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philipkoo2

41 Posts

8450

August 25th, 2007 00:00

Purchase Windows Vista Ultimate with OEM software and drivers?

I rely on my notebook a lot (Inspiron E1505), and it is very time-consuming if I need to reinstall Windows. I have a licence for Vista Ultimate since Home Premium doesn't have everything I want. If my OS is somehow corrupted, I would have to install Home Premium again, then Ultimate again. I want to get Ultimate with all of the OEM software and drivers, so where can I get it?

mombodog

12.7K Posts

August 25th, 2007 00:00

If you have Ultimate installed, it has a backup tool that creates a full image of the installation at the time you run it.
 
Start/All Programs/Accessories/System Tools/Backup Status and Configuration, on the let side when it opens there is "Complete PC Backup"
 
You must save the image to another hard drive, you can do several complete backups over a period of time if you wish, and when restoring you can choose a complete restore date.
 
When disaster strikes, boot of of the ultimate DVD and do a repair, it will restore the drive in 10-30 minutes depending on how much data is there.
 
 
 
http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/tutorials/tutorial144.html  How to restore using Complete PC Restore
 
 
This is something completely different than System Restore.
 
 
Restoring using Complete PC Restore will wipe any data you saved from the time you made your last backup to the time you restore.
 
There are other features in the backup and restore center, check them out.

mombodog

12.7K Posts

August 25th, 2007 01:00

P.S.
 
In case of a hard drive failure, I suggest replacing it with one of the same size if planning on using Vista Complete PC Restore.
 
What I ran into, I made an image of my installation 130gb partition, I repartitioned by Hard drive to a smaller size of 40gb for Vista to run on, then I tried to restore the image to the new smaller partition, I would not let me do it, some sort of volume size error. Not sure if you can go bigger in size, I will try it when i get time.

mombodog

12.7K Posts

August 25th, 2007 03:00

C3PO5, does it format the drive to 160? or create a 160gb partition?

C3PO5

2.7K Posts

August 25th, 2007 03:00

Hi momdodog
It will work if you put it on a bigger drive have been there and did that !!
But the image is still the same size ie 160 gb shows up as 160 on
a 350 gb hard drive but it can be expanded to the full size of the
new 350 hard drive.
See Yea
 

C3PO5

2.7K Posts

August 25th, 2007 04:00

Hi mom
It does both it formats the hole drive but just makes a 160 gb partition
the rest is unallocated space that it can expand to.
If a person is using the retail version of Vista i would just
expand it in small steps spared over time that way Vista does
not think it is a new hard drive and need to be re activated.
If you know what i mean on that !
 

mombodog

12.7K Posts

August 25th, 2007 04:00

Good to know, thanks again!

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