"Ed Cryer" wrote

|
| It's the only way to get back to "ex factory" state.

I understand that. But that can also be done by
making a disk image. I would then clean it up and
install software, before imaging, but if people like
an HP logo on their desktop then that's fine, too.

A disk image is also safer and simpler. If you
leave the restore partition and the separate system
boot partition then if the hard disk dies you've
lost everything. And if you want to put in a
new hard disk you're stuck with Pete's problem:
A convoluted system of unnecessary, interdependent
partitions that have to all be copied as-is.

With disk images there's no risk if the disk dies
and there can be as much backup of the images
as desired.