13-06-2006, 07:55 AM
There are many pc distributors who now sell pc's without the accompanying cd. I bought one myself, in fact, from Comet.
I feel like I've an important piece of clothing missing without it, but have been using the pc for 2 years now with no probs. There is a protected copy of the installation on my hard disk but if that goes I will have nothing to reinstall from. This pc was boxed and sealed by HP. I guess it does help to stop illegal copying of the operating system, but I still find it annoying.
Sounds like you managed to reinstall ok tho'?
Are you sure you lost everything?
If you didn't format your disk during the process the chances are that all your files and stuff will be still be lying around somewhere....
You applications will also still be on the hard disk, but you won't be able to run them because your shortcuts will be missing and more importantly your registry settings for them will not exist.
Have a look in c:\documents and settings and see what users are there. You may find your old data stuffed in a directory within here.
To complete the tidy up you may could browse c:\program files and remove directories for applications that you no longer use. (NB. only delete the ones that you recognise...)
Ade
I feel like I've an important piece of clothing missing without it, but have been using the pc for 2 years now with no probs. There is a protected copy of the installation on my hard disk but if that goes I will have nothing to reinstall from. This pc was boxed and sealed by HP. I guess it does help to stop illegal copying of the operating system, but I still find it annoying.
Sounds like you managed to reinstall ok tho'?
Are you sure you lost everything?
If you didn't format your disk during the process the chances are that all your files and stuff will be still be lying around somewhere....
You applications will also still be on the hard disk, but you won't be able to run them because your shortcuts will be missing and more importantly your registry settings for them will not exist.
Have a look in c:\documents and settings and see what users are there. You may find your old data stuffed in a directory within here.
To complete the tidy up you may could browse c:\program files and remove directories for applications that you no longer use. (NB. only delete the ones that you recognise...)
Ade