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210

Pre-load OS on Replacement Hard Drives

210 points posted to Operating Systems, Servers and Storage by rperritt May 2 **PARTIALLY IMPLEMENTED**

When a Hard Drive fails on a Dell system and Dell replaces the hard drive with a new one, this is great. But often the end user is left re-installing the OS. Many novice users may do a poor job of this. Dell should have an image for that user (even if it is only an OS without any other licensed software) and have it already on the replacement drive. This way the user only needs to physically install the drive (or the tech can do it). The OS will just boot. Surly the additional features in Vista will allow you to do this in a cost effecent maner?


Please see aaron_h's comment below

techiemoe
May 7		 Are we talking about the home or business sector here? I recently bought an Inspiron 1520 notebook for home and the hard drive was bad. When I ordered a replacement I was given the option for a blank drive or an imaged one. Are you saying you weren't given this option?
turtleandhare
May 16		 If the user takes a backup (entire system) using the XP Pro "Backup" system utility, if the replacement hard drive is initialized, then will not "restoring" the backup accomplish this function. This would preserve current user files, which the suggested feature does not. Of course the user will need to reguarly take backups. But this would not be a bad thing.
aaron_h
May 16		 Actually this is already offered for both consumer and business customers. However, as of right now it is only available for the first year of ownership. This is a popular feature, with both customers and our technicians, and it is possible it eventually will be available for the life of the system warranty.
paperpilot
May 19		 @jackie_c as drives with the OS pre-installed are only offered for a limited time, shouldn't this idea have a "PARTIALLY IMPLEMENTED" status?
jackie_c
May 20		 Changed status to **PARTIALLY IMPLEMENTED**.
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