Interesting Memo

An interesting memo went out to Dell employees this last week that says
future Inspiron and Dimension systems that ship with CDRW or DVD+-RW
drives in them will no longer include ANY media of any kind.

When you first start the system you will be given an option to burn an
image to CD or DVD for re-install. If you call Dell Support within the
21-day satisfaction period you can ask to have media discs shipped to
you. After that they can only ship media under extreme circumstances.

In fact, I was told, it would be easier for a tech to ship you a new
hard drive with a PC-Restore image on it so that you can make your own
discs again than it would be to ship you the media.

Dell is moving towards a "Zero Media Policy" and "rumour" is that all
software will be sold as downloadable with a $10 to $20 fee if you want
the software shipped on media.

It's gonna get interesting.

when I ordered my M60 Feb 2004 I paid for the media to be supplied so it's
not a new move...........


"Brad Licatesi" wrote in message
.net...
An interesting memo went out to Dell employees this last week that says
future Inspiron and Dimension systems that ship with CDRW or DVD+-RW
drives in them will no longer include ANY media of any kind.

When you first start the system you will be given an option to burn an
image to CD or DVD for re-install. If you call Dell Support within the
21-day satisfaction period you can ask to have media discs shipped to
you. After that they can only ship media under extreme circumstances.

In fact, I was told, it would be easier for a tech to ship you a new
hard drive with a PC-Restore image on it so that you can make your own
discs again than it would be to ship you the media.

Dell is moving towards a "Zero Media Policy" and "rumour" is that all
software will be sold as downloadable with a $10 to $20 fee if you want
the software shipped on media.

It's gonna get interesting.

"Brad Licatesi" wrote in message
.net...

snip


Had a Sony Vaio P4 desktop recently where I had to contact Sony and purchase
restore DVD's and have them overnighted. Discs were about $20. Shipping was
another $20 via DHL.

Sign of the times....


Stew

This policy is being driven as much by Microsoft as by the PC vendors.
Microsoft doesn't like the idea of having OS install CDs with unused
product keys out in the field. Of course, shipping restore discs does
solve the reinstall problem easily for many users - no fiddling with
drivers, updates, etc. - but it also makes it harder to do a custom
install of Windows.





Brad Licatesi wrote:
An interesting memo went out to Dell employees this last week that says
future Inspiron and Dimension systems that ship with CDRW or DVD+-RW
drives in them will no longer include ANY media of any kind.

When you first start the system you will be given an option to burn an
image to CD or DVD for re-install. If you call Dell Support within the
21-day satisfaction period you can ask to have media discs shipped to
you. After that they can only ship media under extreme circumstances.

In fact, I was told, it would be easier for a tech to ship you a new
hard drive with a PC-Restore image on it so that you can make your own
discs again than it would be to ship you the media.

Dell is moving towards a "Zero Media Policy" and "rumour" is that all
software will be sold as downloadable with a $10 to $20 fee if you want
the software shipped on media.

It's gonna get interesting.

In article , ejn63
@netscape.net says...
This policy is being driven as much by Microsoft as by the PC vendors.
Microsoft doesn't like the idea of having OS install CDs with unused
product keys out in the field. Of course, shipping restore discs does
solve the reinstall problem easily for many users - no fiddling with
drivers, updates, etc. - but it also makes it harder to do a custom
install of Windows.

Makes it difficult to recover your files too.

Had a situation where my MBR got corrupted when the computer shut down
in the middle of saving a file. Repair install didn't work. FIXBOOT
and FIXMBR didn't work.

I knew, however, that I could re-install Windows in a different folder
and get access to my files to back them up and then do a re-format re-
install.

If all you have are "restore" disks, recovering your data isn't gonna be
easy.

I don't see this as a big problem, as long as it helps keep the price of the
system down. With blank CD's costing pennies a peice, it is a negligible
cost to the buyer to burn the copies themselves. I think that when the
customer gets the system and FIRST turns it on, it should give them the
option to burn backup copies then, or place a shortcut on the desktop.


"Brad Licatesi" wrote in message
.net...
An interesting memo went out to Dell employees this last week that says
future Inspiron and Dimension systems that ship with CDRW or DVD+-RW
drives in them will no longer include ANY media of any kind.

When you first start the system you will be given an option to burn an
image to CD or DVD for re-install. If you call Dell Support within the
21-day satisfaction period you can ask to have media discs shipped to
you. After that they can only ship media under extreme circumstances.

In fact, I was told, it would be easier for a tech to ship you a new
hard drive with a PC-Restore image on it so that you can make your own
discs again than it would be to ship you the media.

Dell is moving towards a "Zero Media Policy" and "rumour" is that all
software will be sold as downloadable with a $10 to $20 fee if you want
the software shipped on media.

It's gonna get interesting.

In article 1111287896.570291@news, says...
I don't see this as a big problem, as long as it helps keep the price of the
system down. With blank CD's costing pennies a peice, it is a negligible
cost to the buyer to burn the copies themselves. I think that when the
customer gets the system and FIRST turns it on, it should give them the
option to burn backup copies then, or place a shortcut on the desktop.

It does. When you turn the system on for the first time, even BEFORE
you fill in your info the system asks you to burn a set of re-install
CDs. You can do it at any time later if you say no and skip it.

I can see it being a nightmare for Dell support. Most consumers who get new
PCs don't think like the people who post on this group. Many will not see
the value of creating these restore disks, until it's too late.
But the concept is not entirely new. I had to do this when I bought my brand
spanking new Mac Performa from Sears in 1992. 20-some floppies and 3 hours
later, the entire OS and Application bundle was backed up. Well, at least
Dell customers won't have babysit the process shuffling disks back and
forth -- at least the ones with DVD burners won't have to.

"pengulin" wrote in message
...
I can see it being a nightmare for Dell support. Most consumers who get new
PCs don't think like the people who post on this group. Many will not see
the value of creating these restore disks, until it's too late.
But the concept is not entirely new. I had to do this when I bought my
brand
spanking new Mac Performa from Sears in 1992. 20-some floppies and 3 hours
later, the entire OS and Application bundle was backed up. Well, at least
Dell customers won't have babysit the process shuffling disks back and
forth -- at least the ones with DVD burners won't have to.



Currently the compressed image is small enough to fit on CDR media.
Thankfully, dual-layer DVD R/RW drives are dropping in price considerably
recently.

I picked one up for less than $70 a couple of weeks ago.

But your point is correct; it relies on the user to actually create the
discs and beyond that do no damage to the restore image on the hard disk (or
the hdd itself to not fail).


Stew

On Sat, 19 Mar 2005 22:29:39 -0600, Brad Licatesi
wrote:

In article 1111287896.570291@news, says...
I don't see this as a big problem, as long as it helps keep the price of the
system down. With blank CD's costing pennies a peice, it is a negligible
cost to the buyer to burn the copies themselves. I think that when the
customer gets the system and FIRST turns it on, it should give them the
option to burn backup copies then, or place a shortcut on the desktop.

It does. When you turn the system on for the first time, even BEFORE
you fill in your info the system asks you to burn a set of re-install
CDs. You can do it at any time later if you say no and skip it.


OKay. I either missed that or said "No". What must be done at this
point for me to generate useful re-install CDs? I do have a stack of
CD-Rs, but no DVD+Rs as yet; just a couple of DVD+RWs available at
this time.

Where is the command to generate reinstall CDs?

Regards,
de ~ Vince ~