[PLUG] Restoring the original netbook OS when no media supplied

[Eric House]

> > [wiping hard drive was a ] Big mistake.  The device does not ship
> > with any recovery media.  Worse, Samsung doesn't make disks
> > available (doesn't even sell them), and won't honor the warranty
> > on the device unless it's running the software it shipped with.
> > (I didn't ask what happens if you have a virus that wipes your
> > drive, having already admitted that I'd wiped mine on-purpose.)
> > There was nothing in the packaging to tell me I was losing the
> > warranty -- but that's not really my problem because Costco has a
> > great return policy. :-)
> >
> > That said, I'd rather keep the device if I can set it up to dual-boot
> > to keep the warranty intact.  If not, consider yourselves warned away
> > from an otherwise excellent product.  I wonder how much Samsung's
> > saving much by not including recovery media (as, e.g., Acer does on
> > similar products I've purchased).

> -I have not in my experience heard or seen a netbook, which has no optical
> drive, including any kind of restore media.
> The only one I have actually purchased myself is an Acer Aspire One, but I
> have seen and worked on several others.
> Mine came with WinXP, and no restore media.  (It is dual boot WinXP and
> Fedora now)

I bought an Asus eeeBox -- a netbook in effect but packaged for
desktop use with external monitor and keyboard/mouse -- in Nov. '08
and it came with restore media, though it had no optical drive.
Googling for help resolving my problem I found lots of folks talking
about borrowing external drives to use with their restore media.

I work for a smartphone manufacturer, and even we provide downloadable
tools that when run from a desktop computer will allow users to
restore a bricked phone.  We are in a better position than Samsung
because we own our OS -- we don't need to accomodate MS's piracy
paranoia in our quest to reduce our customer service call volume --
but at the least Samsung needs to be upfront about what actions void
their warranty.  The damned thing has PXE-boot built into the BIOS or
ROM: boot it on a network and it goes looking for an OS to install.
Clearly at some point in the design process they had a recovery option
planned.  But now the policy has changed.

(My spouse, a Lewis & Clark Law grad, suspects their warranty refusal
wouldn't survive a challenge.  I'm not challenging it, however, as
getting a refund from Costco takes a lot less of my time.  It's a
shame, though, as this is a sweet Linux netbook: everything, down to
suspend/resume and wifi, works with all-FOSS software.)

> IMHO, for similar price as it used to cost to include restore media, the
> manufacturers might include a USB flash drive with restore media on it, or
> at least a recovery partition with some kind of automated "install to flash
> drive" type option.

Or a DVD with an .exe on it that run under Windows makes the thumb
drive you supply into a booable installer.  Many of us could write
such an app in a few days.  As a customer I wouldn't object to
spending $20 on a thumb drive to recover from my f*ckup.  But having
no options at all isn't acceptable.

> -NEVER admit you wiped it yourself to the techs.... ;)  Just say a friend
> was messing around with it, and contracted a mean ole virus.

Too late for that.  I started with Costco's (excellent, BTW)
"concierge" service and figured I could be honest with them since we
both knew I had the option of a no-questions-asked refund.  It had not
occurred to me that Samsung wouldn't have recovery disks available at
any price.

> -There are guides on the net out there for putting a Win7 installer on a USB
> flash drive.  If you can get a copy of Win7, you can put it on a flash drive
> and install from that.  You could use for ex. Parted (or Gparted or Qparted)
> and create a blank partition at the beginning of the drive for Win7, moving
> the Linux partitions down.

I may still try this.  Have I mentioned I like this thing? :-)

> This won't solve your problem, but I am curious. The last several laptop 
> type computers that friends have purchased did not include recovery 
> media. One of the first tasks for the purchaser was to make it. Was that 
> the situation with your Samsung? Or have things gotten even screwier?

I bought a consumer-grade PC from HP a couple of years ago that
required me to burn backup DVDs if I wanted them.  IIRC, the software
limited me to one set of DVDs.  The "customization" phase of ordering
a consumer-grade laptop from HP currently offers restore media as a
$19 option.  OTOH, I just bought a Dell Latitude (commercial-grade
line) that came with a Windows 7 install disk that's happily worked on
the new hard drive installed *and* inside Virtual Box under Ubuntu.  I
suspect the slim margins on the consumer side of the business force
all sorts of gambles.  Given the effect on margins of fielding phone
calls, gambles is what they are.

BTW, I bought my Latitude from outlet.dell.com after that option was
suggested on this list.  Thanks!

--Eric
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