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General discussion

Something about recovery CDs

Jul 5, 2010 3:20AM PDT

I know it's totally random, but I want to get some opinions on the matter.

Back in the day, companies would give you a recovery CD to use in case your computer died. At first it was just a version of the OS (back in the win95 days at least). Then it became a custom vendor recovery cd with the OS and a ton of other crap that usually relied on a recovery partition. Nowadays, you're expected to burn the DVDs yourself and they seem to take forever regardless of DVD burner speed.

What I want opinions on, however, is my method. My main computer is fairly old and I don't have a recovery CD. Instead, I download the OS and use the license key that came with my computer. Now, given that I already have a license key and am just downloading the software, is that really a bad thing? Is it pirating if I use a license key that was already assigned to me? Especially considering that 1) a non cracked OS is basically useless without the license key and 2) I only want to recover my operating system and not the ton of crap that my vendor feels necessary to push on me?

Discussion is locked

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Can we skip the legal department?
Jul 5, 2010 3:29AM PDT

If so the usual problem with this is that key does not work for any retail or generic OEM XP CD. It fails. I know too many that don't believe and get even more upset as they try CD after CD.

That's not an opinion.

The good news is the last dozen machines at the office arrived with very little carp. Yes there is Norton, and the Office Trial but so little else.

Now there are folk that are upset with a wifi manager but they might want to buy the retail OS?
Bob

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In my experience
Jul 5, 2010 3:39AM PDT

...the key printed on the computer always worked. If I have an XP Home license sticker and I download a copy of XP Home, I put that key in and I'm good to go.

The way I always see it is if I lose my recovery CD or just want a copy of the OS itself, why should I pay for a boxed version with another license when I have a perfectly good working license?

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Try Linux!
Jul 6, 2010 1:57PM PDT

I revived an old desktop today, works like new!

Just a thought Wink WAYYY not as scary as you might think...

http://www.ubuntu.com/

-dr. karl