Advantages
The primary advantage of a recovery CD is ease of use. Since most typical users will not wish to go through the process of reformatting the hard disk manually, installing Windows, installing any necessary drivers, then installing software applications one by one, the recovery CD allows all of this to be taken care of automatically. The CDs that use a hard disk image are by far the simplest; the end result is essentially an exact copy of the contents of the hard disk as they were when the computer shipped.
Another advantage to recovery CDs from the point of view of the manufacturers and software authors is distribution control and license compliance. Since many CDs contain simply an image of a hard disk filesystem, it is usually not feasible to extract individual software applications from the image for installation onto other computers. On top of this, most recovery CD's are software-locked to run only on a machine of a specific type. Since there is no copy of an actual setup program for the various software on the system, it is very difficult to transfer that software to another machine. Due to this, many manufacturers are omitting copies of product CD's in favour of the single recovery CD to prevent unauthorized distribution of preloaded software.
Disadvantages
The most notable problem with the use of recovery CDs is the lack of actual software discs with the machine. Some systems come with merely a recovery CD or DVD, and no other media whatsoever. While the recovery CD is convenient, it does not allow any latitude for power users and experienced technicians to customize the installation process. One common complaint among power users of OEM systems is the very fact that they can come loaded with so much software. Some users wish to begin with a fresh install of Windows and, from there, install only those applications they need to install. A recovery CD prevents this type of activity since, as stated above, actual copies of the software installation CDs are not typically included with systems using a recovery CD. For these users to perform such activities, they would need to purchase new licenses for any software which came bundled with their system,
just so that they could obtain an installation disc for that software. Another potential problem with a recovery CD is hardware changes. If a user purchases a system, then over time replaces or upgrades components in the system, the recovery CD may fail to install drivers for the new hardware.
Recovery to a former state
The advantages of an OEM recovery CD can be had, without the disadvantages, by using disk imaging software such as Norton Ghost, Acronis True Image, or others to create a bootable image of the machine in the desired initial state. For example, a user can install their own licensed copy of Windows XP, install all device drivers for their hardware, install other desired software, and possibly most useful, configuring the system with all the users settings for email accounts, passwords, etc. This does require the purchase of software, and the limited expertise necessary to install and run it. It has the advantage that the process is not dependent upon Microsoft Windows; a machine running almost any operating system can be imaged. The disadvantage is if you make changes to your system or settings in any way (i.e. you change e-mail accounts, you replace some hardware, and so on) you'll either have to produce a new recovery disc, or remember to re-perform all those steps after using the recovery disc.
you can get a good aftermarket disk at http://www.recovery-cds.com (it looks to me like they are part of http://www.user-guides.co.uk)
i got a good deal anyway, they are by far the most proffessional out fit i could find not only that i could download the disk in .iso format the only downside the size of the download it was BIG man!
Jz
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