Factory Recovery Discs

[supermaltese]

I bought two Gateway NV53A laptop notebooks at Best Buy a few days ago. The first thing I did was make the backup recovery discs using one of them. They are both the exact same configuration down to every p and q. Do I need to make recovery discs for the other one or will the same set work on both?

 

[mibix19]

You will need to make a separate set for each of them. They can be tied into the bios on the motherboard and look for a match before installing.(although this is not always the case, it is better to be safe)

 

[supermaltese]

Thanks. That is disappointing though. I suppose it's a deal the manufacturers have made with cd and dvd makers to sell more discs. Funny. Thanks though.

 

[supermaltese]

I like the info by your name...ya know, the Windows 3.1 stuff. Was that your first computer? My first computer was an IBM 8088 XT, 4.7 Mhz. It had a 40 Meg HD and I think like 256k onboard ram. The ram was not upgradeable. It had a 5 1/4" floppy drive and no drive B:, though that model had the option for a second one. It did not have a GUI though it did have a DOS batch file menu with shortcut batch files 1 through like 42 maybe. It was a lot of fun. DOS 3.3. I learned GW Basic programming. I was like 7 or 8 years old.

It was such a thrill to get a 386 DX 33 and Windows 3.11 for Workgroups.

 

[w7pro]

Thanks. That is disappointing though. I suppose it's a deal the manufacturers have made with cd and dvd makers to sell more discs. Funny. Thanks though.

It is kind of a pain, but they can come in handy. I've had to use them in the past.

-- Ryan
Windows Outreach Team

 

[mibix19]

Yes. Them were the days. Like you said lots of fun but very unforgiving if you did not write the syntax exactly in dos. I think the disc being tied, is a deal with Microsoft to stop using any recovery disc on any pc.

 

[supermaltese]

As long as there's a resistence, there will always be a rebellion. I vote Windows/Microsoft take the reigns back from Linux and make their software free...
LIKE IT SHOULD BE!!!

 

[hang-the-9]

Thanks. That is disappointing though. I suppose it's a deal the manufacturers have made with cd and dvd makers to sell more discs. Funny. Thanks though.

I really really really doubt that they want you to make separate DVDs becuase they made a deal with all of the DVD manufacturers to have you buy more DVDs. In fact, unless the Windows key code is burned into the recovery media when you make it, you should be able to make one set and use it on both. But why not make 2 sets in case one gets damaged anyway? 95% of the people don't even know to make a media restore set in case their hard drive fails, you're already ahead of the game. Spend an extra .50 cents on a second DVD and make sure you're set.

 

[supermaltese]

Best answer selected by supermaltese.

 

[Zoron]

If the laptops are identical, then only one set of discs will suffice. If they were different, then that would be a different story. Technically, you could use ANY Gateway recovery media on those laptops... the problem comes in with drivers. You could even use XP recovery media... though again, that pesky driver thing might prevent it from working.

Main point though is that only one set of discs is absolutely necessary... though having another set in case one gets damaged isn't a bad idea.

 

[mibix19]

Thanks for the vote. Have fun