Windows Vista Recovery Discs..

[Simian]

Hi I've got a nice spanking HP HDX16-1005EA Laptop which I've had since December, which comes with 'Vista Home 64bit' installed (for the 4Gb RAM) along with loads of other stuff I probly don't need!!...

I also want to (at one point) replace the Hard Drive (320Gb 5400rpm) with summut Bigger/Faster or even SSD...

Usefully HP don't supply you with the Operating system discs, there's an 11Gb partition with the Recovery gumf on it!...

I made the 'Recovery Discs' following the instruction and it deleted the 11Gb partition and re-intergrated it into the 320Gb drive for me...

Now this is all well and good but I have a few questions for the Experts here (can't get any sense out of the HP website.. my laptop doesn't seem to be listed any more either!!)...

a) There's a link to get a set of Recovery discs for £25, will this be identical to the ones I made or will it be a copy of Vista64 (OEM) plus some HP extras??..

b) Is there anywhere 'Safe' to get a copy of Vista Home 64bit that won't cost a fortune (or Free) so I can use My Licence (on the sticker on the Laptop)??..

Otherwise I'll just bumble along with the 5400rpm drive and get an ExpressCard SSD to expand the storage...

Sim
(email in trust)

 

[Burnsy2023]

HP must give you a set of untampered Vista media if you specifically ask for it, they may charge for it although £25 seems a bit steep.

Phone them and find out.

 

[Valo]

I'd imagine the set of discs you can buy on the HP website will be identical to the set you've made which is an HP customised install of Vista x64 with HP extras which will be hp bios locked no doubt.
There is nothing stopping you using an ordinary Vista x64 OEM disk to reload your laptop, as the licence you have on the laptop is a standard OEM Licence. You should be able to upgrade the hard drive and use your existing recovery media to reload Vista the only problem is you'll still have the HP bloatware on the system.

 

[Aod]

it's not illegal to download a copy of the vista media to use with your key that you already have (the one on the COA sticker )

 

[Rainmaker]

it's not illegal to download a copy of the vista media to use with your key that you already have (the one on the COA sticker )

It wouldn't be illegal even if MS didn't allow it, as a download-only it'd just be unlawful. The person doing the supplying/uploading would be the one committing a criminal act, no?

Anyway that's not why I posted. If what you say is true (and I have no reason to doubt you), why is it so hard to find MS media? I've thought about this a few times over the last year or so. I mean, I had a ton of hassle obtaining the x64 Vista disc from MS and it ended up costing me £30-odd and three shipments from Germany before they got it right.

The concensus seems to be that you can just borrow a disc off a friend if they have one, and just use your own serial/key. That being so, what's to stop me uploading an unadulterated ISO of Vista x86, Vista x64 and so on to my shared hosting, so that others can grab what they need (and supply their own serial)?

The amount of threads on here about obtaining such media is almost ridiculous. If it's not unlawful or illegal to download the media, and MS say it's OK to borrow a disc from a friend to use your own key, why can't we just make ISOs available and have done with it?

Burnsy?

 

[Aod]

It wouldn't be illegal even if MS didn't allow it, as a download-only it'd just be unlawful. The person doing the supplying/uploading would be the one committing a criminal act, no?

Anyway that's not why I posted. If what you say is true (and I have no reason to doubt you), why is it so hard to find MS media? I've thought about this a few times over the last year or so. I mean, I had a ton of hassle obtaining the x64 Vista disc from MS and it ended up costing me £30-odd and three shipments from Germany before they got it right.

The concensus seems to be that you can just borrow a disc off a friend if they have one, and just use your own serial/key. That being so, what's to stop me uploading an unadulterated ISO of Vista x86, Vista x64 and so on to my shared hosting, so that others can grab what they need (and supply their own serial)?

The amount of threads on here about obtaining such media is almost ridiculous. If it's not unlawful or illegal to download the media, and MS say it's OK to borrow a disc from a friend to use your own key, why can't we just make ISOs available and have done with it?

Burnsy?

the reason why MS don't want people to proliferate the windows media is because it encourages piracy, despite the fact that the cracks/keygens are available.

the easier you make 1/2 the process, the more likely people are to undertake the effort to get the crack themselves.

well, that's MS's rationale anyway. i still believe that people who want to pirate windows will do so, and those who're prepared to buy it will also do so.

 

[Rainmaker]

This will probably sound eerily similar to a gun ownership argument, but...

I'm pretty sure 'pirates' have all the access to MS Windows media that they require. A quick Google search would confirm this a thousand-fold. What is lacking is the ability to quickly and easily grab legitimate un-altered media for legitimate purposes (eg to switch between x86 and x64). This would, I'm sure most will agree, have zero impact on piracy.

So MS do disallow the sharing of media, then?

 

[Burnsy2023]

So MS do disallow the sharing of media, then?

Technically you're not supposed to lend the disc but I really can't see any justification for this. The main reason why I suggest never using torrented ISO is because of the doctoring, although you could verify the MD5.

I agree MS should do an online download, I have access to several MS sites that allow this, but no public ones. It's a flaw they should address, even if it just requires a COA to download. I think they want to more the responsibility to OEMs though.