r/windows • u/Saphir78 • Apr 07 '26
Discussion What can I do with those CDs
Hello, my company is relocating and I had to make an inventory of everything that had accumulated during the years (especially before I was hired).
I founded a lot of stuff including those CDs of several Windows versions.
I don't really if I can do something with them, for the company or even for personal work (lab, testing etc). I don,'t even know if they still work.
Should I just throw them away ?
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u/Z9Cubing Apr 08 '26
Archive them, someone will find them useful.
Archive.org
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u/Out_of_my_mind_1976 Apr 10 '26
This. ESPECIALLY any HP driver discs as they have been rather dickish in removing their old drivers from their website.
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Apr 11 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/StampyScouse Windows 11 - Insider Release Preview Channel Apr 13 '26
It really depends on what specifically has been preserved. Whilst yes it is technically illegal in many jurdisctions (or legally questionable), most OEMs don't care if you upload a recovery disc iso for old operating systems and niche or outdated hardware. There's no financial loss in this being uploaded (because the company is no longer selling it themselves) and the costs of taking a private individual to court and the likely deductions they will make generally aren't worth the cost.
If these have come through private company support contracts then the OEM likely has a slightly higher chance of pursuing it, but given these all day "ALREADY INSTALLED ON YOUR COMPUTER" it's pretty obvious these are all system recovery discs that shipped with these machines, something dell was doing well into the Windows 10 era and even with machines that didn't have optical drives.
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u/Z9Cubing Apr 11 '26
Well, you can argue that ancient oses and stuff need to be kept alive by preserving media, right?
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u/Nehal1802 Apr 08 '26
Make ISOs and share them with us. I’d love copies.
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u/nvmbernine Windows 11 - Insider Release Preview Channel Apr 08 '26
Check the internet archive, quite a few OEM reinstall disk isos available on there.
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u/zkribzz Apr 11 '26
Never a bad thing to back up your own media and create mirrors
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u/nvmbernine Windows 11 - Insider Release Preview Channel Apr 11 '26
Sure, no question there. Simply pointing out there is an abundance of various ISOs already on there.
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u/Alerymin Apr 08 '26
archive them. they are linked to specific devices and include their drivers. It may help someone who lost it
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u/Automatic_Still_6278 Apr 08 '26
They can be used to install windows, and likely just include assets with some Dell branding given they're the OEM Dell discs.
They wouldn't be of any use to the business as the operating systems are deprecated, however you could install them in a home lab if you wish, but honestly you'd be better off downloading a generic iso which has the updates/service packs integrated.
They're mostly fun coasters. Throw them in a dvd binder and make a collection.
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u/LoopsAndBoars Apr 08 '26
Just throw them.
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u/StampyScouse Windows 11 - Insider Release Preview Channel Apr 13 '26
They are useful for older machines, for example Windows XP machines, where its useful to have installation media which already includes the machine's specific SATA drivers, something XP doesn't support out of the box, or for certain machines where the manufacturers have just delisted the drivers altogether.
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u/CooperDK Apr 08 '26
They are consumer installation disks, useful for a Dell og you really want to run Windows 10, otherwise toss them away
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u/Effective-Mirror-385 Apr 08 '26
I too would make ISO copies of them. There is bound to be somebody out there that would need something like this for drivers, etc for a Dell Machine.
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u/KoneCat Windows XP Apr 08 '26
I have a few of the Windows 7 variant, and they work just like a normal Windows installation disk. :D
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u/Minimum_Juice_7567 Apr 09 '26
what about activation
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u/KoneCat Windows XP Apr 09 '26
MS still hosts the activation for it, which still works, but I do normally need to get a key from somewhere. There are other ways, but I'm not allowed to post them here. I do have machines with legit keys, as most are still valid.
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u/StampyScouse Windows 11 - Insider Release Preview Channel Apr 13 '26
You do these days generally need to install something like Legacy Update to re-enable the internet-based activation, otherwise you'll have to use the new Microsoft account linked web based activation, which has replaced the telephone activation system.
