[dddaver]

I screwed up I meant to start a new thread but found I was still in the Ubuntu thread....oops....Anyway

For a few years now, MS (and of course other software companies who have to just copy the industry leaders lead) has decided it makes more profit for them to NOT enclose os disks with their computers, but have the os in residence on the hard-drive. My question might be naive and stupid but; for years I found to really clean the computer you need to reformat the hard-drive, windows adds so many bloated useless logs and software it's just ridiculous. Last time I did that reformatting it took 3 full days of non-stop reloading and updating my software. But with no os disks being shipped with the newer computers, it seems logically to me that reformatting the hard-drive would also eliminate the os, is this correct? The other problem with reformatting, even if it didn't erase the os is that doing the update to windows to get all the needed security updates just to windows could take hours.

I have used Ubuntu and this may be a solution but since windows is so dominant through-out the world, I decided I may as well keep that as my "everyday" for compatibility issues

[draztik]

Find yourself an OEM copy of windows it will solve all your problems. It's not hard to find. Since you have a computer that has windows already you do not need a serial or key to install Windows Vista or Windows 7 OEM.

[RB56]

Originally Posted by dddaver

I screwed up I meant to start a new thread but found I was still in the Ubuntu thread....oops....Anyway

For a few years now, MS (and of course other software companies who have to just copy the industry leaders lead) has decided it makes more profit for them to NOT enclose os disks with their computers, but have the os in residence on the hard-drive. My question might be naive and stupid but; for years I found to really clean the computer you need to reformat the hard-drive, windows adds so many bloated useless logs and software it's just ridiculous. Last time I did that reformatting it took 3 full days of non-stop reloading and updating my software. But with no os disks being shipped with the newer computers, it seems logically to me that reformatting the hard-drive would also eliminate the os, is this correct? The other problem with reformatting, even if it didn't erase the os is that doing the update to windows to get all the needed security updates just to windows could take hours.

I have used Ubuntu and this may be a solution but since windows is so dominant through-out the world, I decided I may as well keep that as my "everyday" for compatibility issues

Is there a problem or do you just feel like cleaning things up? Some computer that don't ship with OS discs have the ability to create them.

You don't need to reformat the drive, just resize the partition using the Disk Manager. Create an empty partition and then lay down another OS of your choosing and install a boot manager that will allow you to boot into either OS. HTH

[ScrubNinja]

What I have done is when I got my new laptop, I shrunk (using gParted, a Linux program) and backed any relevant partitions up with EaseUS ToDo Backup (free version), and I also made a rescue CD from within EaseUS. I also backed up the restore partition too, just in case. I also backed them all up with PartImage, a free Linux prog.

I also used a free Windows prog called Double Driver which backs up all the windows drivers in one place. That's in case I ever lose the above backups and have to resort to a generic windows install CD.

Then I installed the few programs I would ever want to use in Windows, and removed all the manufacturer bloatware. Got everything set up real pretty like, and then backed that shit up too.

So if anything was to go wrong, a full restore is something like 20 minutes away, whether I want it in "straight out of the shop" condition, or "all set up just how I like it" condition.

I have used Ubuntu and this may be a solution but since windows is so dominant through-out the world, I decided I may as well keep that as my "everyday" for compatibility issues

Are you aware of "virtual machines"? They've closed a huge gap in the whole compatibility issues thing. I use Ubuntu as my main OS but with the aid of a program called VirtualBox I can flip seamlessly between Ubuntu and nearly any other operating system as easy as flipping to a different window in your taskbar. It's the shiznit as long as you have a decent pc. There are still some performance issues with demanding stuff like gaming or music making, but there are also other options to VirtualBox which may well deal with those issues better. If you have Win 7 Pro, it should have MS VirtualPC which has an included virtual machine of XP, to deal precisely with Windows compatibility issues.