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Story: PC makers find ways to extend XP's life
Other problems
There are faults with both systems, for sure. If you supply software for creating media then you're relying on the customer to purchase blank media and make them. In fact, the first ever PC we bought (OK, my dad bought for me going to uni) came with Windows 3.1 installed... and a program to run to create the install discs. All 16 of them. Of course, we didn't, the system fell over and my dad had to scrounge a new set off someone in work for the weekend.
My laptop came with software to backup the install, but once you have the software on the system it often weighs in at significantly more than a CD's worth of data. Once I'd configured my Acer and ran the backup, it was 4 CDs (couldn't get a DVD burner installed). Not ideal for frequent backups and very time-consuming although it did offer a way of recovering a system to a fully configured environment, not just fresh out of the box. Everything off the C-drive was dumped to disc.
A genuine OS CD is great, though. Anyone can get hold of a freeware disc imaging program that'll dump to CD/DVD. But you need an OS CD for recovery, simple repairs and so on. As such, I think they're invaluable - and I'd have thought cost next to nothing for the manufacturer to include.
My current laptop solution - due to the low price of external HDDs now - is to mirror the entire hard drive every couple of weeks to a similarly-specced external disc via USB. The software I'm using is freeware, works a treat and takes less than an hour (unattended) to mirror 120Mb. Worst case if the internal drive collapses entirely, I just have to swap the drives over - 10 minutes' work at most.
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