IT People: Question about HP And Dell Computers.

Factual Questions
1

Hey. I’ve always wondered this, and I run into it on a regular basis. Most HP and Dell computers come with an OEM version of the Windows Operating System of choice. In other words, it comes with the OS preinstalled on the computer, and the CD is absent. All you have is the serial number sticker on the side of the computer, and the HP or Dell Recovery Disks.

First off, these Recovery Disks are always pieces of crap. I’ve never gotten them to do what they claim they can do, without losing data in the process. I realize that HP and Dell doing this is simply another way of bundling useless programs into the purchase of the computer.

So, my question is, how do you typically repair a corrupted or damaged OS on an HP or Dell computer that did not come with the OS CD, without buying a whole new OS?

2

Which OS are you talking about?

3

Home or office? At the office we have install CDs, network install sets, the works. For home use, those recovery CDs are actually OK. As long as you realise exactly what it is they do. I strongly recommend you make yourself a bootable OS CD - Googler will help here - or borrow one from work when needed.

4

Ummm… you do realize that those “recovery” disks are made to nuke everything on the disk and start over, right? So, by definition, you’re going to lose data. Right??

As a long-time system integrator, allow me to tell you in general terms what’s going on.

When and OEM like HP or Dell make a new line of PCs, they build one computer, then manually install Windows on it. They will then install any other software that might come “bundled” with the machine - RealPlayer, Adobe Acrobat, MS Office, etc. Once this is done, the machine is “cleaned” by empting the TEMP folders, the IE history, Recycle Bin, etc. At that point, they will run a program called SYSPREP (from the Windows CD) which removes the CD-key, machine name, IP address and other “personalized” information. Then next use an imaging program - like Norton’s Ghost - to create (what amounts to) a huge zip file that contains all of the files on the disk, as well as information about disk partitions, etc. The “image” file is then duplicated to thousands of hard drives, which get installed onto thousand of PCs.

When you first turn on your new PC at home, you will see what MS calls the “mini-setup” routine that is created by SYSPREP. Windows has already been fully installed, but the mini-setup is necessary to get your CD-key, machine name and all the other information that SYSPREP initially wiped off the system.

Now, OEMs used to ship a copy of the image file on CDs. Rather than use an industrial-strength disk imaging machine, the CD has a copy of the imaging software that runs and puts the original image back on the disk - as if you’d just turned on the machine for the first time again. In a cost-cutting move, a few years ago OEMs started putting the image file on a “hidden” partition on your system, so if you fully format the disk, the ability to recover the system is gone.

Now, to actually answer your question, I would never use a computer that I myself did not build. But if I did buy a Dell, the first thing I’d do would be to download the drivers for the network card, then completely wipe the system and install XP over again. Yes, many OEM PCs come with a bunch of junk on them software-wise, but for many people the fact that Office or Nero comes bundled with the machine for “free” is a big selling point.

Since you already have a license for XP - you do have that sticker on the side of your case, right? - I would just find a friend that has an OEM copy of XP and copy the CD. Microsoft in general doesn’t care how you install the OS, just as long as you have that sticker on the side on your computer. Most of the places where I worked before they started putting the stickers on the side of the PC - back when your license came pasted to the front of the manual - kept the actual manuals locked up somewhere and just used one CD-key to install Win98 on everyone’s computer. Hell, I even used a hacked version of the Win98 setup that didn’t ask for a key. MS wouldn’t care about any of that - had we been audited, as long as we had 1 manual for every computer, they would not have cared how we installed 98.

5

I understand the whole Image and Ghosting process, and although I did not know it for sure until you posted, I suspected that HP and Dell did something like that on a grand scale in order to quickly load mass amounts of clone computers all at the same time.

I’m asking because I run into this situation a lot in my IT business. I get around it by moving all of the important data to a new partition, and then use the Recovery Disks to start all over. This just seems like a backasswards way to do this. If you buy the computer with the OS, then you should also get a disk of just the operating system.

Having to start all over causes some headaches when I have to reinstall all of the customer’s other software (some of which is no longer present in CD form), replace the files from the protected partition, and then go back and disable all of the bundled software that annoys me. This procedure typically takes several hours, whereas, if I had the OS CD, then the repair time would be drastically reduced. I was hoping that there was something simple that I was overlooking. A way to get the OS CD that the customer paid for.

I’ve experienced this with all Windows OSs from 98 SE through Windows XP, both editions.

6

Well, there’s no easy way around this is you’re dealing with individuals. In a business setting - where everyone has the same OS, same office suite, etc. - it’s easy to just image the computers when there’s some kind of software problem. In my example above (about using the hacked Win98 disk to re-install Windows at one of my former jobs), we had a huge file server that stored the user’s “My Documents” and used Exchange for email. So in this case, it was almost always more efficient to simply reimage the machine than troubleshoot a software problem - just copy the Desktop and Favorites folders up to the server, reimage and copy everything back down… 20 minutes tops.

Of course, it’s a whole different ballgame if you’re dealing with individuals. People have a huge array of programs and a seemingly unlimited array of places to store “crucial” data. For instances like these, I’d normally ghost the failing image to either a separate hard disk or to a server. This way you can easily wipe the machine and not worry about losing anything. I normally ghosted their drive to an image file, which I’d burn to CD or copy to the “fresh” partition after the reinstall was done. This way you’re covered from the occasional “freak” that stores all his documents in c:\Program Files\Winzip for some reason. Ghost comes with an accessory app called Ghost Explorer that gives you a Windows-Explorer like interface to extract any files you want out of the image.

As far as restoring their applications, the Recovery Disk should do that for some apps, but you SHOULD NOT install any application for which they cannot provide the original disk and/or license. Yes, they’ll complain, but you’ll have to explain to them that you’re not going to open yourself up to fines from the BSA for installing software you cannot confirm that they have a license for. Lord knows how many times I’ve been yelled at for this, but I’ve never budged. It wasn’t my company’s business to own copies of every software program made, so if you can’t find your WordPerfect 4 disk… sorry.

If you have an IT business, you should have your own “generic” copies of Win98 and XP that you can install on their computers. As I said, MS doesn’t care as long as they have a license. People would bring in their PCs all the time to my former job and we’d reinstall XP or 98 using our own OEM disks, provided they could prove that they had the license - which most of the time was conveniently stickered to the side of the PC. Most of these installs used “super” or “slipstreamed” CDs that already had all the updates on the CD or actually merged into the installation media, so that when setup was done they already had XP SP1 installed. Then we’d just snag the latest updates and be done with it.

Lastly, it’s probably not a good idea to move their data to a different partition on the same disk when doing a restore. Some recovery CDs - Compaq for one - delete ALL partitions on the disk and redo the drive as if from scratch.

As for why the PCs don’t ship with actual OS CDs, technically you can blame MS, but that’s only because of eBay. MS changed their agreements with the biggest OEMs - Dell, Compaq, Gateway, HP, etc. - to ship PCs with restore CDs only. This was because of a flood of OEM CDs showing up on eBay, at computer shows, etc. As you probably know, an OEM copy of Windows (any flavor) costs a fraction of what a retail one does, so MS was losing money. I should know - I bought my OEM copy of NT 4 back in the day - complete with SP3 CD and boot floppies - for $30 off eBay.

Have you considered an MS Action Pack? It’s like $299 and includes Windows XP, Windows 2003 Server, Exchange, and just about every other piece of software MS makes. With a hack to the SETUPP.INI file, you can make XP accept a particular CD key - retail, OEM, VLK, etc. Very useful for doing reinstalls for customers.