New PC Bombshell - NO reinstallation disks

by Fred Litt, Family Technology Associates

PC manufacturers will do anything they can to reduce the cost of manufacturing your PC and related materials.  Well, in order to save a few extra pennies, they no longer provide the CD-ROMs that typically contain the necessary programs and drivers you will need in order to recover your PC in case of a crisis.

In the old days (last year or so), when you purchased a new PC, you received a stack of CD-ROMs, typically called recovery CDs, that you would need in case your PC crashed and you needed to bring your PC back to factory settings.

Not any more.

As hard drives are now so huge, most manufacturers, now 'partition' a small section of your drive to use as a 'recovery' drive.  This allows you to perform a complete recovery from the hard drive - without the need for CD-ROMs

However, in case your hard drive fails completely, you've got a problem.  The recovery from the hard drive simply won't work.

As such, the PC manufacturers now provide you with instructions and software to create your own recovery CD-ROMs - at your time an expense.

When you open the carton for you new PC, look for instructions on how to create recovery CD-ROMs - and please make them ASAP.

In reality, few people will actually do this.  Bottom line: if you have a complete hard drive failure, you have a very serious problem.  You can always buy a replacement hard drive, but you will still need to reinstall the software and drivers that originally came with your PC.

In case you didn't make these reinstallation CD-ROMs, you will have to contact your PC manufacturer and hope they can send you some replacements quickly.  Good luck!

This article may be reproduced with permission of Fred Litt, Family Technology Associates. Contact Fred at 201-315-4943 fred@FamilyTechnology.com for details.