Originally Posted By: Dignan
I was talking about the home user, who is bombarded with preinstalled software and left to hang when their hard disk fails, having to wait for a recovery disc to be shipped to them.

The HP and Sony laptops I've used all had the ability to create a set of recovery discs from the hidden partition on the HD. Whilst it is a hassle to have to do it, it still beats having to order one at cost. Some users might not know that it is important or even necessary to do this however.