Re: Looking for a cheap laptop

On 27 Nov 2005 14:48:42 -0800, Paul Rubin
<http://phr.cx@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

>Also, do these machines typically come with restore CD's or at least
>some way of making them, based on a restore partition?

My dad recently bought a Dell 2200. It came with nothing but the
restore partition, and no way to make a restore CD (all this was
explained on a piece of cardboard that looked like a CD).

Since I was setting up an inexpensive automatic backup system for him,
I made him a set of True Image 8 (www.acronis.com) backups - one of
the HD as it came, including the restore partitions, and one of the
main partition after we installed all his stuff on it. These (burned
to CD or DVD) and a TI boot disk will get the system back to the
starting point in a short time (20 minutes on his system).

I consider this to be a far more useful approach than the vendor's
restore CDs anyway, since it avoids the need for reinstalling all the
updates, apps, etc.


--
Neil Maxwell - I don't speak for my employer
.