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On 13/10/2010 20:30, Rob Beard wrote:
Fair enough. In my case it was a system bought on Ebay - not a custom build - with a retail Win7 Pro disc. That plus I knew in advance the exact hardware - listed in the auction - so I could hunt down drivers online with my old system prior to install. The old 6P Principle :)On 13/10/10 11:53, Julian Hall wrote:On 13/10/2010 10:40, Gordon Henderson wrote:Sometimes really hard to beat pre-built deals though, but the issue you'll then have is that of doing a Windows install from scratch which I hear is harder then Linux these days...Actually Win7 Pro was a doddle to install - seller would have installed and tested whatever OS I wanted but I'd already got the install media. Shove the disk in and tell it to get on with it - only pause was to tell it the region (UK). Personally I'd like Windows install to be more like Linux and allow more customisation of file locations, e.g. My Documents, Program Files etc. With Linux provided you've been sensible with the /home location etc you don't need to reinstall every single program if you reinstall the OS. With Windows it's rare to find a program you *don't* have to reinstall.As fast as you can afford. Set a budget... And you might find that "green" 1TB drives are only a few quid more...1Tb Samsung from Ebuyer - £40. JulianHmmm... I'm not convinced about Windows 7 being a doddle to install in all cases. Sure if you've got a machine which has been built to your spec and you have a standard OEM Windows 7 disc with CD key which has been activated to the machine (or a retail disc, upgrade disc) then it's reasonably easy.However... if you have say a branded machine with restore disc (Acer, HP etc) and want to do a clean install of Windows 7 (or Vista/XP) then it can be a pain. Mainly because the restore images generally come with a load of junkware (Norton or McAfee Anti-Virus, Office 2010 Trial etc). If you try and use a standard OEM or retail disc you'd probably find it wouldn't work, certainly with XP, although it's easier to get round with Vista and Windows 7. This is because the machines activate against the machine BIOS (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/System_Locked_Preinstallation for more info).There are ways of getting around this, with a google search for SLP you should be able to find the details.Oh and that offer on the hard drives from eBuyer is tempting. You do have to enter the code HDDSAVER on checkout to get the discount price.Rob
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