Dell Doesn't Ship Windows CD For Inspiron Laptops Either

A few weeks back, I wrote this post on vendor websites where I also mentioned how I disliked that Gateway didn't ship a Windows CD with my girlfriend's PC and that Dell does ship that CD.

Well, her brother just bought a Dell Inspiron 9300 and guess what it didn't come with. You guessed it! A Windows CD.

Why don't computer companies ship systems with this CD anymore? It's just ridiculous. The Windows CD isn't just for doing a fresh install, it can also be used to do a "repair" install which fixes a lot of problems that can't be fixed any other way. And a XP "repair" install is non-destructive so applications ,other than Windows service packs, hot fixes and updates, don't need to be reinstalled.

Dell does provide the Windows CD for Latitude customers (although they can opt not to have it sent), and it's not like they are paying that much of a premium as most Latitude customers are businesses that get a hefty discount.

Perhaps companies stopped shipping CDs to customers after doing studies that showed that most of them throw them away, or that most customers don't know how to use them. Whatever. I guess they also assume that a computer tech will have the CD with them if they are called to fix someone's PC.

Hey PC box pushers (you know who you are...Dell, HP, Gateway, etc.) do us all a favor and start shipping PCs (all PCs) with support media. At least give the customer a choice to have the system shipped with them.

You are doing a HUGE disservice to your customers when you don't ship the support CDs with the system.

And no, a refresh CD that destructively puts the PC back in shipping condition does not count. In fact, shipping PCs with these CDs is worse, in my mind, than not shipping anything at all!

With a Windows CD, it's difficult for a customer to unintentionally wipe out their whole drive. With a "refresh" CD, it's easy for it to happen, since that is what it's designed to do.

So just include the frickin Windows and driver CDs for all PCs (notebooks and desktops) that you sell! Enough said.

Comments

[Blake]

I'm annoed with the Drive restore disks in lieu of the Windows CD as well. Dell has aken it a step further with by putting a 4GB hidden partition on thier Dimension line of PCs that contains a hard drive image. You click on the Dell Restore Link in the start menu and a few clicks later your dirve is being reimaged.

[Steve Kile]

I totally agree with the Alex and Blake's comments. To further add insult to injury, I will be willing to lay down money that the Dell PC advertised a specific size drive that included that 4GB hidden partition. So in effect, you think you are getting a system with a 20GB hard drive and when you get it out of the box, you only see 16GB (which when formatted is smaller still).

And don't get me started about calling Dell's technical support in India...

[David]

Call, 1-800-624-9896 go through phone hell and tell them you wiped the disk and dont have the windows CD to do a recovery. They will send you one out. Yes it is wrong having to lie to get what you have purchased but there you go.

[Al]

When you order the laptop from Dell - on the order page you have to choose Windows XP Home or Proff with install cd or not.
I recently ordered 20 laptops from Dell and all of them came with windows Xp prof CD's.
Make sure you order them on the order page.
It is the second or third question on the ordering page.

[Derrick]

what dell does by default now is they have placed what is called a restore partition on the hard drive of all computers. you have to make a cd from the restore partition in order to have a backup cd. i have aquired from an original owner a dell dimension 8200 and the original owner never had the system discs cause they weren't shipped out with the computer when it was ordered and i had to do a fresh install cause the hard drive was so clogged with stuff it took forever to boot. i also have a dell latitude c610 without the discs and i got it from a second owner who got a lot of them all from a school district. i don't have any system discs for any of the comps but i found on a torrent site a copy of the os but no driver cds or any other system discs. i am out of luck with the system discs but the os disc was easy to get a hold of.