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Win7 licensing question

MichaelD

MichaelD

Lifer
The hard drive in one of my laptops died and I don't have a system image stored. 🙁 I will replace the HD.

The laptop came with Win7 Home Premium but no recovery DVD. There was a recovery partition on the HD but the HD is dead, so it's a moot point. I believe the license key sticker is on the bottom of the laptop though.

I own 3 copies of Win7 Ultimate and they are all in use. Can I somehow buy a new retail key online and use that key to activate a new installation using one of my three Win7 Ultimate DVDs, or is the key physically tied to the DVD itself? Hope I explained that correctly.

I need to get the laptop up and running ASAP. Don't have time to wait for a new copy of Win7 in the mail and I'm not paying twice the price to buy a copy at BestBuy or something.

Thanks.
 
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Thanks for the reply. The problem is that I have no Win7 Home Premium media. I have 3 legal copies of Ultimate, but all 3 keys are in use. If I try to activate Ultimate with a Home Premium key it won't work. But you're right; I could just load up Ultimate and wait to activate until I purchase a key...that's if the key is not physically tied to DVD (still not sure about that).

I can't access that link from work, unfortunately. Does it offer downloads of Win7? Is that legal?
 
MichaelD said:
Thanks for the reply. The problem is that I have no Win7 Home Premium media. I have 3 legal copies of Ultimate, but all 3 keys are in use. If I try to activate Ultimate with a Home Premium key it won't work. But you're right; I could just load up Ultimate and wait to activate until I purchase a key...that's if the key is not physically tied to DVD (still not sure about that).

I can't access that link from work, unfortunately. Does it offer downloads of Win7? Is that legal?
Click to expand...

Legal ISO's from Microsoft via Digitalriver, a company Microsoft contracts out to for content hosting. Website supplied just has the urls listed for convenience

Home Premium ISO are there.
If your laptop came with windows7 home premium then the key on the bottom should work. If not just call up the manufacturer and explain the situation.
 
Nice! Thanks, pauldun170 and vtx1300. Those ISO downloads are exactly what I need; don't have to buy another copy of Win7 now! I had no idea that stuff was even online. I appreciate the help. 🙂:thumbsup:
 
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Thanks for the tip, but the issue is that I have no disc. The laptop came without a recovery DVD, and the HD is dead. Downloading the .iso is my only choice unless I want to buy another license/copy of Win7.
 
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I was referring to using your Ultimate DVD to make a universal DVD, thus allowing to install Home Premium.
 
Aaannd just to be thorough, I recalled that it is also possible to downgrade editions. I did so from Ultimate to Professional when a license purchased via eBay was invalidated after a year or so (it was a cheap extended trial at least).

Of course, the target or universal version (of same instruction set) is still required but in such case where in a hurry to get a system up and running and only having the higher version on hand (or wanting to try it out), it can be installed without wasting that effort (run as trial, then downgrade, and activate).

http://www.mydigitallife.info/hack-...ate-or-professional-to-less-premium-editions/

http://mp7000.deviantart.com/art/Windows-7-Enterprise-Downgrade-159805048
 
Just wanted to say that the .iso's from Digital River are the best thing since sliced bread. SP1 already integrated (saves an hour+ of upgrading time) and loading from a USB stick is just tops. 😎 I can't see ever using my Win7 DVDs ever again.
 
MichaelD said:
Just wanted to say that the .iso's from Digital River are the best thing since sliced bread. SP1 already integrated (saves an hour+ of upgrading time) and loading from a USB stick is just tops. 😎 I can't see ever using my Win7 DVDs ever again.
Click to expand...

And the bonus is to using the usb stick method is it is super easy to make it a universal disk by deleting the ei.cfg file. as others have mentioned.
 
MichaelD said:
Just wanted to say that the .iso's from Digital River are the best thing since sliced bread. SP1 already integrated (saves an hour+ of upgrading time) and loading from a USB stick is just tops. 😎 I can't see ever using my Win7 DVDs ever again.
Click to expand...

Are you all set? Did you get everything installed and activated?
 
pauldun170 said:
Are you all set? Did you get everything installed and activated?
Click to expand...

Yup, installed easy. Online Activation was not successful; I had to call and use the automated system where you punch in the 9 sets of numbers but that went well. SP1 was already integrated so that limited the number of Windows Updates I had to install. Thanks again. 😎
 
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