> One time I was trying to restore a virus-infested HP, and accidentally
> deleted the restore partition (I was in a paranoid frame of mind, and it
> looked suspicious). Had to pay $45 or so to HP for the restore CD + FedEx
> overnight charges (this wasn't my PC and we were flying home in a few days).

Having the CD doesn't always help totally :-).
On my 1st ever visit to China I met my client for the 1st time in
person in Qingdao, which is across the gulf to the West of  Seoul in
Korea. So he came via Seoul. While in the airport he used their WiFi.
Their system downloaded a driver which subsequently scrambled his
laptop system badly. It happens that this is/was a known bug/feature
of the combination of the  WiFi hardware in use there and the laptop
chipset/motherboard :-(. ie "just using" the WiFi system will damage
some laptops!

After the hotel IT man helped him fix it it was terminally  scrambled
so I had a go. I got his system going OK with no file loss BUT
in the process my PC caught something nasty - probably from the hotel
system. The PC was usable but was badly walking wounded - had to be
fixed. I can't remember the detail of why I didn't do a full clean
reformat and rebuild - I had the required XP disks with me and a
backup portable HDD. But for whatever reason I tried to reinstall /
repair / remove etc. The nasty proved especially intractable. From
Qingdao I went to Beijing for 2 days and then to Hong Kong for a few
days more. I finally got rid of the greebly in Hong Kong but AFAIR -
along the way I did a complete XP install about 8 times :-). Plus lots
of hunting down, safe mode deleting etc. Each night I'd set an alarm
for the time I estimated uSoft would need for the next step & drop off
to sleep until needed. Fortunately I can go to sleep in about 3
minutes and  get a degree of refreshement from even 2 minutes asleep.
(DTTAH).

I now travel with a MUCH more secure firewall etc  than I had then. No
problems anywhere since. So far.

2. Most systems I've seen allow you to make a backup set of CDs from
the boot partition.

3.  Absolute $ is irrelevant - it's % that counts (although  I'm happy
with absolute $ in the hand as well :-) ).

> margins -- so I can understand why the manufacturer may choose to not
> include a CD (it costs money to stamp out a few million units).

Retail/Factory cost typically lies in 4:1 - 5:1 range for Chinese made
goods. BUT it may well be that eg HP aim for much lower or much higher
deep-ending on the target. eg inkjet printers may cost about 1:1
delivered-cost:retail $.

But for say a $600 laptop, say 5:1 = $120 cost.
Cost of stamping, packing etc CD should be cents I'd think (having no
real world feel for  the real figures. Even at 10 cents that's
1:1200 or ~= 0.08% of end cost. "
Most people" may not care, but their support people probably do, and
many would care in due course if they knew the implications.

All the 0.08%s do add up, but given the long term importance I'd think
it worthwhile due to the VAST future worth to the customer [tm].
VFWTTC is something that Hewlett Packard cared much about. Despite the
vague resemblance between the two companies, HP don't appear to.

People here were offering a FREE "upgrade" (where have I heard that
before?) to Windows 7 with PCs etc bought during a ceertain period.
Free it may have been but the handling fees and media cost etc were
typically in the $30 - $50 range. "Don't be evil (yeah right)" seems
to be catching on.



   Russell
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