Its a function of the OEM not windows. they either have to supply disks or a program, some supply both.
Its a function of the OEM not windows. they either have to supply disks or a program, some supply both.
Its vista as the OP stated.
I have an Acer desktop (running XP). It was delivered with a blank writeable DVD.
On initial startup, it automatically installed Windows from an image on the HDD, then prompted for a blank DVD to create a recovery disk.
I recently trashed it, installed 2GB of RAM (instead of 512kB) and a 1GB HDD (I think the original was 80GB, pre-formatted as C and D (intended only for use as a backup drive) plus the origal boot partition.
The recovery disk worked fine.
Take out the hard drive and fit it in an external case with a usb connection (£10ish) (The more you fiddle with it the more data you will lose)
put a new (BIG) hard drive into the computer and install ubuntu 10.04 on it, or windows xp, or vista, or windows 7 if you must have windows.
Then try and copy data from your old hard drive in its usb caddy into the new hard drive.
good luck.
I must be a Luddite then...
I always opt for it for my main email account on the grounds that I can access email any time even without internet connectivity. I can personally make sure its backed up, and am not relying on an ISP to not accidentally delete it. I can also do complicated searches on various mailboxes quickly and easily since the information is available locally with fast access.
Not Vista. XP or 7 fine, but not Vista.
Andy
Would have thought you'd run your own mail server John :)
I do the same with IMAP. I copy everything I want to keep to local folders, apart from a few "pending" in the inbox.
MBQ
I'ts possible that your PC wasn't shut down correcly before and the hard disk is corrupted. So you need to be able to run Chkdsk /r from the command console.
Do you have the Vista installation CD?
Yup, they vary greatly in how "severe" they are as well. Some are basically like the OEM version of windows with perhaps an extra check at installation to check for a particular vendor's name in the bios. To the scorched earth policy ones that wipe, reformat, and reinstall everything from scratch. The former will let you do stuff like a reinstall of windows in place without destroying your data and retaining any installed applications.
HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.