Win 7 Preinstalled Reinstall?

Tayl

Tayl

VIP Member
Hey all.

Been debating on removing the installation of Windows 7 that came on my laptop when I purchased it however, with the laptop that I bought I wasn't provided with any software CD's at all. Now, I want to plonk a Linux distribution on my laptop yet there might be a possibility that I may need to resort back to Windows 7 at some point down the line.

Anyone know of a way to reinstall Windows 7 onto my laptop without the main install CD's? I mean, I assume that with purchasing the laptop with the Windows 7 installation on it I have, in fact, purchased a license to have Windows 7 itself too? So how on earth would I go about reinstalling Windows 7 on my laptop with my legal CD key that was provided with the laptop yet with no CD's?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Regards,

Tayl.
 
Easiest way is to create a complete image of your system install using W7 own tools for this, and image it to a partition or out to DVD's.

At any time you could revert to W7 with all programs and drivers.
 
Yeah that did cross my mind but I didn't really want to have to pay anything extra.

TFT, have you used that feature yourself before? I've done a bit of googling on it and it seems exactly what I am after. Although none of them stated the size of the image, nor how long it normally takes to create them. Any idea?

I plan to give it a shot later on this afternoon.
 
Well when I first installed W7, installed AV, got connected and updated windows I used W7's image backup. I have a 500G c: drive and I imaged the system onto my 250G d: drive, if my memory serves me it only took about 20 minutes and less than 20G of space.
I then made a rescue disc when prompted in case you ever run into problems where windows won't boot and let you restore the saved image.
 
Didn't read the whole thread, but you could always dual-boot so you don't lose your W7 installation and you can easily switch between the two when necessary.
 
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