Picked up a refurbished computer on boxing day from FShop. I am wondering if something goes wrong and I have to reinstall windows how I am supposed to do it as there is no WINXP CD? I actually have no cd's that came with this thing. Is this normal?

If its a brandname there might be software installed to make system/factory recovery CDs/DVDs. There might be a recovery partition as well on your hard drive.

You could look at the Home Edition of True Image by Acronis to make an image of your system that you could restore from for around $49 USD I think.

http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/products/trueimage/

Many new PCs don't have O/S CDs these days and getting one from the manufacturer costs money. True Image is a good way to go. Make an initial image and also make regular backup images to an external USB hard drive (often on sale for $99.) Automated daily incremental images can be done as well. If the PC has a hidden O/S restore partition, you may also be able to back that up with True Image.

I've seen this on a few brand name PCs. Don't spend money unless you have to. There should be a recovery utility to create an install CD from an image already stored on the hard drive.

As the others said, if it was properly refurbished (ie. by the manufacturer) then there is probably a hidden partition with the restore info. You don't say what brand it is, but check the manufacturer's website for instructions on how to do a restore. They may even provide a way to create your own restore CDs from the hidden paritition. But if not, then make sure you back up the restore partition in case the hard drive fails completely.

I wouldn't be too concerned about the 'media' necessary to install. You can get a buddy to burn you a copy. Your license is the actual sticker that has the product key on it... that's the important thing. It should be stuck to the box somewhere.

I bought a refurbed Compaq this Christmas. Everything is on a recovery partition. Open up My Computer, and you should see your C: drive, and a partition.

And if you ever want to go back to where your computer was when you got it, you can go to Start, Programs, Compaq Tools and select Recovery.

But, what if I just need to reload XP because I accidentally erased some system file? Anyone know what I'm supposed to do, to keep my XP legit.

Thanks for the replies. I checked and it does have a partition. I'll look into the burning an image thing. I didn't go for any extended warranty so I'm a little nervous with the 90 day one. Oh well, the price was decent. I'm spending most of my time getting rid of all of the bundled software and installing the 56 windows updates that needed to be done. Its and HP by the way.

Get a OEM version of the instalation CD (corresponding to the version that was installed - MCe, Home or Pro) from a friend, if nobody has one - employ BitTorent. It works between all the big box makers: Dell, HP, Compaq, Gateway, Toshiba, Sony, Acer. You can go from laptop to desktop or back.

Use the key from the label on the box. If the box doesn't have a sticker with a valid key, ask for it where you bought it (if they refuse - tell them you'll report to MS and/or HP: they will give you a full version if they have to just to keep you quiet).

Unless this particular model includes software you were after, avoid using recovery disks: too much garbage is installed you'll spend more time to get rid off in comparison to finding an OEM disk.

Diogen.

I built my own for 15 years and finally couldn't beat the price/convenience of buying a box, so I went to the dark side and bought a box. Acer.

They dumped the complete I386 folder onto the C: partition, complete with unattend.txt with cd keys inside. I'm sure I can find a way to make it a 'genuine' bootable cd if I look around bootdisk.com but I also did the backup DVD thing, to restore to factory.

I did the same thing... removing all the installed software. Took about an hour to completely remove the Norton VIRUS, had to manually delete most of it from the registry.

I found the same thing, too. A mobo, memory, CPU and case adds up to more than $400 easily. Yet, I could get a refurbished Compaq SR1820NX for $399. It came with 512 ram, an A64 3400+, Lightscribe (whatever) DVD Writer, 160GB HD. Nice looking case. Quiet machine.

If you've got the know-how to build one yourself, then you'd be able to fix any potential "refurbished" problems.