Second Life Forums Archive - a Vista epiphany

Cunundrum Alcott

A Sardonic Pessimist

Join date: 15 Jan 2007

Posts: 773

01-31-2008 13:51

From: Ordinal Malaprop

That would seem like a rather poor excuse for them not to send a CD _at all_, if that were the case. They are not obliged to replace things that people have lost, but they are obliged to provide things that people have paid for....

Not to mention people copying the CD's and offering them as *gulp* pirated software

_____________________

Ordinal Malaprop

really very ordinary

Join date: 9 Sep 2005

Posts: 4,607

01-31-2008 13:56

From: Cunundrum Alcott

Not to mention people copying the CD's and offering them as *gulp* pirated software

Easier to do if somebody has just put the contents of the CD on a partition. Besides, it wastes space on the hard drive, and I would rather not have to burn my own CDs (which I will need to have if the hard drive ever packs up) particularly given that I may have just paid over a thousand pounds for said computer.

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3Ring Binder

always smile

Join date: 8 Mar 2007

Posts: 15,028

01-31-2008 14:53

in todays world, it takes a software genius to figure out how to copy microsoft CD's. that ain't me.

i didn't remove the partition so my old HP Vista is still sitting in D... i think i will burn it to a CD though, and delete the partition. i was not provided a recovery disk.

good idea.

i disabled my sidebar within a week of owning this puter. i found that annoying, along with most of the other unnecessary features that were simply unusable resource hogs.

i think next time, i will take he advice of others and build my own puter from the case in.... then i'll only have on it what "I" want, and not what some puter company wants me to have.

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it was fun while it lasted.
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Ordinal Malaprop

really very ordinary

Join date: 9 Sep 2005

Posts: 4,607

01-31-2008 15:29

Really, you should have a copy of Vista that is just as valid as the one which you bought. You have paid for it in the price of your machine. I suspect that they have just provided you with restore software and not the install discs, which they should not have done. Give them a call and ask how you can obtain a copy which you could reinstall from CDs at any point (say, if your hard drive dies).

_____________________

http://ordinalmalaprop.com/forum/ - visit Ordinal's Scripting Colloquium for scripting discussion with actual working BBCode!

http://ordinalmalaprop.com/engine/ - An Engine Fit For My Proceeding, my Aethernet Journal

http://www.flickr.com/groups/slgriefbuild/ - Second Life Griefbuild Digest, pictures of horrible ad griefing and land spam, and the naming of names

Cunundrum Alcott

A Sardonic Pessimist

Join date: 15 Jan 2007

Posts: 773

01-31-2008 17:55

HP charges about $30 for a set of recovery CD's.

_____________________

Micheal Moonlight

Registered User

Join date: 4 Sep 2005

Posts: 197

01-31-2008 18:24

If you have a smaller local computer store / repair they can provide you with a copy of the oem install cd if you ask. Usually you just need to prove you have a license for it. As for the larger guys (Dell / HP etc) they are not required to provide the cd, just the license and a way to reinstall. They buy the licenses in huge bulk packs of 5000 stickers on a roll with no cd's.
Don't let them fool you into believing you need their "recovery" cd's at insane prices, the license sticker is just a rebranded OEM license. (our store will burn the cd for 10$ with proof of license as an example).

For Vista the "Anytime Upgrade" disk that comes with the computer is actually a dvd with misleading label containing the install for every possible version of vista and will let you install without the crap they put on.

Bee Mizser

Registered User

Join date: 22 Apr 2007

Posts: 329

02-01-2008 08:30

From: Peggy Paperdoll

Unless formating and particitioning of hard drives have changed with Vista (which I really doubt has) formating a drive will not wipe the particitions clean unless you format both or all the particittions on the hard drive. Even then you will still see the particitions. They will just be unused space on each particition (which the OS sees as separate drives). You can delete the particitions then format and it will free up the whole HD. Or you can wipe the HD using a wipe utility such as "Killdisk" which writes random zeros and ones to every sector on the disk. A very long process but pretty much takes of everything that is written to disk including particitions.

Correct, format ALL partitions, and yes you have separate letters for each partition. Nothing wrong with that. BTW It's good practice to have 2 partitons anyway. One for the OS and Apps and one for the data. Then should you decide to re-build your OS partition, your data partition is unaffected and can be read after the re-install.

NB it is also good practice to back up all data regularly. In the event of total HD failure (thankfully not that common) then you will lose your data unless it is backed up.

Re-paritioning is NOT necessary FFS.

/me is MCSE.

