new puter and Windows OS Disk

[shankle]

I don't mean to load up this forum with my stuff. Hope you all will indulge me.

Hp and Dell (to my knowledge) no longer supply any kind of an OS cd.
Well I can get around that with a good backup. But, If I order a new puter without
an OS on it, I would think it would be cheaper. Then go down to the local Puter store
and buy what I want in a Full version.
Last time I loaded Vista or XP from scratch the drivers were a nightmare.
And the order they had to be install in was critical.
Anybody agree or disagree with any of this.

[dedndave]

most computers, especially dell and hp, have a recovery partition on them
it has the files required to rebuild the boot drive from scratch, and usually includes a bunch of bundled crap software, as well
at boot, there is some "magical" keystroke that let's you select the rebuild option
on mine (a sony), it is F10 - on dell, it is ALT-F11 or something like that, i think
i spent the time to figure out how to access the recovery partition and got rid of most of the bloat-ware
i use MBRWizard to change the partition type byte so that the partition is visible
http://mbrwizard.com/download.php
this also allows me to copy the partition onto new hard drives

[shankle]

Hi Dedndave,
Thanks for responding.
Sounds like Mbrwizard might be a nice little program to have. I created my triple boot system with a product called "Easycd".
I now wonder the pros and cons of one versus the other.

[dedndave]

i see that he has the older version of MbrWizard available for download, as well
that is the one i use - it is console mode - command line driven
the newer version is GUI

[Vortex]

Grub4dos is another nice tool to manage multi-boot systems.

[shankle]

Hi Vortex,
Thanks for replying,
I will check out "Grub4dos".

[hutch--]

Jack,

A couple of comments, try and avoid OEM computers, get someone to build what you want in terms of hardware and sell you an OEM version of the OS you require. When you get it built put more than 1 hard disk in it as it allows you to back up a disk image on one to repair another partition.

As a modern disk is rarely ever smaller than 500 gig, use two of these or larger and partition them into 2 or 4 partitions as your disk performance does not degrade as much as the disk fills up.

For protection from viruses or disk failure, have a disk imaging program installed and know how to boot the machine off the recovery CD they can make for you.

Now as far as installing the OS, by having a NON OEM computer they are usually far less hassle in terms of drivers and the like so unless you are using weird hardware the OS should install with few problems. Just make sure your better half keeps you in coffee while you do the installation. If you mess it up, just run it again. after the first 10 times you will be an expert.  :P

[shankle]

Thanks for the pointers Hutch. It's much appreciated.
I am pretty handy with assembling things but there are so many products on the
market that it's like trying to learn all of the programs that come with Linux as an example.
Cases, mother boards, fans etc. etc.

[hutch--]

Jack,

Its just practice, get a can thats big enough for the board. They come as full form factor boards ATX (big ones) and micro ATX (little ones). Run two big fans, the 5" ones, one front and one back. he real trick is knowing what bits work with others, ask the folks you buy bits from or even better, get them to put it together the way you want as it probably won't cost all that much.