New computers have NO recovery disk?

[benali72]

Thanks for the links and the background on activation. If I read it correctly, I could have image-copied the small disk to a larger one and had no problem (just as Richardk said). Good to know!

[Richardk]

I don't know if it works across all 'recent' versions of Windows but an image copy onto a new disk was very easy. I suppose as mentioned, the 'score card' didn't change enough to require activation.

[DarkHumour]

It's a minor "cheat":
if you have (let's say Dell) a recovery disk and you save the i386 folder to a network share.  If you know the internal preactivation key you could establish that as an install point for *any* Dell computer (not just the specific model). 

I've only worked with a few different Dell models where I currently work but a single key works for all of them.

DarkHumour

[Walter Mitty]

Speaking of NO recovery disk...

I bought a netbook a little while ago, with no CD drive.  I like it that way.  It came with instructions,  I think, for how to make a jump drive for recovery.  I don't want to tie up a jump drive for this purpose.

Is there a way I can make the jump drive,  then back up the jump drive to CD (on another computer, natch), and then, when needed use this for recovery?  Or even better, what I'd like to do is put the recovery info elsewhere on the LAN. 

Any suggestions?

[pxsant]

It is easier to get an inexpensive ($50 - $75) USB DVD writer and use that to create a recovery CD or DVD.  They are very small (1/2" thick or so) and can be put away when not in use.  You may need a portable USB DVD/CD reader at some point to install additional software anyway.

If you really wanted to you could create a bootable recovery USB flash drive (jump drive) but why bother.  I would feel safer with a bootable CD I could stick on a shelf until needed.

[Walter Mitty]

I wish I could just use the cd drive on a networked computer as if it were an outboard CD drive.  Why don'ty they enable that?

[pxsant]

I wish I could just use the cd drive on a networked computer as if it were an outboard CD drive.  Why don'ty they enable that?

You can map to a CD drive on a network (assuming it is shared on the other system and the CD/DVD unit is a writer) if you want to create a recovery CD.  I do it all the time.  But to do an actual recovery using the CD you made, you would need a local CD which you can boot from.  You will eventually need a USB CD/DVD drive so why not spend the $60 and just get one.

[The Gorn]

You will eventually need a USB CD/DVD drive so why not spend the $60 and just get one.

Originally this fork of the conversation started with Walter Mitty asking if there was a reasonable alternative to a "jump drive".

Large capacity thumb drives like 8 to 32 GB are dirt cheap Wal-Mart items any more. I just purchased a 8 GB "micro SD" memory card for my phone for $16 from Amazon. Thumb drives will be even cheaper per GB because they are more plentiful and not as miniaturized.

If the laptop software directly supports the creation of backup media to this kind of device, by far this is simpler than either using an outboard DVD writer drive or mapping across the network to a writer drive.

Also, another benefit of this is that flash drives are much more reliable. I have had DVDs and CDs that are coasters. You just never know until you really need to use it.

IMO...

[Walter Mitty]

Gorn,

Thanks.

What's the difference between a "jump drive" and a "thumb drive"?  I figure it's just alternative names for the same thing.  But sometimes, when I figure these things out by intuition, I get them wrong.

[The Gorn]

I wondered the same thing. "JumpDrive" is Lexar's proprietary term for their thumb drive devices. If you mean the little memory keys that plug into the USB port, we are talking about exactly the same thing.

[Walter Mitty]

I wondered the same thing. "JumpDrive" is Lexar's proprietary term for their thumb drive devices. If you mean the little memory keys that plug into the USB port, we are talking about exactly the same thing.

Arrrgh.  The MIT (Meaningless Infinity of Terminology) just gets worse and worse.    I'll never get to the point where I know who "owns" I given term.  Heck, I even think that "kleenex" is a generic term for a paper handkerchief!

[The Gorn]

Agreed. A tool like Google is almost essential to penetrate modern colloquialisms. They change literally at internet speed today. That's where I found out that JumpDrive is Lexar's brand name.