...or any CD for that matter. Is this common for Toshiba not to send a recovery CD or Windows XP cd? Should I call them and complain?

I would call and find out. I bought a new A70 in Nov04 and had a recovery CD which came with it

I've seen that some of the other new tecra owners have mentioned that you have to burn them from images that are on the HDD.

I gave Toshiba a call the day I made that post and they said there should have been a restore cd that came bundled. So they went ahead and sent me another, they said it should be about 4-5 business days till I get it. Only thing that bugs me is its pretty much an image of what came pre-installed on my Tecra and not just a vanilla XP CD, there was so much bloat-ware on the A4 when I first got it. I'd rather not re-install all that crap again.

The A4 doesnt come with recovery cd's, and some other new models dont as well. There is a utility program in windows "recovery disk creator" which you can burn your own disks. And to access the hidden partition, just hit "0" on bootup and you can recover your computer

Yeah I noticed that hidden partition, but it may be too late since I cleared it out and put Linux on it hehe

Mine, bought in UK, has a recovery DVD with the system as comes out of the box (that's not a Windows XP that you can, just as an example, install in other machines).

If you want a backup of Toshiba's Tools and Utilities (or something like that, with all the programs/utilities/crap [depending on your tastes] that Toshiba added to the 'normal' OS), then you have to burn a CD yourself through an icon on your desktop or in Toshiba's Assist menu. This will allow you to fix/reinstall those utilities without having to restore the whole system to the starting point.

But yours did come with an actual DVD?! Its kind of irritating that they would leave out something like that, I still havent gotten the replacement that they sent in the mail yet.

Well, yes, I did not tried it (and hope I won't) but that's what it says in the front... (remember this is in UK)

Anyway I will have to burn a CD for the backup of "Toshiba's tools and utilities" that may have costed Toshiba how much? $2?

And, finally, you can see here [http://notebookforums.com/showthread...=65426&page=4] that I feel not very happy with what I discovered in the box even when the backup DVD was there...

From your post you gave me the impression that you were misled with what you bought... I got what I paid for and Im happy. Just a little irritated that they didnt include the DVD. If you paid for all those features... why dont you return the laptop and get a new one? Oh and mine does support express cards Its not a fixed plastic lid.

Oh, yes, "misled", you are right. Problem is I don't have a better option for several reasons (my review is almost ready, you will know...), and also that I have invested so much already (some money, but a lot of time) that I [don't want to / can't] go along everything once again.

BTW, confirmed: no Express Cards in Tecra A4 models in the UK by now and at least in the next 4-5 months.