recovery cds

Hello.

An acqaintance bought a few acer laptops (along with some acer
computer) but neglected to make a backup of the software that is pre-
installed on the HD (or actually it is installed from the HD when you
start the computer for the first time). Now he installed norton ghost
9 and it seems virtually impossible to remove it. So he opens the
package of user manuals to get the recovery cd and it turns out there
is no recovery cd included. So he mails Acer support and they say they
can mail a recovery cd for 60 euro. Does anyone know if such recovery
cds are specific for a particular laptop or vista version or if they
are generic and can be used on multiple laptops?
Does anyone know why Acer doesn't have such a recovery cd available on
their website for downloading? I guess that fact seems to contradict
the hypothesis of a generic recovery cd.

Anyway, what would be the best sollution to resolve this problem?
Ordering a recovery cd for all the laptops or just using a vista
version from a different source (for instance we appear to have a
legal vista version that came with a regular acer computer) and
obtaining all the drivers and acer tools that are included on the
harddisk from the acer website?

Does anyone have any practical experience installing a different vista
version on an acer laptop and downloading all the additional software
tools from the acer website?

Or perhaps someone has a recovery cd that they can share online (given
that it's supposedly legal to install such recovery cd's on a computer
that has been purchased recently with a legitimate version of vista).

Kind regards and thanks in advance for any suggestions, Niek

On 11 dec, 10:54, sobriquet wrote:
Hello.

An acqaintance bought a fewacerlaptops (along with someacer
computer) but neglected to make a backup of the software that is pre-
installed on the HD (or actually it is installed from the HD when you
start the computer for the first time). Now he installed norton ghost
9 and it seems virtually impossible to remove it. So he opens the
package of user manuals to get the recovery cd and it turns out there
is no recovery cd included. So he mailsAcersupport and they say they
can mail a recovery cd for 60 euro. Does anyone know if such recovery
cds are specific for a particular laptop or vista version or if they
are generic and can be used on multiple laptops?
Does anyone know whyAcerdoesn't have such a recovery cd available on
their website for downloading? I guess that fact seems to contradict
the hypothesis of a generic recovery cd.

Anyway, what would be the best sollution to resolve this problem?
Ordering a recovery cd for all the laptops or just using a vista
version from a different source (for instance we appear to have a
legal vista version that came with a regularacercomputer) and
obtaining all the drivers andacertools that are included on the
harddisk from theacerwebsite?

Does anyone have any practical experience installing a different vista
version on anacerlaptop and downloading all the additional software
tools from theacerwebsite?

Or perhaps someone has a recovery cd that they can share online (given
that it's supposedly legal to install such recovery cd's on a computer
that has been purchased recently with a legitimate version of vista).

Kind regards and thanks in advance for any suggestions, Niek

Oh, one additional note. I see that the cd that came with the regular
Acer computers was this one:
http://www.ibbu.nl/~nsprakel/acer-cd.jpg

Does anyone know if this is a regular recoveryCD that might work with
the laptops or is it something else?

Recovery/restore CDs are NOT generic. Each unit or series of units has their
own. Pay the money.

HH


"sobriquet" wrote in message
...

Hello.

An acqaintance bought a few acer laptops (along with some acer
computer) but neglected to make a backup of the software that is pre-
installed on the HD (or actually it is installed from the HD when you
start the computer for the first time). Now he installed norton ghost
9 and it seems virtually impossible to remove it. So he opens the
package of user manuals to get the recovery cd and it turns out there
is no recovery cd included. So he mails Acer support and they say they
can mail a recovery cd for 60 euro. Does anyone know if such recovery
cds are specific for a particular laptop or vista version or if they
are generic and can be used on multiple laptops?
Does anyone know why Acer doesn't have such a recovery cd available on
their website for downloading? I guess that fact seems to contradict
the hypothesis of a generic recovery cd.

Anyway, what would be the best sollution to resolve this problem?
Ordering a recovery cd for all the laptops or just using a vista
version from a different source (for instance we appear to have a
legal vista version that came with a regular acer computer) and
obtaining all the drivers and acer tools that are included on the
harddisk from the acer website?

Does anyone have any practical experience installing a different vista
version on an acer laptop and downloading all the additional software
tools from the acer website?

Or perhaps someone has a recovery cd that they can share online (given
that it's supposedly legal to install such recovery cd's on a computer
that has been purchased recently with a legitimate version of vista).

