, as prior to the restore there's no data in the machine, it's just "bare metal". This typically means that the backup program will provide, or allow you to create, a boot disc that you can use specifically for this purpose.
By taking a backup image or snapshot of the machine as soon as you can, you are preserving the state that the machine is in. No matter what happens in the future, be it hardware or software failure, you can always wipe your machine and revert to the exact state it was in at the time you took this full backup.
Now, in fact, you should be doing this already on a regular basis as part of a backup program to protect you from data loss in event of any number of different types of failures. You should be taking periodic image snapshots of your entire drive, and taking incremental backups of your more rapidly changing files as well. By doing so, you'll always have a relatively recent full-image to restore to should the worst happen.
However, even if you disregard my backup advice, make sure to take and save that first image. Always. It's your ultimate safety net.
In fact, it may be your only safety net; if you don't have original installation media, it's the only way you're going to get Windows and most of your other preinstalled software back in case of a disaster.
Article C3748 - May 31, 2009 « »
Leo A. Notenboom has been playing with computers since he
was required to take a programming class in 1976. An 18 year career as a programmer at Microsoft soon followed.
After "retiring" in 2001, Leo started Ask Leo! in 2003 as a place for answers
to common computer and technical questions. More about Leo.
June 2, 2009 6:19 PM
Any computer that I have EVER purchased has either come with a set of discs, or given me the opportunity to create my own.
June 3, 2009 10:02 AM
Most major computer manufacturers do not include recovery media but do include both a recovery partition and the capability for the user/owner to create a single set of recovery media, tailored to the type of R/W drive included in the purchased computer (even laptops). This capability is usually "announced" in the owners manual (might be electronic on the hard disk) and/or during initial setup, which takes place when the power is applied for the first time. New owners should ALWAYS make these recovery disks as soon as possible! It's the option of last resort in the case of a complete hard disk failure, and will only restore the computer to its initial (out-of-the-box) state, but at least its at least an option! I have NOT seen a PC or laptop from a major manufacturer NOT provide this service (sorry for the double negative!) In other words, the expense and effort associated with producing the recovery disks that you used to receive from major manufacturers has been transferred to the consumer, most of whom do not notice this feature when setting up their PC for the first time or fail to use it (I support PC's for a living and cannot recall even 1 customer that had self-generated recovery disks when they needed them...)
For a "better" backup strategy/solution than just relying on vendor-provided or customer generated initial recovery disks, consider using a combination of an imaging program that also allows you to create an emergency boot CD so that you can boot up a "bare metal" machine sufficiently to restore the image, PLUS the use of a general data backup program (backs up designated files and folders) to do regular data backups, PLUS (if you are using an email client like Outlook, Outlook Express or Windows Mail), a client email backup program.
Imaging is "expensive" in terms of the time needed to create and verify the image, and the size of each image created. Imaging a hard drive only really needs to be done when the configuration of the installed OS and/or applications changes significantly (e.g. installing an OS service pack, or installing or deinstalling a major application).
Data is more transient (changeable) on the other hand, so data backups (important files and folders - you DO keep your application data organized, don't you?) need to be done on a REGULAR (and ideally, "no user intervention required") basis, preferably at a time when computer usage is minimal.
Good imaging and data backup programs can both be had for free, so there's no real reason for users not to have them in place except ignorance of their existence or lack of effort (the latter usually be chief cause of having to pay the big bucks to someone like me when their computer fails!).
For imaging, I recommend a look at the free version of Macrium Reflect. It's freeware, does a commendable job of creating disk images, restoring them, and creating an emergency boot disk (using their supplied Linux-based client or the necessary plug-in for creating a BartPE emergency boot disk). Ensure that you verify an image(a function available through the imaging software) after creating it - your image is only as good as your ability to use it when the time comes! Ditto for the emergency boot disk - to test, you don't have to actually restore an image, but you should be able to boot successfully from the emergency restore disk and be able to see (and access) your saved backup image.
For data backups, I recommend looking at the Comodo Free Backup software - it permits creating scripted, scheduled (unattended) backup jobs in a point-and click manner and will back any type of files or folders on a computer - either full backups, or incremental. You can even set the program to do real-time backups of critical files as changes occur (this takes a lot more overhead to do that, however).
As a final note, since the files structures of client email programs are so byzantine, you might miss backing up an important file or folder if you use a general data backup program (like Comodo Free Backup) and an email client like Outlook, Outlook Experss or Windows Mail. To ensure all of the email components are backed up properly, I recommend using an email client backup program. There are free email backup programs (e.g. OEBackup for Outlook Express in XP, and KLS Mail Backup for Windows Mail in Vista) that do a credible job of backing up all of the client email components (mail, folders, settings, address books and the like) to a designated backup folder.
The three parts of the strategy are complimentary - using them allows one to recover from almost any situation with a LOT less effort than using vendor-provided or user-generated recovery disks. This doesn't completely solve all recovery problems (e.g. being able to use the Recovery Console to try and REPAIR a damaged configuration), but it does provide the average user with a lot better toolset to RECOVER from a failed component or loss of important data.
December 15, 2009 6:25 PM
Most newer computers and some not so new, especially laptops and netbooks no longer ship with CD's they do however ship with hidden directories that will restore the machine to factory defaults based on certain key presses at boot up...consult your manual or manufacturer's website.
17-Dec-2009
April 21, 2012 11:15 AM
I have a comment and a query. First, the recovery partition on a netbook, which has no DVD burner, is almost useless - how many people have an external DVD burner that they can use to make recovery/installation disks? Second, concerning these disc imaging programs, my understanding is that they can only restore the image back to the original hardrive, but what happens if that original HD is no longer functional and you need to restore the image to a new HD? Aren't you out of luck in this case or am I wrong here?
April 21, 2012 11:37 AM
@Thomas
In the case that you can't afford to get an external optical drive, it is possible to create a bootable usb flash drive with the recovery program.
When you say it can only be restored to the same hard drive, it would be more accurate to say to the same hardware configuration. A new hard drive would be in the same configuration.
In the case of a system restore, putting a new hard drive in the computer, the system should normally restore and work perfectly well on the new drive.