Trying to obtain Windows install disk from HP

[thumphre]

I recently purchased a HP dv9005 laptop and I want to partition the hard drive to organize my fles and make defragging and backing up files easier. I hace done some research on this and I understand the best way to do this is to reformat the hard drive and use 3rd party partition software to create virtual drives on my my C: drive.

The computer is brand new and I already only 67GB of the 100GB HD is available because of all the junk that HP bundled with the computer a a virtual D: drive used for system recovery. I have already created recovery DVD-R's and I wish to go ahead and reformat but I believe that I need a full version of Wiindows XP media center edition installation disks in order to re-install the OS after I reformat.

I read elsewhere that if I contact HP tech support that they would provide the install disks, but I just got offline with a technician that told me HP would not give out the disks and I would have to purchase a retail version. I don't want to shell out the money for a windows license because I already purchased one packaged with the computer!

I was wondering if anyone else has had a similar situation with HP or any one else and if it was resolved or not?

Also any recomendations on good partitioning software and how to label/organize the partitions would be appreciated


Thanks
-Tom

[glc]

Nope, all they will sell you is a set of recovery disks if you lose the ones you made.

I'd recommend you just leave it alone and use it the way it came. Uninstall the preinstalled junk you don't want.

[edfair]

It is possible that you can use part of the recovery disk to store stuff. But on this one it requires me to be at the command line.
This is an older system so the requirements may be different but the recovery drive is about 5gb with XPH and 1 gb free.
It took a lot less time to delete the unneeded stuff than to try a reinstall. But I'm not critical on space and decided to live with one big drive.