Kind regards and thanks in advance for any suggestions, Niek

HH is correct. Laptops in particular are loaded with unique model specific
drivers. The recovery disk has to know how to activate the devices in the
particular computer before it can restore anything.

Linux in it's many distributions is the only operating system I know that
allows multiple installations, but the driver problem exists there. The
recovery disk is the only route. If the any of the machines will boot, there
is likely a utility included that will make a recovery disk for that
specific model, and it would work on other identical models -- identical!

"HH" wrote in message
news:haOdnakSz4mhFMPanZ2dnUVZ_viunZ2d@metrocastcab levision.com...
Recovery/restore CDs are NOT generic. Each unit or series of units has
their own. Pay the money.

HH


"sobriquet" wrote in message
...

Hello.

An acqaintance bought a few acer laptops (along with some acer
computer) but neglected to make a backup of the software that is pre-
installed on the HD (or actually it is installed from the HD when you
start the computer for the first time). Now he installed norton ghost
9 and it seems virtually impossible to remove it. So he opens the
package of user manuals to get the recovery cd and it turns out there
is no recovery cd included. So he mails Acer support and they say they
can mail a recovery cd for 60 euro. Does anyone know if such recovery
cds are specific for a particular laptop or vista version or if they
are generic and can be used on multiple laptops?
Does anyone know why Acer doesn't have such a recovery cd available on
their website for downloading? I guess that fact seems to contradict
the hypothesis of a generic recovery cd.

Anyway, what would be the best sollution to resolve this problem?
Ordering a recovery cd for all the laptops or just using a vista
version from a different source (for instance we appear to have a
legal vista version that came with a regular acer computer) and
obtaining all the drivers and acer tools that are included on the
harddisk from the acer website?

Does anyone have any practical experience installing a different vista
version on an acer laptop and downloading all the additional software
tools from the acer website?

Or perhaps someone has a recovery cd that they can share online (given
that it's supposedly legal to install such recovery cd's on a computer
that has been purchased recently with a legitimate version of vista).

Kind regards and thanks in advance for any suggestions, Niek

On 11 dec, 13:59, "HH" wrote:
Recovery/restore CDs are NOT generic. Each unit or series of units has their
own. Pay the money.

HH

Pay the money?!
I find it somewhat misleading that they don't include a recovery CD.
But ok, they clearly state in the manual that you're supposed to make
the recovery cd yourself. But surely a typical laptop tends to come
with recovery cds, so there must be many people who start using the
laptop and find out too late they are supposed to start out by making
a recovery cd.
Why doesn't acer offer a good solution for this, like a downloadable
recovery cd?


"sobriquet" wrote in message

...





Hello.

An acqaintance bought a few acer laptops (along with some acer
computer) but neglected to make a backup of the software that is pre-
installed on the HD (or actually it is installed from the HD when you
start the computer for the first time). Now he installed norton ghost
9 and it seems virtually impossible to remove it. So he opens the
package of user manuals to get the recovery cd and it turns out there
is no recovery cd included. So he mails Acer support and they say they
can mail a recovery cd for 60 euro. Does anyone know if such recovery
cds are specific for a particular laptop or vista version or if they
are generic and can be used on multiple laptops?
Does anyone know why Acer doesn't have such a recovery cd available on
their website for downloading? I guess that fact seems to contradict
the hypothesis of a generic recovery cd.

Anyway, what would be the best sollution to resolve this problem?
Ordering a recovery cd for all the laptops or just using a vista
version from a different source (for instance we appear to have a
legal vista version that came with a regular acer computer) and
obtaining all the drivers and acer tools that are included on the
harddisk from the acer website?

Does anyone have any practical experience installing a different vista
version on an acer laptop and downloading all the additional software
tools from the acer website?

Or perhaps someone has a recovery cd that they can share online (given
that it's supposedly legal to install such recovery cd's on a computer
that has been purchased recently with a legitimate version of vista).

Kind regards and thanks in advance for any suggestions, Niek-

Because of th first three rules of successful computing:
1. Back up
2. Back up
3. Back up

If one does not care to read the notice to create backup discs, one must be
willing to pay, not whine about it.

HH


"sobriquet" wrote in message
...
On 11 dec, 13:59, "HH" wrote:
Recovery/restore CDs are NOT generic. Each unit or series of units has
their
own. Pay the money.

