General OS reinstall questions from a noob

[brandonkick]

I don't know that I'd worry about 32 bits. I guess it can't hurt if you don't have to go out of your way to get it but in this day and age I can't see very many clients at all with a 32 bit OS. Chances are, that machine is a better candidate for upgrade instead of repair.

 

[Porthos]

On a related note, for a different system I'm likely to need to replace a motherboard on a Gateway Windows 8 box. Am I likely to run into activation issues?

Unless you get an board DIRECTLY from gateway or other vendor and are guaranteed the bios has been programmed with the key you are SOL.

 

[pcpete]

We have had luck with one motherboard replacment of an lenevo laptop listed as "pull from working system". We told the client depending on how it went they may have to pay an additional $100 for a license if needed.

 

[fencepost]

Unless you get an board DIRECTLY from gateway or other vendor and are guaranteed the bios has been programmed with the key you are SOL.

We have had luck with one motherboard replacment of an lenevo laptop listed as "pull from working system". We told the client depending on how it went they may have to pay an additional $100 for a license if needed.

Yeah, that's kind of what I'm afraid of. It didn't ship with Windows 8 Pro and is just over 3 years old, manufactured for the initial release of Windows 8 so long out of warranty. It was one of those "one of the business owners decided to go buy a computer" situations, so I'm pretty sure the likelihood of needing to also repurchase Windows is going to tip it to "just buy a new PC, and this time I'm going to be telling you what to get" (or to "we're getting the new PC for you and will migrate whatever files you had").

 

[Diggs]

I never use recovery media... full of their boatware crap along with it.

Dude - Many consumers have come to rely on some of that bloatware. Personally, not my call to delete crapware without discussing with the customer. Sure, I may turn off Dell's customer satisfaction survey software on a 4 year old laptop, but you never know what little piece of factory software the customer has grown to like and now can't live without. Seen it too many times.

 

[pcpete]

Dude - Many consumers have come to rely on some of that bloatware. Personally, not my call to delete crapware without discussing with the customer. Sure, I may turn off Dell's customer satisfaction survey software on a 4 year old laptop, but you never know what little piece of factory software the customer has grown to like and now can't live without. Seen it too many times.

That is true and your point is valid. With that said in several years whenever we have done a nuke and pave we use a clean image install and blow the recovery partition out. 99% of the time it has not been an issue. In our opinion the benefit of uniform processes and speed of reloads far out weighs any negative of missing bloat ware.

 

[cypress]

That is true and your point is valid. With that said in several years whenever we have done a nuke and pave we use a clean image install and blow the recovery partition out. 99% of the time it has not been an issue. In our opinion the benefit of uniform processes and speed of reloads far out weighs any negative of missing bloat ware.

Sometimes I will sit down with the client and go over the "bloatware" 99% of the time they don't even know what it is. I remove as part of the Tune up and never had an issue. I generally also check the Add/Remove programs to see when the last time the program was used and if it has been used recently.

 

[Diggs]

That is true and your point is valid. With that said in several years whenever we have done a nuke and pave we use a clean image install and blow the recovery partition out. 99% of the time it has not been an issue. In our opinion the benefit of uniform processes and speed of reloads far out weighs any negative of missing bloat ware.

Why would you blow out the recovery partition? Drives today are so huge the space isn't needed. You provide media then?

 

[MichaelBits]

Haven't had a complaint about missing bloatware yet. At most, the only part of the bloatware that would get used is the annoying dvd player software. Which can be done by windows without it.
Most bloatware just eats up resources, gives crap support popups, and nags about registrations and updates to itself.

 

[Moltuae]

Bloatware can usually be sourced from the manufacturer's website. If a customer insists they need their bloatware back, even after you've explained why it's bad, it can easily be re-installed.

 

[Diggs]

Bloatware can usually be sourced from the manufacturer's website. If a customer insists they need their bloatware back, even after you've explained why it's bad, it can easily be re-installed.

Agreed, but that is more time, another trip or remote session from me and another hassle. If the bloatware is unobtrusive (or can be made that way), and CPU sits at 0-2% (total) with no memory shortage I've just started to leave it unless I discuss removing things with the customer first and even then they don't know it until it's gone. Been bitten too many times especially when I can't download that outdated piece of crapware they just have to have... (but that's just me - am I being too cynical?)

 

[pcpete]

Why would you blow out the recovery partition? Drives today are so huge the space isn't needed. You provide media then?

We do it for simplicity. As far as I know there is no way of doing an image installation without changing the mbr and rendering the recovery partition useless. We do not give media. It is not a perfect solution but it allows for greater efficiency and keeps costs down.

 

[16bwhitt]

Hey guys- Been lurking around this thread for sometime now, and the way I learned how to do a fresh install is to use a DVD, boot from it, then wait days for updates to install and download. Obviously this is the least effective way. WSUS offline seems to be the solution for it.

Another question I have about is if your doing several a year, do you make the customer buy a Windows 7 disk? How do you guys manage that, legally? Certainly there must be a more effective way then making each customer (or myself) buy a disk and wait for it to come in.

And my last question is data backups. Data backups are the most important, no doubt. But what do you guys use to backup the data with? External HDD? DVD's? Do you use the built in Windows backup and restore feature?

Thanks.

 

[NJW]

Why would you blow out the recovery partition?

Because you'll never want to go back to a snapshot of Windows from 3+ (conservative estimate) years ago – it's of no practical use.

 

[Diggs]

I don't care about the snapshot of Windows, how do you handle the licensing issue without media and without a recovery partition. What am I missing?

 

[Porthos]

As far as I know there is no way of doing an image installation without changing the mbr and rendering the recovery partition useless.

There is no easy way.

We do not give media.

Win 8 and 10 media can be obtaind by the client for free from MS if they want it. But is it not wht the client came to you instead of fixing it them selves?

how do you handle the licensing issue without media and without a recovery partition. What am I missing?

You don't attempt to do this job if you don't have sufficient media to deal with it. Speaking from a residential standpoint if the client knew how to use a recovery partition why are you talking to them in the first place?

If you want to charge your client the time or for the media and if its available from the MFG, go ahead and see how much work you get.

Recovery partitions (current) can be made by you many ways if you want to make them.

 

[Geoffsplace]

Not sure if I should bother hunting down a 32 bit installer but at least I know how to do it. Next step for me is figure out the slip streaming thing with current updates.

I use an All versions Install DVD which has both 64 and 32 bit versions of ALL versions of windows 7, you just choose the version that you have the key for on the machine your working on.

rgds
Syb

 

[bword]

So im getting somewhere..I made a any dvd successfully and also made one on a usb stick.

Now my next challenge to get updates on a Anydvd on a bootable USB stick.

 

[bword]

I attempted to create a Anydvd with the updates and got some kind of error about missing files...so close

 

[bword]

Key questions...

If I have to do a fresh install on a Win 7 machine would I be able to use the key on the box? Im talking about using the generic Win 7 install NOT the OEM install discs.