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by blackdiamond 1 view

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Hey,

Does anyone else have any experience with the new "Media-less" PCs that some of the manufacturers are going to. Just looking for some opinions on what others think of this.

For those not familiar, they partition your hard drive (5 GIG) with our systems load the OS and driver file backups to this partition. They require/recommend you create system restore CD?s on the first boot. You get no OS or drivers media. Everything goes through these recovery discs, so if something happens to your disc(s), you are screwed.

I bought a new system for home (Gateway), the first one in over ten years and it showed up this way. I called and bitched about it and got a partial refund of $120. I called only requesting the media and they would not send it. Another guy here in the office says that Dell sent him the media upon request.

I personally don?t like the idea. I really don?t like the fact that they don?t tell you this is what you are going to get, it just shows up that way. We talked to our sales person and he claimed to have only found out about it when we questioned him about it. We have a meeting setup next week to see what our options are. We may not be their biggest account but I am sure our sales guy won?t be too happy if he loses 600 systems.

Maybe I am only finding the negatives, that is why I am looking for other opinions.

Thanx

13 replies

by jaqui

personally, I would tell them they lost the sale because of it.

I never buy pre-installed systems.
I don't trust any company enough to allow them to setup and configure my systems without leaving a back door. ( MS remote help a good example of a back door in my opinion )

by senftk

Yes this is upsetting to all IT personell. It is nearly impossible to repair a system without loosing the data if you don't have the media.

What you need to look at is what are the savings of buying these PC's? I have used these types (most are going this way). However what you need to check is that even though they don't send the media..do they send the licenses?

Even when PC manufacureres send the software now it is a system restore instead of the actual OS and applications.

If they send the licenses, you could just buy one copy of the sofware and use the licenses that come with the system.

It is all dependent on the cost savings of the systems.

by senftk

A product key may or may not constitute a license. This would differ from software manufactures. It would depend on the wording on the software license agreement (usually shown during install).

by blackdiamond

Hey,

senftk - The only thing they include is that little sticker stuck to the PC with the Product Key on it. Not sure if that qualifies as license or not.

by wlbowers

I got news for everyone. All of the manufacturers are going to on drive media.

Dell, Sony will sell you a set of the disks. Some put the utility onboard to burn them.

My company is an Microsoft Partner and subscribes to the Microsoft Action Pack. While it sill not give me vendor specific installs it does give me all of the Microsoft Software.

Times are a changing. If you can hang on you can come along.

Good Luck Lee

by blackdiamond

Hey,

wlbowers@... - One thing I am wondering what is going to happen when it comes time to replace these systems. We wipe our systems and put them to auction. This is going to cause a lot more work to get these systems out the door.

We are meeting with our sales rep next week to discuss. A mom and pop shop that will provide the media may be the way to go when we replace next year.

by otl

Isn't it beautiful ! And if the OEM screws up and loads a virus onto the HD, first boot brings it out. (Buddy of mine got his that way ! and it was a name brand !) Norton fought the virus and won ! But his frustration to get it working was a bear to deal with! Good thing he was not computer illiterate ! Would be nice if you could do a clean backup/prior to first boot to let you create backups/system restore disks, but then you would not have the drivers/software for the CDR/DVDR burner available to create your OS backup ! And what if some part of the software has a viral infection ? First boot, yes we can load the virus, no anti-virus protection !

by blackdiamond

Hey,

Talked our vendor last week and now they willo give us the OS and Software media.

The sales guy played dumb. "We did not even know that was happening until you told us about it."

Yeah Right.

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