LEGAL Windows 7 Download Links (Just like Vista before!!!)

[Hope this thread hasn't gone stale...]

I just got a new G73JW-A1, and I want to do a clean Windows 7 install. I have the Windows 7 DVD that I installed on my deskside PC last fall. I can use that to do the install and just enter the Microsoft activation code that appears on the bottom of my G73JW, right?

- s.west

p.s. My deskside is also a core i7, and it's the Windows 7 64-bit Home Premium DVD.

 

Is it only W7 on there? or does it contain other drivers too? Like a brand name recovery disc, ie from Dell.. toshiba.. etc etc.

It should be fine as long as it has the right version that your key is. Home.. Pro.. 32 or 64bit.

 

Well, now I'm worried, because I looked here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/asus-gaming-notebook-forum/468027-complete-walk-through-doing-clean-windows-7-install-6.html#post6160611. If I read that post correctly, then it won't work...

p.s. In answer to your question, the disk I have is a generic OEM copy of Home Premium that I purchased during the Windows Vista upgrade-to-7-for-$50 promotion...

 

I don't get it, how would it not work? I've called MS and did phone registration "A lot" of times. What are you second guessing about?

 

Good question

As you mention, even if I have problems, I can always call MS and do the phone registration thing...

Thanks, I think I'm confident now.

Also, I'll try the ABR utility (activation backup and restore) mentioned early in this thread. Hopefully, that will keep me from having to call MS.

Thanks, again.

 

This is the wrong thread for this, but as long as I have your ear:

What is the 'hidden' Factory partition? I saw a reference to that elsewhere. Is this what would be accessed if I did an F9 recovery?

This is my first experience with a laptop.

 

what laptop do you have?

At least me for and all other Lenovo users, Lenovo split a 30gb partition and makes it hidden. On this hidden partition is a OE system partition used for a recovery. I guess another way to put it, it's just a ghost of the partition that is originally loaded from factory. So anytime when the computer gets a virus... bluescreen and crashes, or just want to reformat and set back to OE set up; Lenovo provides a program called One Key recovery and we just boot from that hidden partition. Then it'll reformat back to factory just like brand new.

not sure if your laptop provides that or not.

 

It's an ASUS G73JW.

I'm just getting familiar with it (alas I'm at work right now, so I'm not typing these messages on the ASUS, but a work PC).

From my reading I had kinda inferred that the 'hidden' partition was a generic laptop'ism... So I don't even know if my G73 has this feature.

 

ahh okay, yeah I had a g73 for a couple days, before I returned it because it was a lemon. To answer your question, no the g73 does not. So you don't have to worry about a hidden partition

 

Thanks for the helpful info.

Till next time,

- s.west

 

yeah man no problem, gl with the clean install. If you run into any problems, get onto another computer and let us know

 

Well, it turned out that I had something else I could have worried myself about. When I pulled out my Windows 7 disk, it turned out that it was the 'Upgrade from Vista' Windows 7.

but... to make a long story short, it installed without a hitch. I entered the validation code from the bottom of my laptop, and, apparently, the MS Police haven't so much as raised an eyebrow.

So, all done; with a clean copy of Windows 7 on my G73JW.

- s.west

 

nice man glad it worked out. What did you do about your drivers? Did you manually install all of your drivers? Or I did asus give a driver cd? I can't remember if I got one when I had the g73.

 

Yes, the driver CD came with the laptop, and I followed the guidance in http://forum.notebookreview.com/asu...lk-through-doing-clean-windows-7-install.html for procedure and recommendations.

Cheers.

- s.west

 

So when I extract oscdimg.zip folder from the rapidshare it extracts as "oscdimg" instead of "oscdimg.exe" What am I doing wrong?

 

Is it possible to install a 64 bit windows 7 professional with the key they sent me, and 32 bit windows 7 with the key that's under my laptop? The key that's under my laptop is for Windows Vista Home Edition (32bit).

