Which notebooks come with a real OS CD?

Which notebooks come with a real OS CD. not just a CD for reconstructing the drive back to day 1?

Do some notebooks offer such a CD as an option?

Can I use a retail Win XP to install on a notebook, or must the software be from the notebook manufacturer?

 

I'm not aware of any manufacturers that offer XP CD's to install rather than just a restore CD, however you can use a brand new Retail XP CD to install XP, it doesn't have to be from the notebook manufacturer (of course you need to make sure you have any needed drivers for any special parts of the laptop).


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The problem with using an OS CD not supplied by the notebook manufacturer is that it may void their warranty or they may refuse support.

 

With HP they send you an OS CD, but it has been specifically manufactured for use in your model notebook (Includes your specific drivers). The OS CD is clean, but there is another CD that you can use to restore all that bloatware on there if you want, however you dont need to install the bloatware disc if you dont want to.

~HP Pavilion ZV6000 series~
-AMD Athlon 64 3200+ 2.0GHz
-512MB RAM
-128MB ATI Mobility radeon X200m
-80GB 5400RPM HDD
-15.4" Widescreen w/ Brightview
-DVD±RW W/DL support
-XP Pro
-2X 12-Cell Batteries

 

Thanx.

I would expect the OS CD from the manufacturer to be of the OEM variety.

The restore CD is of no use, except in very dire circumstances, and even then, I doubt that it would be useful. I would ASSuME that most of us tweak settings and add software, so we would not find the restore CD to be very useful, instead we would restore from a backup via, say, True Image or Retrospect.

 

Eh, depends what you are doing, and how you do it.

I use my restore CD most of the time, because it takes me maybe 10 minutes to get rid of the bloatware, and then 30 minutes or so to reinstall all the programs I need (oh, and a bit longer to re-partition the hard drive) but given the updates to the programs that I need on a regular basis, and the effort required to make a backup CD, it's just not worth the effort.


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and I partioned it to 12/60gb.

 

My harddrive had 36/36gb partions if I restore from my original backup cd will it erase some
data on the other partion? (its full)

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by pcharouz