HH

Pay the money?!
I find it somewhat misleading that they don't include a recovery CD.
But ok, they clearly state in the manual that you're supposed to make
the recovery cd yourself. But surely a typical laptop tends to come
with recovery cds, so there must be many people who start using the
laptop and find out too late they are supposed to start out by making
a recovery cd.
Why doesn't acer offer a good solution for this, like a downloadable
recovery cd?


"sobriquet" wrote in message

...





Hello.

An acqaintance bought a few acer laptops (along with some acer
computer) but neglected to make a backup of the software that is pre-
installed on the HD (or actually it is installed from the HD when you
start the computer for the first time). Now he installed norton ghost
9 and it seems virtually impossible to remove it. So he opens the
package of user manuals to get the recovery cd and it turns out there
is no recovery cd included. So he mails Acer support and they say they
can mail a recovery cd for 60 euro. Does anyone know if such recovery
cds are specific for a particular laptop or vista version or if they
are generic and can be used on multiple laptops?
Does anyone know why Acer doesn't have such a recovery cd available on
their website for downloading? I guess that fact seems to contradict
the hypothesis of a generic recovery cd.

Anyway, what would be the best sollution to resolve this problem?
Ordering a recovery cd for all the laptops or just using a vista
version from a different source (for instance we appear to have a
legal vista version that came with a regular acer computer) and
obtaining all the drivers and acer tools that are included on the
harddisk from the acer website?

Does anyone have any practical experience installing a different vista
version on an acer laptop and downloading all the additional software
tools from the acer website?

Or perhaps someone has a recovery cd that they can share online (given
that it's supposedly legal to install such recovery cd's on a computer
that has been purchased recently with a legitimate version of vista).

Kind regards and thanks in advance for any suggestions, Niek-

On 11 dec, 21:19, "HH" wrote:
Because of th first three rules of successful computing:
1. Back up
2. Back up
3. Back up

If one does not care to read the notice to create backup discs, one must be
willing to pay, not whine about it.

HH

I never pay for software. In all likelyhood I will just put an illegal
Vista version on the computers instead and download the drivers from
the Acer website.

Although I do agree it was stupid not to read to booklets or at least
verify whether or not there was a recovery CD included, before using
the laptop and even more stupid to install an old version of ghost.
But the acquaintance who was responsible for these mistakes is an
elderly person with limited education who doesn't speak english, so I
still think it's unreasonable Acer more or less expects him pay at
least 120 EURO for two recovery cds as a kind of punishment for these
mistakes, while I don't see any reason whatsoever why Acer can't
provide a download for these recovery CDs on their website.

But ok, if Acer thinks it's reasonable to charge people EURO 60 for
something that people can make for less than EURO 0.50 (provided they are
wise enough to start out by making a backup), fine. That just means is
has become extremely unlikely I will ever be recommending anyone to
buy an Acer computer.

"sobriquet" wrote in message
...

Anyway, what would be the best sollution to resolve this problem?

Try eBay for a third party CD.

"HH" wrote in message
news:atWdnYISTL3_bcPanZ2dnUVZ_jCdnZ2d@metrocastcab levision.com...

If one does not care to read the notice to create backup discs, one must
be willing to pay, not whine about it.

Considering all of the stickers attached to these it seems a poor choice to
not add one warning that a recovery CD (or two) must be made.

On 12 dec, 06:40, "A Nother" wrote:
"HH" wrote in message

news:atWdnYISTL3_bcPanZ2dnUVZ_jCdnZ2d@metrocastcab levision.com...

If one does not care to read the notice to create backup discs, one must
be willing to pay, not whine about it.

Considering all of the stickers attached to these it seems a poor choice to
not add one warning that a recovery CD (or two) must be made.

The misleading thing is that they have the booklets packaged in
wrapped plastic with a piece of cardboard sandwiched in between, which
at least suggests that there is a CD inside (as you feel something
rigid in the package). So unless people actually unwrap this package
of documentation, which seems unnecessary, given that all software is
pre-installed on HD (or at least will install from HD as soon as the
computer is run the first time), they will probably discover their
mistake of not starting out making a backup too late.
Let's be honest, how many people will actually take the effort to read
the booklets prior to using the laptop, when they already have ample
experience with various laptops in the past from different brands
(that typically tend to come with a recovery CD)?