Creating a Backup Recovery Media using a Recovery Folder that is copied to a different HardDisk?

Hi Guys,

Well let me explain you in brief.

01. I had bought HP Envy 4 Sleekbook with Windows 7 Home Basic. And copied the recovery folder from recovery partition to a different hard disk without creating a recovery media!

02. Later upgraded to Windows 8 Pro. And deleted all the partitions and installed on a fresh partition without taking a backup of Windows 7.

03.After trying to install Linux (dual boot) everything crashed. And now I have no other way but to reinstall again (as I didn't create windows 8 recovery disk also)

But the problem now is..

01. My Windows 8 Upgrade key is not working for a fresh installation.

02. So I assume that if I install my old windows 7 & re-do Windows 8 upgrade again my win 8 product key will work.

03. But as I had not created recovery media, is it possible to extract/create a recovery media from then recovery file copied to another hard disk (the folder though has 2-3 files in it, when I check the folder size it is 17.4GB). So is it possible to create from it?

04. If YES how? And if NO is there any other option to get my windows 8 without buying it again?

05. And if I install windows 7 freshly by downloading it from Microsoft and enter my OEM Product Key of Windows 7, will it work?

Please help me, as I'm completely stuck!