Windows used to put a COA on your system when you purchased your computer, and they gave you a disk as well in case you had to reload and use your COA (Certificate of Authenticity)...
Then Microsoft stopped putting a COA on the machine and the MFG gave you a proprietary disk for the machine that you could reload off of...
Then they both stopped giving you the disk and the COA altogether and started loading the system with what the industry called a "Preload"...
That's when things got interesting because if you had to replace your hard drive you would have to buy the operating system along with the Hard Drive which pissed a lot of people off...
It pissed them off because when they bought the system it was sold as a system that came with the Operating System and now they're being made to purchase a 100 dollar OS...
Then they began to work with the public by providing a reload Disk that you had to Purchase for 25.00, but this was worse because the disk always left the machine slow after installation or it didn't work at all...
It began to be one of the worst times for computer manufactures and because of this dysfunctional era the Clone PC started to become quite popular...
Considering that the customer had to buy a new OS anyway, and reload onto an old system which didn't run as well as a custom made machine, the sell was easy...
The sell was even easier because MFG computers were proprietary and a lot of imbedded components that couldn't be replaced, but Custom made machines didn't have this problem...
Even if you decided to keep the old MFG system the Motherboard alone would cost you as much as a new Custom Made machine would, but the MFG would always be slower and again, an easy sell...
Now fast forward to today...
Systems are still being loaded with a Preload and Custom made machines are just as popular as before and the MFG machines are still proprietary and Custom Made machines are still faster...
However, it doesn't matter because both of these systems have a place in society, one is considered a work machine and the other a gaming machine...
The MFG machines are the corporate choice because the warranty is on the entire system, so if a problem existed with the system they just replace the system...
The Customer made machines have a warranty on the entire system, but with so many different manufacturers in the Custom Made machine each part has a different type of warranty...
On a Custom made machine you typically just replace the component(s) that went bad which means the user has to be technically inclined, which is exactly why Corporations just buy MFG machines...
However, without any further adieu the reason why we are here is because of the Preloaded Operating Systems on MFG systems...
If you have a system with a Preloaded OS and your hard drive has to be replaced that means you'll lose the preload which means the system you purchased with the "So Called" OS will be no more...
Now it gets tricky, let's say your system came with Windows 7 and you took advantage of the Free Upgrade to Windows 10, well if you have to reload your system you'll be going back to Windows 7...
If your system came with Windows 7 and you have to reinstall on a New Hard Drive you'll lose your ability to reload your operating system altogether because you don't have a key...
You can reinstall on a New Hard Drive providing you purchase an Operating System which would be Windows 10, but now you have a new problem...
Your system that came with Windows 7 that was upgraded to Windows 10 for free was a more forgiving OS and it came with the drivers for your system, but if it's 5 years old your chances are 50/50 at best the OS will have the drivers needed for your legacy machine...
Windows 10 Home 64 bit is around 99.00 and the Windows 10 Professional 64 bit is around 160.00 and a new hard drive is about 50 dollars...
The smallest Hard Drive you can get now is a Terabyte hard drive, so unless your downloading a lot of music or movies on your hard drive, you'll never use that much space, but it is what it is...
So your choice is to purchase a 50/50 chance or buy a new system altogether, the 50/50 chance is the cheapest bet if it works (200.00) w/labor, but if you're not a betting person you'll need to buy a new system...
However, this cloud has a silver lining if your system came preloaded with Windows 10 or even Windows 8...
Around 2015 MFG's started loading the COA into the BIOS on the Motherboard so if you had to replace your hard drive it wouldn't matter, but...they don't give you a disk...
This is where it gets tricky again...
If you know someone with a Win 10 Disk you can use it, but if you don't know anyone with a Disk you'll be forced to go out and buy a disk 99/160 dollars, but technically you now have two licenses...
Technically because you have a license that's preloaded on your machine and a license that comes with the disk, so if you want you can try that 50/50 machine and if you get lucky you'll have two computers...
You'll also have to buy a disk that your system came with, so if your system came with Home you'll need a Home Disk, or if your system came with Pro you'll need a Pro disk...
The funny thing is Microsoft, Dell, HP, and all the Clone Makers can't understand why computer sales are down...
The other funny thing was is that Computers were here to make life simpler, but nothing could be further from the truth...
Computers like Cars are easy if you're a Technician or a Mechanic, otherwise they're just a money pit for the rest...
So if you're having the problems that we just described in this blog hopefully we have shed some light on some possible solutions for you...
No comments:
Post a Comment