Bee Mizser

Registered User

Join date: 22 Apr 2007

Posts: 329

02-01-2008 08:32

From: Cunundrum Alcott

Peggy I'd wager a healthy sum your correct. I've been told even by the manuafacturer that formatting a machine with Vista (without touching the partitions) and installing XP will in fact give you two operating systems.

Then they are talking out of their behinds!

Cunundrum Alcott

A Sardonic Pessimist

Join date: 15 Jan 2007

Posts: 773

02-01-2008 08:34

From: Bee Mizser

Then they are talking out of their behinds!

So your saying if you format one partition it wipes out the other partitions?

_____________________

Bee Mizser

Registered User

Join date: 22 Apr 2007

Posts: 329

02-01-2008 08:38

From: Cunundrum Alcott

So your saying if you format one partition it wipes out the other partitions?

No I am saying if you format the partition with the OS on it, then you only have the newly installed OS. The other partitions (nominally data partitions) are still there. You will not as you stated have 2 OSs.

This is important if you want a clean install of the OS and the apps, but want to leave your data in-tact.

Windows installs to one partition, the others are superfluous to the operating system and can be used to install applications or hold data. They hold no part of the operating system itself.

Cunundrum Alcott

A Sardonic Pessimist

Join date: 15 Jan 2007

Posts: 773

02-01-2008 08:43

But you can have two operating systems in seperate partitians and (dual boot?) from one to the other.

I'm not sure how Vista works, if it's resident in the operating partition or not..

I did however disable the sidebar this morning but I noticed no difference in the frame rate.

_____________________

Bee Mizser

Registered User

Join date: 22 Apr 2007

Posts: 329

02-01-2008 08:49

From: Cunundrum Alcott

But you can have two operating systems in seperate partitians and (dual boot?) from one to the other.

I'm not sure how Vista works, if it's resident in the operating partition or not..

I did however disable the sidebar this morning but I noticed no difference in the frame rate.

You can do that if you wish. and have the advantage of both partitions being visible to both operating systems. Meaning if you did something in Vista and saved it on the Vista partition, you could boot into XP and still access the same file.

To wipe out one OS eg XP (should you wish to) boot into Vista, make sure the Vista partition is set as active (ie the one that the OS looks to first to boot from) and then re-format the XP partition, et voila only one OS on your PC.

