What's with pre-installed OS's?

[RGDave]

As one or two of you might have spotted, I'm looking to replace my desktop PC. Trouble is, I need 2 "legacy/old tech" PCI slots and windows XP. Potentially, I could buy windows 7 pro and run the XP mode for my XP software (many £100s) but would prefer to get a last ditch copy of XP SP2/3.

Anyhow, I am really amazed to see just how many desktops are sold with pre-installed operating systems.
The trouble with this is that although you can emergency return your pc to original state (using a partitioned backup) if the Hard Drive goes belly up, you've had it. This happened to me last year (laptop) and I paid quite a price to have my maker/retailer install a new HD and re-load the windows vista business.

Since then, I've tried some back-up software (recommended by Brendy ) and actually purchased a still packaged 2.5" drive with an unopened copy of XP (which might potentially go on a new new desktop as and when).

What's with selling PCs/laptops without the windows disk??

I'll never buy another computer without the dvd OS disk.....once bitten, lesson learned for me.

Have I missed something or is this practice well dodgy (save a few quid, but run the risk of having to re-buy the OS if you get unlucky?)

 

[JustOne]

In the nearly 9 years I've had a PC I've never had a copy of Windows. It's not been a problem, yet.
I'm pretty sure you can create a startup disc and/or a backup with most operating systems, some also have recovery discs and others simply require you to boot whilst pressing F12 (or something like that) which will reinstall from the partition.

Dell used to supply a copy of windows with every PC but you'll be hard pushed to get one from the highstreet I think. Keep us informed as to your choice.

NB: The partition method is a lot more stable than it used to be in the old WinME days

 

[brendy]

It's purely a cost cutting exercise, as mentioned above each time you reload the PC from the recovery partition (usually the press f11 key prompt) you get prompted to create a recovery cd/DVD which us worth doing just once with each new PC.
Failing that invest in a copy of acronis workstation as it can be be used at any time and will back up the entire kc which can be stored on DVD or another hard drive etc. With the universal restore bolt on, acronis can even restore to entirely new machines and doesn't have to be even remotely similar hardare I'd image taken from a PC can be put onto a laptop which was previously unheard of as it usually caused the laptop to crash and vice versa.

 

[drawboy]

Hey RGDave ginger6 (google them) allow you to configure a desktop to your spec. I checked this morning and they are still offering Xp service pack 3 on their new machines for £64.00. May be worth a look.

 

[Ethan]

I see what your problem is.

Windows.

 

[PhilTheFragger]

There must be a local PC repair shop near you who can slam together a case, Motherboard, CPU, RAM, Graphics card, DVDRW, Hard Drive and Power Supply. Cost of the above should be less than 300 notes + labour. Then you can load that XP disc, load the drivers that come with the above kit. Download an Anti Virus onto a memory stick on the old PC BEFORE you go online with the new one.

Why do you need XP, what programs / hardware are you running that doesnt have later patches / drivers

Another way to do it is to get a reasonable Box from Dell £379 inc VAT, the wipe it and load XP from your disc.I did this for a customer recently and hit no problems, drivers available for XP on the dell website

the dell will have 2 PCI slots, but no parallel port or serial port, or PS2 (Keyboard & Mouse) everything is USB these days

Dr Franken-Fragger

 

[RGDave]

There must be a local PC repair shop near you who can slam together a case, Motherboard, CPU, RAM, Graphics card, DVDRW, Hard Drive and Power Supply. Cost of the above should be less than 300 notes + labour. Then you can load that XP disc, load the drivers that come with the above kit. Download an Anti Virus onto a memory stick on the old PC BEFORE you go online with the new one.

Why do you need XP, what programs / hardware are you running that doesnt have later patches / drivers

Another way to do it is to get a reasonable Box from Dell £379 inc VAT, the wipe it and load XP from your disc. I did this for a customer recently and hit no problems, drivers available for XP on the dell website

the dell will have 2 PCI slots, but no parallel port or serial port, or PS2 (Keyboard & Mouse) everything is USB these days

Dr Franken-Fragger

Yes, I have asked locally from an independent and the company that built the destop which I want to replace.
Best offers so far around £320-350 (no O.S.) which is OK, but the spec seems quite a bit lower than a pre-built off the internet (ebuyer et al).

I'm just waiting for the right spec, and there's a 2.8 Pentium 4gb RAM system with a Foxconn board currently catching my eye. I'm worried that the chip being designed for 64-bit and win XP home is a 32-bit O.S.

I need 2 PCI slots (not a problem with most boards) but there are NO patches for my software. There are patches (new drivers more likely) for the audio/video adapters/cards/interfaces, but it's the software that I want to keep, hence needing XP.

It's not so much that I'm struggling to find the right system, it's that so many seem to come with pre-installed O.S.s which is dumb if you ask me. As I have an XP disk, I'd prefer no O.S. at all t.b.h.

 

[RGDave]

Hey RGDave ginger6 (google them) allow you to configure a desktop to your spec. I checked this morning and they are still offering Xp service pack 3 on their new machines for £64.00. May be worth a look.

Nice.

http://www.ginger6.com/home-office-athlon-2048mb-320gb-dvdrw-base-unit-p-28802.html

This AMD system could work out pretty good with a few tweaks. THESE people obviously offer a "box" with no O.S.!

Well found, now on my favourites!!

 

[MarkE]

I'd never buy a pc without the OS disc. Total rip off imo.
Nothing wrong with wanting to keep XP. Excellent OS.
Vista was a turkey from the off and microsoft obviously thought the same hence the rapid replacement. Windows7 removed a lot of the rubbish from vista and is a big improvement, but a well set up XP is still better.
I alway build my own(and friends and family). You can put in exactly what you need.
Usually get everything from ebuyer. As long as you prepare everything and methodically assemble, you can have XP up and running easily within 3 hours.

 

[RGDave]

I'd never buy a pc without the OS disc. Total rip off imo.
Nothing wrong with wanting to keep XP. Excellent OS.
Vista was a turkey from the off and microsoft obviously thought the same hence the rapid replacement. Windows7 removed a lot of the rubbish from vista and is a big improvement, but a well set up XP is still better.
I alway build my own(and friends and family). You can put in exactly what you need.
Usually get everything from ebuyer. As long as you prepare everything and methodically assemble, you can have XP up and running easily within 3 hours.

Cheers mate.

I'm a big ebuyer customer, this is front runner for me a.t.m.

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/176488

I'm not sure I'd want to build from scratch, but for those that can....