 

So if I understood this right.
The key doesn't care if its x86 or x64. But it does care the upgrade path.
Starter -> Home Basic -> Home Premium -> Professional -> Ultimate.

I'm not sure if Starter and Home Basic contain the Anytime Upgrade.

Anyways..
You are upgrading a Home Premium x86 to Professional x64??
It would not allow you as it would pretty much do a clean install.

 

Ok. I have Win 7 (64bit) and just installed Vista (32bit). Some games don't work under 64 bit.

 

Hi, i'm planning to do this when i get my new laptop to get rid of bloatware, i'm just curious as to whether the iso download method + abr beta will allow me to reactivate without having to phone up microsoft. Thanks

 

Thats odd, I have Win 7 64bit installed and have not found anything it will not run. The 32bit apps run as 32bit and everything else runs 64bit

 

Funny... about a week after I wrote this, I got a message that my copy of Windows needed activating. Fortunately, I had used the ABR program (mentioned elsewhere) to back up my activation before starting the reinstall. I restored it and all has been well since.

- s.west

 

Gah its a good guide, but its too hard for me (I must be lacking) I've trying but it just seems like such a big effort for 5 - 10 seconds faster boot :|

 

I have re-downloaded all the files multiple times, using Internet Download Manager. Every time I try to run the .exe though I get this error:

"The application cannot find one of its required files, possibly because it was unable to create it in the folder. Please make sure that the folder in which this application was downloaded is accessible and not read-only."

The three files are on my desktop currently, and help would be appreciated!

 

Does anyone have the ISO or a download link for this thread for a Chinese (Mandarin) Simplified version of the Windows 7 (32 and 64 Bit) ???????

Thanks

 

Hey everyone just a quick question, I'm upgrading my ThinkPad T410 with an SSD and have decided that it's better (for me) to do a clean install of Windows 7 on it. I wanted to ask: are any external resources I'll need other than the Windows 7 ISO? I have a key on the bottom of my laptop and I'm assuming that I can just use that for the activation, am I correct?

Thanks, Jonathan.

 

Go back a few pages and find the utility that makes a copy of your key file and then installs it in the new install. It saved me when I did a clean install, I could not get the key to enter by hand because of something with the ISO I was using. Put back in the old HDD and did the extraction again put it on a USB then back in with the SSD and did the install key process and it worked just fine.

 

This is not necessary---as long as that key you have is for a legal copy of Windows 7. Just the .iso and the eicfg removal utility are fine. Mine went smoothly by just doing the straight forward install of Windows 7, and then activating AFTER my system was up and running.

And the eicfg utility is just for convenience if you have machines with different legal versions of W7, say a laptop with Home Premium, and a desktop with Ulitmate.

Easy as eating too much pizza!

 

All I have is 2 4.7gb DVD-RW's. Is there a way to split it up between both, or do I need to get a larger USB/DVD?

 

Great post, been looking for a legit iso of win7 without having to get it off bittorrent or some shady site. Never know whats considered "Retail copy" lol.

Thanks!

 

The ISO or its files after expansion will fit on one 4.7gb DVD, no need to split.

 

Mine says it's 5gb and some change. Already tried to write it onto one of my 4.7's and it got filled up and still had a good bit more to go.
64 bit is larger than 32 bit.

 

Sorry you are having problems but there is something wrong with the file you downloaded (or you have something else included in the file you are trying to burn). Your file size is nearly 2X larger than it should be. The English versions of the Windows 7 ISO files are as listed:

Actual sizes may vary slightly due to versions, comments added, modifications, etc.

WIN7x64Retail.iso 3,168,290 KB

Win7x86Retail.iso 2,463,878 KB

Windows reports the size of my W7x64 install DVD as 3,244,328,960 bytes.

Windows reports the size of my W7x86 install DVD as 2,523,011,072 bytes.

I have each version on a single 4.7gb DVD only with lots of room to spare. I also have each version on 4gb USB flash drives.

 

Ah, I think I see what I did wrong. Thanks.