a Vista epiphany
Cunundrum Alcott A Sardonic Pessimist Join date: 15 Jan 2007 Posts: 773	01-31-2008 13:51 From: Ordinal Malaprop That would seem like a rather poor excuse for them not to send a CD _at all_, if that were the case. They are not obliged to replace things that people have lost, but they are obliged to provide things that people have paid for.... Not to mention people copying the CD's and offering them as gulp pirated software _____________________
Ordinal Malaprop really very ordinary Join date: 9 Sep 2005 Posts: 4,607	01-31-2008 13:56 From: Cunundrum Alcott Not to mention people copying the CD's and offering them as gulp pirated software Easier to do if somebody has just put the contents of the CD on a partition. Besides, it wastes space on the hard drive, and I would rather not have to burn my own CDs (which I will need to have if the hard drive ever packs up) particularly given that I may have just paid over a thousand pounds for said computer. _____________________ http://ordinalmalaprop.com/forum/ - visit Ordinal's Scripting Colloquium for scripting discussion with actual working BBCode! http://ordinalmalaprop.com/engine/ - An Engine Fit For My Proceeding, my Aethernet Journal http://www.flickr.com/groups/slgriefbuild/ - Second Life Griefbuild Digest, pictures of horrible ad griefing and land spam, and the naming of names
3Ring Binder always smile Join date: 8 Mar 2007 Posts: 15,028	01-31-2008 14:53 in todays world, it takes a software genius to figure out how to copy microsoft CD's. that ain't me. i didn't remove the partition so my old HP Vista is still sitting in D... i think i will burn it to a CD though, and delete the partition. i was not provided a recovery disk. good idea. i disabled my sidebar within a week of owning this puter. i found that annoying, along with most of the other unnecessary features that were simply unusable resource hogs. i think next time, i will take he advice of others and build my own puter from the case in.... then i'll only have on it what "I" want, and not what some puter company wants me to have. _____________________ it was fun while it lasted. http://2lf.informe.com/
Ordinal Malaprop really very ordinary Join date: 9 Sep 2005 Posts: 4,607	01-31-2008 15:29 Really, you should have a copy of Vista that is just as valid as the one which you bought. You have paid for it in the price of your machine. I suspect that they have just provided you with restore software and not the install discs, which they should not have done. Give them a call and ask how you can obtain a copy which you could reinstall from CDs at any point (say, if your hard drive dies). _____________________ http://ordinalmalaprop.com/forum/ - visit Ordinal's Scripting Colloquium for scripting discussion with actual working BBCode! http://ordinalmalaprop.com/engine/ - An Engine Fit For My Proceeding, my Aethernet Journal http://www.flickr.com/groups/slgriefbuild/ - Second Life Griefbuild Digest, pictures of horrible ad griefing and land spam, and the naming of names
Cunundrum Alcott A Sardonic Pessimist Join date: 15 Jan 2007 Posts: 773	01-31-2008 17:55 HP charges about $30 for a set of recovery CD's. _____________________
Micheal Moonlight Registered User Join date: 4 Sep 2005 Posts: 197	01-31-2008 18:24 If you have a smaller local computer store / repair they can provide you with a copy of the oem install cd if you ask. Usually you just need to prove you have a license for it. As for the larger guys (Dell / HP etc) they are not required to provide the cd, just the license and a way to reinstall. They buy the licenses in huge bulk packs of 5000 stickers on a roll with no cd's. Don't let them fool you into believing you need their "recovery" cd's at insane prices, the license sticker is just a rebranded OEM license. (our store will burn the cd for 10$ with proof of license as an example). For Vista the "Anytime Upgrade" disk that comes with the computer is actually a dvd with misleading label containing the install for every possible version of vista and will let you install without the crap they put on.
Bee Mizser Registered User Join date: 22 Apr 2007 Posts: 329	02-01-2008 08:30 From: Peggy Paperdoll Unless formating and particitioning of hard drives have changed with Vista (which I really doubt has) formating a drive will not wipe the particitions clean unless you format both or all the particittions on the hard drive. Even then you will still see the particitions. They will just be unused space on each particition (which the OS sees as separate drives). You can delete the particitions then format and it will free up the whole HD. Or you can wipe the HD using a wipe utility such as "Killdisk" which writes random zeros and ones to every sector on the disk. A very long process but pretty much takes of everything that is written to disk including particitions. Correct, format ALL partitions, and yes you have separate letters for each partition. Nothing wrong with that. BTW It's good practice to have 2 partitons anyway. One for the OS and Apps and one for the data. Then should you decide to re-build your OS partition, your data partition is unaffected and can be read after the re-install. NB it is also good practice to back up all data regularly. In the event of total HD failure (thankfully not that common) then you will lose your data unless it is backed up. Re-paritioning is NOT necessary FFS. /me is MCSE.
Bee Mizser Registered User Join date: 22 Apr 2007 Posts: 329	02-01-2008 08:32 From: Cunundrum Alcott Peggy I'd wager a healthy sum your correct. I've been told even by the manuafacturer that formatting a machine with Vista (without touching the partitions) and installing XP will in fact give you two operating systems. Then they are talking out of their behinds!
Cunundrum Alcott A Sardonic Pessimist Join date: 15 Jan 2007 Posts: 773	02-01-2008 08:34 From: Bee Mizser Then they are talking out of their behinds! So your saying if you format one partition it wipes out the other partitions? _____________________
Bee Mizser Registered User Join date: 22 Apr 2007 Posts: 329	02-01-2008 08:38 From: Cunundrum Alcott So your saying if you format one partition it wipes out the other partitions? No I am saying if you format the partition with the OS on it, then you only have the newly installed OS. The other partitions (nominally data partitions) are still there. You will not as you stated have 2 OSs. This is important if you want a clean install of the OS and the apps, but want to leave your data in-tact. Windows installs to one partition, the others are superfluous to the operating system and can be used to install applications or hold data. They hold no part of the operating system itself.
Cunundrum Alcott A Sardonic Pessimist Join date: 15 Jan 2007 Posts: 773	02-01-2008 08:43 But you can have two operating systems in seperate partitians and (dual boot?) from one to the other. I'm not sure how Vista works, if it's resident in the operating partition or not.. I did however disable the sidebar this morning but I noticed no difference in the frame rate. _____________________
Bee Mizser Registered User Join date: 22 Apr 2007 Posts: 329	02-01-2008 08:49 From: Cunundrum Alcott But you can have two operating systems in seperate partitians and (dual boot?) from one to the other. I'm not sure how Vista works, if it's resident in the operating partition or not.. I did however disable the sidebar this morning but I noticed no difference in the frame rate. You can do that if you wish. and have the advantage of both partitions being visible to both operating systems. Meaning if you did something in Vista and saved it on the Vista partition, you could boot into XP and still access the same file. To wipe out one OS eg XP (should you wish to) boot into Vista, make sure the Vista partition is set as active (ie the one that the OS looks to first to boot from) and then re-format the XP partition, et voila only one OS on your PC.

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