OT-Bought new laptop off ebay

[cuemaker]

Got a Dell 6000. Way cheaper on ebay than through Dell.

Slightly nervouse, but seller has a 100% over 4yrs and responded to my email about some questions regarding shipping in less than 10mins. She even confirmed payment reciept.

my home/work computer has been over run by SWMBO. I can no longer leave work items on it and the desk top must be cleared when I am done. What a pain the rear. My job is paper intensive. (plus I am slob, if its not on the desk or taped on the wall, i dont know where it is)

So she finally got tired of my crap and told me to move into the basement (already have a desk set up, etc) and buy a new computer.

She is so fed up with my crap that she is letting me get a laptop and build a desktop.

Yeah me!

[cuemaker]

Oh, and get this, I just recieved an email asking me if I wanted to buy the laptop I won on a second chance!!!.

them scammers are quick!!

[rockrat]

How did it all turn out, cue? Have you seen the computer yet? I have been thinking of a different laptop for a while. My old Acer takes longer to boot every time I start it up.
rock-

[cuemaker]

It will be here Monday.

The seller shipped next day, and responded to every email so I was fairly confident that way.

If you look, it seems like Dell is the brand that is sold the most. Almost all of them are new and carry the warrenty which can be transferred to you.

The things I looked for where sellers with a fair amount of ratings, and I made sure that they have sold a fair amount of computers. For some, its all they sell.

And of course, check the system setups vs the Dell website. You find that some only sell a little below the Dell price, and some quite abit lower. And dont get caught up in the bidding. There are tons of laptop to bid on.

[cuemaker]

For those of you who were following this thread with great facination..

Laptop arrived in perfect condition, up and a running.

[Evan]

Be aware that the only Windows installation files on any Dell product are in a separate partition on the hard drive. This applies to laptops and desktops. If the hard drive fails you are out of luck. I would quickly find and download the complete set of drivers for your machine and archive them on a cd for future use.

[3 Phase Lightbulb]

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Evan:
Be aware that the only Windows installation files on any Dell product are in a separate partition on the hard drive. This applies to laptops and desktops. If the hard drive fails you are out of luck. I would quickly find and download the complete set of drivers for your machine and archive them on a cd for future use.</font>

Holly Cow.. Where do you come up with this stuff.

Cuemaker, you're Dell 6000 comes with a Restore CD that re-builds the disk if anything should happen. You might need to burn the restore CD from an image on the hard disk.

-Adrian


[This message has been edited by 3 Phase Lightbulb (edited 06-27-2005).]

[winchman]

Have you ever used a "Restore CD" that comes with a Dell computer? You would think it would make the computer work just like it did when you got it, right?

Wrong!! It'll work in the most basic way when the "restoration" is done. Then you need to find all the drivers and programs you want on your own. Good Luck with that, especially if it's more than a couple days old. And even if you find them, they don't work quite as well as the original installation. How expensive would it be to just include a copy of the program they use to load the computer at the factory?

The only good thing about using the Dell restore CD is that your machine won't be loaded with all that crap you'll never use.

Roger

[cuemaker]

meow, fffftttt, hissssss hissssss, ffffftttttt

lol


Add:

There is a ton of crap on there, that is for sure.


So, I am a bit lost, should I burn complete copy of my hd for just in case?? (that is if that is doable, I am not hip to cd burning or full image back ups, if that the right terms)

[This message has been edited by cuemaker (edited 06-27-2005).]

[3 Phase Lightbulb]

I would immediatly install Fedora 4 core, or FreeBSD 5.x and wipe the HD clean, but if you want to run Windows, look for a system restore CD, or find the Dell utility in windows that creates a system restore CD.

-Adrian

[3 Phase Lightbulb]

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by winchman:
Have you ever used a "Restore CD" that comes with a Dell computer? You would think it would make the computer work just like it did when you got it, right?

Wrong!! It'll work in the most basic way when the "restoration" is done. Then you need to find all the drivers and programs you want on your own. Good Luck with that, especially if it's more than a couple days old. And even if you find them, they don't work quite as well as the original installation. How expensive would it be to just include a copy of the program they use to load the computer at the factory?

The only good thing about using the Dell restore CD is that your machine won't be loaded with all that crap you'll never use.

Roger </font>

System restore CDs come in different flavors. Some restore the disk to its factory configuration (With all the crap installed like AOL, MSN, etc.). Some just reinstall windows with the default Dell supplied drivers, etc.

-Adrian

[Evan]

Adrian,

None of the big computer sellers supply a restore CD anymore. That includes HP/Compaq, Dell and IBM. Take a little drive to your nearest Staples store and ask them.

[Evan]

Also, depending on the vendor they might provide an option to create a restore CD from the hidden partition. If so then do that as the first order of business.

[BillH]

My sisters Sony laptop had you burn 2 dvd's and a cd as a recovery disk set.
As for my Compaq presario that is about 2 or 3 years old now, it came with a few recovery disks AND a WinXP home cd. You payed for it, you better get it!

[tattoomike68]

my hp 525w asks me if I want to burn a restore cd every so often, it did not come with the machine , you have to burn it yourself.

my old hp lasted me 6 years and is still working fine for my sister in law.

I will back this machine up someday soon.

what I want is a usb 2.0 dvd burner just for data backup(to use on mine and my womans computer), I bought one but it was a POS and after 10 bad disk I took it back and bought a photo card printer.(photos are what I want to save the most, a 700 meg cd does not hold much)

cd burners are not what I want , I think of them as the floppy.(slow)

[This message has been edited by tattoomike68 (edited 06-27-2005).]