Cloning and Owning

[Monsta®]

Thats ok threegee, i was only kidding!

I've seen me spend over 6 hours uninstalling, cleaning up and setting up an "out of the box - ready to go" laptop!

At least it subsidises the cost of the thing so we get them cheaper. I'd gladly spend those 6 hours rather than another £100+ for a blank hard drive and a copy of XP.

what you've wasted 6 hours for what? how much space did you actually manage to free up and was it actually worth the 6 hours off your life?

sounds like skin flint syndrome! why buy another copy of xp just ghost it!

[threegee]

...but it's not "skinflint syndrome" to rip off a copy of a non-public-domain O/S rather than do it legaly or sort of legaly (=legaly acquiring a licence sticker)?

Stange world!

Stealing the DVD - intrinsic value and cost to produce circa 10p - would be theft, whereas simply stealing the software - cost to produce several pounds, and retail value and loss to the author circa £50 - isn't theft?

Even stranger world!

[Mr Darn]

what you've wasted 6 hours for what? how much space did you actually manage to free up and was it actually worth the 6 hours off your life?

sounds like skin flint syndrome! why buy another copy of xp just ghost it!

It wasn't space i acquired, it was speed and less bloat.

Removing (properly) all the things that come with a new computer takes time, then there's the new AntiVirus to install and run (because i wont have Norton on any of my machines). Then there's the windows updates to download and install (In XP's case this could take 6 hours alone, if you don't have the SP disks) not to mention the installation of whatever is required for the end user (Open office, Nero etc).

6 hours is actually quite a good timeframe!

[Monsta®]

...but it's not "skinflint syndrome" to rip off a copy of a non-public-domain O/S rather than do it legaly or sort of legaly (=legaly acquiring a licence sticker)?

Stange world!

Stealing the DVD - intrinsic value and cost to produce circa 10p - would be theft, whereas simply stealing the software - cost to produce several pounds, and retail value and loss to the author circa £50 - isn't theft?

Even stranger world!

since when is ghosting a legal copy illegal! think you just jumped to the conclusion that i meant why buy when you can steal! when i didn't i meant just ghost the operating system already installed to save buying a copy of xp! there are some good ghosting software just don't use norton argh!

must be all that sun your getting on your 14.99 holiday!

[Monsta®]

It wasn't space i acquired, it was speed and less bloat.

Removing (properly) all the things that come with a new computer takes time, then there's the new AntiVirus to install and run (because i wont have Norton on any of my machines). Then there's the windows updates to download and install (In XP's case this could take 6 hours alone, if you don't have the SP disks) not to mention the installation of whatever is required for the end user (Open office, Nero etc).

6 hours is actually quite a good timeframe!

and thats why i hate xp!

[threegee]

You'll hate Windoze 7 too, once it acquires 2697 patches to patch over patches over patches. But that's all part of the game of luring you into buying Windoze 8 - which will turn out to be another dud. Not only politicians bet their future on people having short memories!

Define "ghosting"? I can't find it in my glossary of Micro$oft approved terms.

BTW £14.99 (plus airport taxes) is a lot to pay for the indignity of being herded by Mr Michael O'Leary's underpaid staff. Sometimes I think I'm being ripped off at £0.00. Scratch cards - anyone?

[Monsta®]

You'll hate Windoze 7 too, once it acquires 2697 patches to patch over patches over patches. But that's all part of the game of luring you into buying Windoze 8 - which will turn out to be another dud. Not only politicians bet their future on people having short memories!

Define "ghosting"? I can't find it in my glossary of Micro$oft approved terms.

BTW £14.99 (plus airport taxes) is a lot to pay for the indignity of being herded by Mr Michael O'Leary's underpaid staff. Sometimes I think I'm being ripped off at £0.00. Scratch cards - anyone?

I love windows 7 miles better than vista or xp, ok it has one or two compatability problems but its fast, smooth and looks great. and since i was a beta tester i got a coupon for money off!

ghosting its a way off making an exact copy of your hard drive so saving time on installs and comes from the norton ghost series. only i prefer other versions such as acronis etc.

14.99 and you have a reason to complain! you couldn't send 4 post cards for that!

[threegee]

Oh THAT Ghost!

Hey, I was running Norton Ghost before he was a spectre, or even Norton branded. It was authored by someone else. I forget who Symantec bought it from, but he/they were a small European outfit with limited English, and I remember paying them about £65 for a copy - which, at the time, seemed like a bargain!

Acronis has been the only way to go since at least 2000. Cloned dozens of hard drives and helped me get several people out of jams. I've got an old Acronis Disk Director too. But I've never upgraded it as the Linux partitioning utilities do a perfect job on Windoze partitions, and it was ...ummm... slightly unstable.