 

I used the one file method on the OP, removed the ei.cfg file, and burned the ISO to a DVD (using Win7's Windows Explorer). The problem is my machine will NOT boot from the disk. After repeated failures, I burned the ISO to another DVD but it still will NOT boot from that disk. Thinking my PC was the problem, checked my boot order in the Bios and everything is good. I inserted the Acronis boot disk and my PC booted properly. I put the ISO disk back in and my PC still would not boot from it. I then tried to boot a different PC from the Win7 ISO disks and that machine will not boot from them too. This means something must be wrong with the disks.

Any suggestions?

EDIT: Nevermind, I found the solution - The Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool

 

I used the one-file download process -- downloaded the ISO, ran the utility to remove the ei.cfg file, and then used the MS download tool to burn the ISO to a USB drive.

When installing, I do not have an option to pick a version, it goes straight into loading Home Professional. Any idea what I might have done wrong?


Thanks!

 

That ei.cfg remover doesn't really remove it. At least it didn't on mine. It said it did, but after burning the .iso and installing from a disc, my installation never prompted me to pick the version either. I checked the disc, and the ei.cfg file was still there.

I then used the Microsoft USB tool to make a bootable USB drive and manually deleted the file and installed the correct version that way.

 

Manual removal is the 'for sure' way to remove the file. Keep in mind that the first time you run the ei.cfg remover it removes the file, if you run it a second time it puts it back. So you get an alternate remove, unremove. If you execute the removal file several times you will lose track of removed or not.

 

im gonna be using a usb too since my bd rom is acting up.
how do i use this ms download tool?

 

Make sure you are running the removal utility with admin rights.

 

Hi,

Not tried myself, but I think I could do with these instructions from MS:
Installing Windows 7 on a netbook
and
Microsoft Store: Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool Help

Some multimedia instructions:
Use a USB Key to Install Windows 7?Even on a Netbook
Installing Win7 using a USB Stick | TechNet Edge
USB Installation of Windows 7

Michael

 

This was extremely helpful. Thank you for taking the time to create this thread and process!

 

I successfully did a clean install of Win7 on a laptop that came preinstalled with Win7. Is it possible to use my newly created Win7 installation disk and the product key from that laptop to upgrade an older WinXP machine to the same version of Win7? I'm thinking NO but I figured I'd throw the question out there.

 

Not legally. Plus, the product key would be tied to the brand of laptop it came from and probably wouldn't be accepted by the XP machine at all, and even if it was it would more than likely be kicked back as invalid when you tried to activate it.

 

Well, it's one product key to one computer running Win7. If Sjamie has spare product key but no disc, yes, it'll work perfectly fine.

 

Downloaded and installed the 64-bit and 32-bit version of Windows 7... Removed the file, installed Windows 7 Professional perfectly! Thanks for the links.

 

Is it cheaper to just buy a "legal" product key than buying a retail Win7 installation disk w/ key? If so, where does one legally buy just a product key?

 

Is there a way to dump both 32 bit and 64 bit onto one DVD and then be able to choose what version you'd want to install? I sure can't find a way to do it.

 

What should this be good for?
You would need a Dual Layer disc which has a few disadvantages (apart from price) over Single Layer discs:
- most DL blank media is considered unreliable
- most drives read DL media slower than SL discs

Even MS did not want to sell the retail versions of Win7 on a DL disc.

That said, using two SL discs is easier.

In theory, such should be possible as some OEMs offer their customers the choice which flavour of Windows they want to install (from the recovery partition).

Michael

 

Double sided DVD could be an option

 

Finally, burn the ISO, boot it, and install (you can also put it onto a usb flash drive/hard drive using the microsoft tool to save a disc: https://store.microsoft.com/Help/ISO-Tool )


what does it mean when he says boot it?

does this look like this

1. download ISO method files
2. run the ei.cfg file remover and target the ISO
4. burn the iso.....

so boot it is like the burn the iso?

one last thing is recovery disk is same as this?

and its okay to go for the reformat or clean install of pc/laptop