Re: hp recovery dvd

One more response, and then I think we should agree to disagree. Disagree
strongly.

We've both gone on record stating that backing up information from a system is
important. Certainly one approach is to image the hard drive or something
similar, as you advocate. I doubt that even HP would emphasize this for its
target customers, because doing so would increase the final cost of a system
(added hardware and software), something which is unacceptable in the current
cut-throat price-sensitive environment.

The consequence is that the owner of the computer, your target customer, would
need to have all the materials necessary to rebuild the system in the event of a
catastrophic disk crash. If HP does not provide complete restore media in the
box with the system, the customer needs a foolproof way to create them or to
order them cheaply and easily. In the hands of HP's target and somewhat naive
customer, creating restore media is not foolproof, and many people do not do so.
HP makes its restore media available for order for a limited period of time,
surely not for as long as the 4-5 years that most of these systems last before
there is a serious failure.

This gets us to the problem of how to rebuild a system when the hard drive fails
completely. First step is to burn a CD or DVD with a current copy of one's own
personal data, doing so somewhat regularly. (I have trained small business
owners and individual computer owners to do so with valuable data.) Next step
is to have a copy of Windows install media, whether a genuine hologrammed
WIndows XP or a copy marked restore. After that one needs the drivers, because
all the new systems produced in 2003 or later utilize chipsets which were not
even designed when the Windows XP CD was produced. (Microsoft does not
slipstream the new drivers into its SP2 CDs either.) And the drivers need to be
readily accessable, which is what I have been "whining" about for a long time.

I don't care whether I, as service provider, or the target customer has to get a
system back to a working state. The requirement still exists for easy-to-obtain
software drivers, either on the web site or ordered on CD from the manufacturer.
If the target customer does not have all the restore/media in his/her hands,
he/she needs to depend on a service provider to do the job.

In short, some percentage of target customers need the drivers, directly for
themselves or indirectly through the help of a service provider. The
incremental cost of web site development to make them all available on-line is
not huge. The return in customer satisfaction and repeat sales cannot be
quantified. HP may choose to ignore this small percentage of target customers
by continuing along the same path. This is HP's choice to make.

HP is not so successful as to have undergone massive company restructuring in
the past year, starting with the departure of Carly. Competition continues to
push HP to change and improve. Let's hope that HP's improvements are positive.
The computer industry is only strengthened by strong competition in computer
hardware. Despite my bashing, I would much prefer to see a continually strong
HP in the marketplace.

I'll continue to whine now and then, but I prefer to think of it as free speech,
because this is an unmoderated newsgroup. Fortunately... Ben Myers

On 27 Dec 2005 15:35:14 GMT, Frank Slootweg <this@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

>ben_myers_spam_me_not wrote:
>> In response, let me say that if finding drivers and detailed technical
>> information on the HP web site is not easy for me (40+ years of solid
>> computer industry experience going back to punched cards), it is
>> probably even more difficult for the typical consumer.
>>
>> As an example of this, let me point out the fairly obscure manner in
>> which another poster did finally manage to find the drivers for the
>> model owned by the OP. Rather than being able to find the drivers
>> directly by searching for the model, the other poster needed to
>> associate the model with the motherboard in the system, then
>> eventually found the drivers as part of a list of drivers for a model
>> of Compaq Presario. Sorry, but this procedure is indefensibly and
>> unnecessarily complicated.
>
> The point you keep ignoring (dodging?) is that the normal *target*
>customers do *not* need *original* drivers (because those are on the
>system and on a recovery partition, etc.).
>
> The ones who say they need them, are you, i.e. a (apparently)
>non-partner third party service provider, and 'hobbyists', i.e. people
>who got a *second hand* system without software.
>
> You think the software is 'missing'. I think it would be bad, i.e. a
>waste of my/the_customer's money, if HP would cater to the 'needs' of
>people who are *not* their target customers.
>
>> I will retract only a part of what I stated earlier. Compaq Presario
>> drivers ARE easier to find, apparently part of the Compaq legacy, of
>> which the sensible customer-oriented parts have not yet been absorbed
>> by HP.
>>
>> I will reiterate that I can find Dell, IBM/Lenovo, and Gateway drivers
>> and technical information (diagrams, photos, how-to texts, COMPLETE
>> service manuals) very quickly. This is not simply a matter of my
>> familiarity with these web sites. The information is THERE on the web
>> site. For a great many HP models, especially the consumer Pavilion
>> models, the information is incomplete or just plain absent.
>
> I don't care that other vendors are different and, in *your* opinion,
>'better'. What I do care about is repeated, inappropriate and
>misdirected vendor-bashing. (Also, because of the totally different
>channel, comparing Dell/Gateway to HP is apples versus oranges.)
>
>> The OP just stated that he called HP and was told that the restore CD
>> or DVD cannot be obtained for his model of computer, only a few months
>> old. If this is true, I will assert (right! not a fact, but an
>> opinion) that this is poor customer service, once again compared to
>> HP's name-brand competition.
>
> As another poster also said, as far as we know the OP did *not* call
>HP, but only visit HP's website. The OP's system was equipped to make a
>recovery DVD and he *made* one. His *problem* is that he does not know
>how to verify it. Has anybody tried to help him with *that*? No! But a
>lot of talk about non-relevant stuff like 'missing' drivers on websites.
>
>> The quantity and quality of information on the name-brand company web
>> site is important to somebody, either the consumer or someone else.
>> If the consumer does not maintain the system him/herself, then the
>> information is important to the service provider.
>
> No, *original* drivers (and the other information you refer to) are
>*not* "important" to the *target* "consumers"/customers. Even if the
>system crashes and the customer has no backup, the *target* customer is
>not helped by original drivers on a website (because, as I said before,
>he can't get them with a down system and even if he could, he wouldn't
>know what to do with them).
>
>> If HP had somebody reading this newsgroup regularly over the last five
>> or six years, they might already have figured out that a stronger
>> customer orientation is needed. And Carly may still have a job. Yes!
>> Another opinion by... Ben Myers
>
> Well, in their *target* market HP/'Compaq' is doing fine with their
>'consumer' systems, so they must be doing *something* right!
>

.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: hp recovery dvd
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