Windows 7 Product Key

He wants to do a clean install. He does not want to use the HP recovery disks which make the recovery partition.

Whether or not the computer has a recovery partition does not affect the price of the computer.

This depends on who is placing value on the recovery partition. I know people that will not even look at the computer unless it has a recovery partition. This would suggest some value.

Agreed 100%! If it is a computer with Windows 7, and I was considering buying it, not having that partition would turn me away, especially if it was OEM from the factory. That's not hard to lookup.

This is my humble opinion:

Recovery partitions are for those who basically have no computer knowledge or skills. The reason the computer makers started putting recovery partitions on the systems was because people would lose the install disk or call support every time they screwed something up.

The recovery partition is superfluous. If you build your own system, Windows 7 doesn't install one, does it? No it doesn't. If you're smart enough to build and install a system then one does not need a recovery partition.

I don't disagree with you on this at all, but the fact is, most people expect a recently built computer to come the way it did to the first owner. Among other things, that includes a recovery partition. Actually, I don't know how long they have been included with the system. Must have began with Vista, I never seen one on XP. But it was a brilliant idea. Just as a reinstall disc, you don't have to enter the OS serial number. Should your DVD player go down, you can still start over. I have both, my recovery discs and recovery partition. But Nibiru, I want to ask you something. Those backup discs from Digital River. Can you reinstall, using your serial that came with the computer, and format everything, so the "crapware" isn't there at all? One other thing: Did it occur to you that the PC makers can now hire minimum wage workers and they automatically tell the customer to press F11 at startup, in order to save THEM millions of dollars in wages?

HP were making hidden partitions in 1995 Cat.

I've heard of hidden partitions before, but didn't know their purpose. Is that why even though you have a 100GB hard drive, only 93GB is usable? Is that the partition that when you insert your reinstall disc and boot, you don't have to enter a serial to complete the install? If so, I've done that over a hundred times. And if that's so, how do you access the partition yourself?

The hidden partition could be accessed with the system disks, and in some cases the Motherboard, HDD was tattooed with a code by HP.

Yes, you can.

Yes, that's true also. This is designed to appeal to the broadest, lowest common denominator.