When you’re done (and have had a shower…or six), call Microsoft. I’m pretty sure that it’s an obligation of OEM’s to provide OS installable CD’s of Microsoft’s products, but they can tell you for sure (and maybe sell you the disk for $20 or so, since you’ve already got the license).
Asus manufactures PC parts and laptops for whitebox system integrators. They aren’t Dell or Gateway…the system integrator provides the O/S disc. If he did NOT get an O/S disc, then the system integrator is running a scam. The system integrator should provide the O/S disc, but is not obligated to provide a “restore” disc, since the system will be hand-configured by the system integrator, unlike a Dell or Gateway or HP or whatever…however, the purchaser should have been provided with the driver CD from Asus…a good system integrator would have taken the time to help the purchaser figure out how to build a system restore.
Hmm - it seems like ASUS’ restore CD completely ignores the MBR (or at least assumes it’s been untouched), meaning that if anything else has written to it, you’re essentially fucked. At least one other person appears to be having the same problem. And yes, that’d be fucking annoying, frankly. A pox on “system restore” CDs - give us the fucking installation disc already. We paid for it, didn’t we?
Frankly, this’d be a situation in which I’d have no problem whatsoever with you borrowing someone else’s Vista install disc, because there’s just no excuse for making customers pay for a full licence but blocking them from major functionality, viz. being able to install the fucking thing. I assume you have the relevant product key, so registering an install off a borrowed disc would be possible? (Assuming the versions match, of course.)
Alternatively, and I obviously haven’t tested this, but here’s someone with a fix route (presuming you have an XP install disc).
DirkGntly, ASUS are actually box-shifters in their own right now, so there’s no blame to be shifted, unfortunately. They’re simply fucking over their own customers.
Ah yes. Ubuntu made your PC a brick? Been there, done that. I used a friends BART PE (bootable) CD to run CHKDSK, which fixed the problem. You should be able to use any Windows boot CD to run CHKDSK.
Huh, I just caught the last couple of minutes of a segment on some PBS news show about how ASUS is about to try to take over Asia with their computers (whole computers not just mobos). The story mentioned how they are not doing well in America and don’t really have a future here.
I’m pretty sure that’s a perfectly legitimate course of action within the EULA - AFAIK, MS licenses are all about one installation per license key - not per installation media.
I’d be inclined to go this route just because it’s a better way to install the OS the way you want it, than using the computer manufacturer’s restore disk, which is bound to come complete with some unwanted bloatware.
Use Darik’s Boot and Nuke to completely eliminate any traces of data on the HDD, and start from scratch. Once the machine is a true brick (instead of one with a borked MBR) you will find it much more responsive to CDs and DVDs.
