[Normy]

Here's an interesting tidbit-

Recently, the hard drive on my Vaio died an ugly, squealing death. I managed to get all the data off of the old drive, save for some two years of house pictures [!$#@%^&*!]. I took the laptop to a shop in Fort Lauderdale near my house, and the technician there was able to transfer the data and replace the hard drive. While I was in his shop, I noticed that he was selling Lenovo's. During conversation, I asked him about various computers. Here's his rundown:

1. Apple: They think they have something different, but they don't. OS is indeed a little easier to use, but their computers are NO better quality than any other computer. Apples are more about style than anything else.

2. Sony Vaio: Same as above, but with Windows.

3. Dell: Great customer service...and they need it-!

4. Lenovo: No better quality than anything else, but Lenovo uses standard components and more importantly....standard software.

This is where my Vaio had all SORTS of problems after I had it rebuilt. I didn't have a Sony Vaio recovery disk [my bad], which is something I should have made after I bought the thing. The disk allows you to re-install the Vaio-specific Windows XP components so that your computer will work. It seems that Sony uses proprietary CD/DVD software, and even has their OWN tailored version of Windows XP! This is where the problem came. He installed a new drive and initially installed his own standard XP and some DVD software that he used and enjoyed on his own computer. The problem is...they weren't compatible with anything that Sony originally developed.

Problem: I was prepared for a hard drive failure: I have a home-based backup drive that keeps all my data. As soon as I got the empty laptop home, I hooked it up to my back up and asked the backup to reinstall all my data. And it did just that, including a bunch of Sony bundled software that came with the original hard drive...

::sounds of squealing tires and then a big CRASH!::

Yep. She shut down COMPLETELY! Wouldn't do anything at all. It worked fine for a day or so, but waited until I was away out flying in Baton Rouge when it happened. Dammit!

Back to the laptop shop: The guy that owned the place managed to get ahold of a Vaio disk for my computer, and was able to rebuild the whole XP and software suite.

-From what he has told me, he sells [and uses exclusively] Lenovo laptops because Lenovo doesn't play any games like this. Their software is generic and if the drive crashes, you simply reinstall everything from outside disks and the machine works just fine. They don't have any proprietary software.

[Least...that's what I've been told...]

N!