new pc and vista

[smoothdude54]

Hi all hope someone can advise me i have just received a new pc with vista premium install but did not have a restore disk with it
was told that novatech pc's do not come with it ,but i can make a back up of the o/s Also what happens if the hdd goes west.
can someone please tell me how to do it as im a noob
many thanks
smoothdude

[Aeil]

I asked the same question and was told that the OS is on a partitioned section of the HD. Novatech did say they were requesting copies of the OS and if I wanted one I was to let them know.

[smoothdude54]

Hi
Just an update on restore disk for vista from NOVATECH
Quote "We don't know if or when these disks will be in, production think it could be anywhere up to 6 months before we have recovery media. we are working with Microsoft to provide a recovery method for out of warranty systems. If you have problems when the system is out of warranty if you contact us I am sure we will have something that we can send you.
so looks like will have to wait and see :(

[RichisQuick]

Try and make a ghost copy of the HDD, using Ms Dos (i think) you can copy all the data on the current HDD onto a spare HDD (if you have one), or even to another PC.
Be honest with you, i think Vista is a sort of profile adaptation of XP. I refused to pay extra and have it installed on my Laptop.. Glad i did so as well.

[Danno]

the vista recovery files are on a hidden partition on the hard drive, they are accessible by tapping F8 on boot and selecting the first option in the list.

the partition can not be backed up.

if the hard drive fails within warranty when the drive is replaced the new one will be re-partitioned.

as far as i know we are working with microsoft on a recovery method for out of warranty systems, this will probably be via a recovery disk. it is going to take a while before recovery media (if that's what will be used) will be available but by the time the first lot of vista systems we sold are getting to the end of the warranty i am sure there will be something available.

[smoothdude54]

Hi Danno
Thanks for reply will the recovery disk be sent out automatically or will you have to apply at the end of the warranty
many thanks
smoothdude54

[Danno]

you would need to contact us. when a recovery method is available i am sure there will be a post about in on here.

[Bazzer]

I was annoyed to find no Vista recovery CD with my recently purchased Executer PC. If I'd known the PC's came with no CD I would of purchased a PC with no operating system together with a boxed OEM version of Vista.

I have emailed customer services several times to enquire if it's possible to have a boxed version of Vista instead of the installed Vista software as I have not yet Activated it. Would you be kind enough to comment as my emails go unanswered?

[Danno]

i have had a look in the aftersales email box and cant find any emails from your email address. this would mean they have already been replied to or we have not received them. i cleared all the aftersales emails saturday so if you emailed before then we will not have receive the email.

if the system was sold with vista pre-installed we can not send a retail or oem copy of vista.


one thing that i have wondered is why people are not happy about having the recovery files on the hard drive instead of a disk? personally i would rather have them on the hard drive. recovering windows from the partition is a lot quicker than if you were to do it from a dvd. with the partition on the hard drive you can do a repair install or a complete reinstall, with recovery disks they wipe the hard drive and reinstall windows so you would loose any data thats not backed up.

[Bazzer]

Hi Danno,

My emails were addressed to customer.service@novatech.co.uk TICKET REFERENCE: 1070371

My original enquiry was answered and said "If you want to return the pc and your vista copy this may be possible but does depend if vista has activated and if you have had it on the internet it more than likely has already activated."

I replied saying "I have not allowed Vista to be activated yet (still 19 days left to go), however, I would be happy to keep the PC with the installed version of Vista if you can confirm I will receive a recovery CD in a few months that will enable me to change the HDD for a drive of my choice and be able to re-install Vista."

This email and two others have gone unanswered.

My reason for wanting the recovery CD is to change the hard drive, it's the only thing I don't like about the PC, the Seagate 7200.10 is very noisy compared to something like a Samsung Spinpoint.

If you can confirm we will eventually get a recovery CD I'd be happy

[Danno]

as a said we are working on a recovery method, if it is a recovery disk we should be able to send them on on request when we have them.

a colleague in production thinks it could take anywhere up to 6 month before we have a microsoft approved recovery method (apart from the one on the partition).

[half pint]

Its coming up to that time again, when im looking for a new P.C.
my current P.C was bought from Time, and not long after the waranty ran out, the hard drive started making some odd clicky noises, andthings seemd to take ages to load amongst the noise.
so i backed up the hard disk to DVD RW, and decided to get a new hard disk.

so the old disk came out, and the new went in, i switched it on and got nothing, no windowsXP just a black screen with some writing on, although that was expected as the old disk had the windows stuff on.

So i loaded the 'recovery' disk, that the sales bods at time had told me would fix any problem, except it didnt.

so using a sega dreamcast with its 33k modem, i managed to get on the internet to find out that the recovery disk relied on a parttion on the origanal hard disk.

so in went the old clicky disk, excpet this time nothing, just a load of clicky noises.

So i called customer support at time, only to be told that i would have to send the P.C back to them, and as it was out of waranty i would have to pay P&P as well as £30 before they would look at it, when i asked if they would send a windows XP CD i was told that they only issue recovery disks , anything else and they (time) would have to repair it.
So after borrowing an older P.C to get on the tintnernet, i found somewhere selling an OEM version of XP, for a reasonable price.

Because of all that i dont want to buy a new P.C that doesnt come with a full install disk of windows.

Ive got a tight budget of £500, im thinking of wither going for the barebones option and sourcing the other bits myself, or getting a system, witout windows installed, and buying vista separatly if the full install disk isnt included

[JDowdall]

For about £500 look at the sys in my sig, if you dont want to game consider a cheaper graphics card and more ram or a better processor

[smoothdude54]

well said half pint
my sentiments exactly

[beardyman]

plus custom partitioning for multi-boot environments...for when people are ready to use a real OS like Linux......