Problems Getting The Correct Recovery CDs From Sony

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McAfee | Kim Novak

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Recovery Disks Are Hard To Get

Subjects > Computers > Hardware > New Pc Missing Recovery Disks

That was then, this is now. Today, if you want manuals for the installed applications, see the files on the hard drive. If you want a manual for Windows XP, dream on-there ain't one.

What followed was one of my typical, African Queen-like adventures to get a brand new system up and running again. On one of the rare occasions when I was actually able to reach Sony by phone, they told me I should have gotten a set of recovery CD-ROMs. I didn't. They said they'd send more. They didn't. Then they said my receipt was "invalid"-didn't show the store ID number. Sent them another copy. They sent the CD-ROMs-which were the wrong ones. Had to do the whole thing over.

Understand, I'm giving you the short form here, and leaving out the emotions, the loose items being thrown around the room, the red face and high blood pressure, the shouting and cursing, and threats of dire consequences. Eventually, I got my disks, and even got the Sony working again-until the next virus attack, at least.

Oh, yeah, I almost forgot: the Sony comes with PC-Cillin, but it didn't detect the Klez virus. I uninstalled it, and bought and installed a copy of McAfee Anti-Virus-once the best known and most highly respected of all virus scanners. It couldn't even update itself successfully.

I'm now using Norton Internet Security, which includes both Norton Firewall and Norton AntiVirus?Create. It seems to work just fine.

Did I mention that all virus writers should burn in hell?

...

In trying to reach someone at Sony, I actually had the experience of wandering about five to seven levels deep in their automated menu system. When I pressed the next button, I heard a pleasant recorded voice say, "Goodbye." Click.

Good luck, also, finding a computer that comes with actual, physical recovery disks, or even more ludicrous, real paper manuals. These days, it's all virtual. In all likelihood, if your manuals exist at all, they are stored on that hard drive that just crashed.

by Jack W. Crenshaw is a senior software engineer at Spectrum-Astro.

For the full story, please see http://www.embedded.com/story/OEG20020625S0042

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