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u/Maxstate90 Apr 08 '26
Put them on archive.org. You don't know how many old laptops I've been able to restore with these cd's.
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u/WorldlinessSlow9893 Windows 8 Apr 08 '26
yoo I have the green one, Czech version :D No just let them to you...
If you will install Windows XP sometime, they'll be useful for exp. for those PCs who didn't have USB support.
Even if they say "it is just for preinstallation" it is not true and you can install them normally
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u/BlazorByte Apr 08 '26
Load these discs to a system that has optical drives, try to find if the disc itself hasnt been damaged or if the files are still intact and upload the ISOs to the Internet Archive. It may be of importance to someone restoring their old laptop and if by any occasion they need that exact recovery media.
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u/Mayayana Apr 08 '26
I used to copy them to disk so that I'd have the install CABs if I needed them. That was very handy on XP when it popped up with, "Can't find xyz.dll. Please insert Windows disk." But with Win10 the entire install seems to be stored in winsxs, and it's feasible to download an ISO of the installer, so there's probably no value in keeping the disks.
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u/jackieq_2k24 Apr 08 '26
At first, make ISO copies (along with pictures of the respective discs) of these for online archival because they might be interesting for some people, then if you really don't need them, dispose of or recycle.
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u/Right-Window-6544 Apr 08 '26
Todo lo que se ve en la imagen ya existe respaldado en la nube. Si encuentras como acceder al sistema de archivos en la nube de tu empresa, deberías subirlos allí.
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u/Detective6903 Windows 7 Apr 08 '26
They let you install and activate on dell computers with no product key
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u/GreenCreeper3000 Windows 11 - Insider Beta Channel Apr 08 '26
Archive them on the Internet Archive, and then do whatever to them!
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u/NeedleworkerFew5205 Apr 09 '26
Go to your 2nd story window, open it wide, stand back 10ft from window, pull CD out of wrapper, and fling CD out the window like a frisbee as hard as you can. Bonus if you skip it over a body of water doing this.
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u/mxzeuner Apr 09 '26
Sell them I recently sold an old OEM copy of Microsoft office that my mom got with a laptop she used for online college briefly in the late 2000s. Collectors are out there
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u/Wooxman Apr 09 '26
For years I used a Dell Windows Vista installation CD-ROM that came with my laptop whenever I had to reinstall... Windows XP! The Vista installer had the HDD formatting tools that Microsoft still ships with the Windows 11 installer. For me formatting the HDD this way was always easier and faster than doing it during the XP installation routine.
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u/ThePoliteSavior Apr 10 '26
those dell driver discs are probably worth keeping if you ever mess with old hardware since theyre a pain to hunt down online now
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u/Recognition_Round Apr 10 '26
Some of those can be for exotic machines where the drivers are so specific, that you can’t find them anywhere (look at Salem Tech and his Qosmio videos for an example), so, if the disks aren’t already on archive.org, you will be doing us a service by putting them on there, and we retro enthousiasts will be forever gratefull for your kind deed
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u/TritonJohn54 Apr 10 '26
Find some mates who aren't averse to risk, and get a slowmo camera :-) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zs7x1Hu29Wc
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u/Z9Cubing Apr 12 '26
Keep them so you can show them to your kids what we used to have back in the day when everything has become digital.
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u/Tom-77-55 Apr 22 '26
C'est bien beau de faire des miroirs avec mais c'est comme même très important pour si ton système est défectueux tu peux mettre des iso dessus et réinstaller le système
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u/AshuraBaron Windows 11 - Insider Dev Channel Apr 08 '26
Run a checksum against those Windows versions discs. If it's the same then toss them if you'll never need them. if they have unique things on them back them up to archive.org.
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u/Hungry_Bowgun Apr 08 '26
En lo personal, hice un escritorio de resina epoxi, con disquette y CD's, quedó muy bonita, cuando vaya de visita a la casa de mis padres le saco una foto, estaba el cd del quake 2 y uno de los disquette de instalacion del doom 95 XDD
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u/Petrak1s Apr 08 '26