Should a laptop come with install disks?

A

Avenue

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We recently purchased an HP Compaq 610 laptop. It was advertised to come with Windows 7 which was installed, but the cd's that came with it were all xp disks.
So I phoned the supplier and he said that the hard drive is partitioned and that windows 7 is stored there, in case we ever need to re install it. and that the xp disks are included for those people who rather want to use xp...

I have never bought a laptop, or a branded pc that comes with an os, so im not sure what the standard procedure is-
is this correct, do HP laptops not come with a windows 7 disk or are these dudes trying to pull a fast one. Im thinking what happens if my hard drive fails and needs to be replaced- how do I then install windows 7 again?
 
In short, no. Laptops dont come with the disks. That partition that you are seeing is your Windows install. Get a few DVDs and run the utility (cant remember what its called) on that drive. It will create the install disks for you. And hey presto, you got your install DVDs. :)
 
Some notebooks comes with a program that you can write a backup/installation copy of the OS yourself. Most of the notebooks these days come with a partition on the harddrive that serves that function. But as you mentioned if the HD goes it's gone as well.
 
Yup - that is standard procedure with most brands these days. You usually have the option to make your own recovery disks - with HP i think it is through the HP Backup and recovery manager which should be pre-installed on your machine.
 
My Lappie (HP Compaq 615) came with the Windows 7 disk... I purchased it about 3 weeks ago. It also came with a separate disk for all the HP bloatware
 
Ave,
Start/All Programs/Recovery Manager/Recovery Disc Creation
You need to make them yourself for incase the HD crashes & you can't boot off the recovery partion
 
Usually there is an option to create recovery discs of the the OS as it is at that time. I would do it before I connect that machine to the Internet and before doing any installations on it. :)
 
It's a fairly common practice, particularly among the multi-national brands. One reason is it cuts the bill-of-materials in terms of manufacture, storage & distribution, which in turn saves money and cuts a few headaches. Another thing to consider is that the recovery image will quite likely be the original image installed on the computer, with all of the drivers. Microsoft "forces" big OEM's to install a certain amount of updates on their production images, which in turn saves you from that.

Also, most of the OEM's that don't include the install media will have an initial "welcome program" with the option of creating the install media. Sadly, most people are just too giddy/lazy/unaware and try kill-off the app as soon as possible.
 
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