Reinstalling Windows 7

NewApproach

My hard drive failed this evening and I have no recovery cd.

Assuming they are generic, if I can get my hands on one is it just a case of replacing the old hard drive with a new one, putting in the cd and following the options? Is it difficult? I had a licensed copy of Win 7 with the purchase of the laptop but nothing to show for it bar a sticked on the back.

holcus

There should be a sticker on the bottom of your laptop with windows 7 license.
If you have or planning to get windows 7 genuine installation disk it's just booting from DVD and following on screen instructions.

It's getting more complex if you don't want to buy another windows copy and want to install windows with already purchased license key which was shipped together with your PC.

NewApproach

Yeah I have the sticker. Seemingly the license details are stored on the motherboard so all I need to do is install windows7. How do I go about this? Is it a recovery disk I need or something else? I rang dell who said I couldn't use any generic disk but instead must purchase one off them for 25 euro. Not sure whether or not to believe them.

Fysh

NewApproach wrote: »

Yeah I have the sticker. Seemingly the license details are stored on the motherboard so all I need to do is install windows7. How do I go about this? Is it a recovery disk I need or something else? I rang dell who said I couldn't use any generic disk but instead must purchase one off them for 25 euro. Not sure whether or not to believe them.

That's not quite right - the licence you've got is an OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) licence, and it costs less than a retail licence because it is tied to the motherboard. The terms of the licence forbid you from transferring it to a different computer. You can, however, reinstall on that computer as often as you like.

You'll need full installation media - Dell's reinstall media is usually pre-activated which saves you a bit of hassle. You don't have to use their media, though your licence key may not work if you use non-Dell media - installation media is customised for a specific distribution channel, and retail channel media won't necessarily work with OEM channel licence keys. This used to be a bigger problem though some folk claim they've had success using retail media for OEM licence reinstalls...

Voodu Child

You can install an OEM version of Windows 7 just by getting a retail version, browsing into it and modifying the cfg.ie file. Its just a text file and it tells the installer what version to install as.

If you change it so it installs as the version that you have a licence for (ie OEM, probably Home Premium etc) then everything is above board and it should validate with your licence key.

The instructions are online, all you need is to get a lend of a retail DVD, alternatively you can download the isos from a couple of legit sources.

Tbh it is a complete sham that they are allowed to sell computers without reinstall media. If your HDD breaks or you upgrade it most people won't have a clue what to do and end up getting fleeced.

Fysh

Voodu Child wrote: »

You can install an OEM version of Windows 7 just by getting a retail version, browsing into it and modifying the cfg.ie file. Its just a text file and it tells the installer what version to install as.

If you change it so it installs as the version that you have a licence for (ie OEM, probably Home Premium etc) then everything is above board and it should validate with your licence key.

The instructions are online, all you need is to get a lend of a retail DVD, alternatively you can download the isos from a couple of legit sources.

I've not done it myself and from what I can see Microsoft don't offer advice on how to do it, so it's one of those grey areas that personally I'd avoid if an alternative was available without having to spend money.

Voodu Child wrote: »

Tbh it is a complete sham that they are allowed to sell computers without reinstall media. If your HDD breaks or you upgrade it most people won't have a clue what to do and end up getting fleeced.

Agreed 100%. To this day I don't understand why any computer vendor doesn't just factor in an extra tenner or whatever into the cost of the machine and provide reinstall media as standard - whatever they make in selling copies to people like the OP when they're stuck can't be worth the negative impact to their reputation. I know several people who won't buy HP computers having been stung by their old habit of not providing reinstall media and instead requiring you to burn your own, and I'm disappointed to see that Dell's consumer models are continuing the trend (which is silly as they provide reinstall media on the business models at a cost of about £3 per disc, so they've already got the production chain in place...).

NewApproach

Is the recovery disk you are prompted to create what I need so? I ask because someone I know who also has a dell has one.

Does the oem disk also install all the bloaty dell ****e?

Capt'n Midnight

NewApproach wrote: »

Yeah I have the sticker. Seemingly the license details are stored on the motherboard so all I need to do is install windows7. How do I go about this? Is it a recovery disk I need or something else? I rang dell who said I couldn't use any generic disk but instead must purchase one off them for 25 euro. Not sure whether or not to believe them.

The €25 is for the physical disk and handling, with a little gauging throw in.

if it's a system restore disk then you can use pcdecrapifier to remove some of the crud.

Capt'n Midnight

Fysh wrote: »

Agreed 100%. To this day I don't understand why any computer vendor doesn't just factor in an extra tenner or whatever

http://www.usenix.org/events/fast07/tech/schroeder.html

We find that in the field, annual disk replacement rates typically exceed 1%, with 2-4% common and up to 13% observed on some systems.
...
We also find evidence, based on records of disk replacements in the field, that failure rate is not constant with age, and that, rather than a significant infant mortality effect, we see a significant early onset of wear-out degradation. That is, replacement rates in our data grew constantly with age, an effect often assumed not to set in until after a nominal lifetime of 5 years.

I've seen near 50% failure rates by year 3 on some batches of drives in the past.

It's all down to bean counters. Pre pressed CD's can't cost more than a few cent each. But fuzzy on this but do M$ charge OEM's a royalty for imaging CD's or something ?

that 2-4% failure rate is in well treated drives
look up the google study to see that temperature change is a bigger factor than constant temp, home users don't treat drives, esp. in laptops like eggs the way IT peoples do
this doesn't take into account sw reasons to reinstall

I really hate bean counters
this sort of thing devalues brands like they would not believe
I really hate imaging programs that only run once !

at least with physical disks supplied you can ask the user for them and when they don't have them (most don't) the pressure is off you

/RANT

Voodu Child

Fysh wrote: »

I've not done it myself and from what I can see Microsoft don't offer advice on how to do it, so it's one of those grey areas that personally I'd avoid if an alternative was available without having to spend money.

I've done it on a few laptops and an Acer nettop. Same craic, needed to change the HDD and they came with no reinstallation media.

The thing is that you are installing the same type of licence and it is validating with your legit OEM licence key. Im not talking about some kind of dodgy crack or trying to upgrade to a version above what you have. Just a simple text edit that allows you to install the correct version for your licence from any retail ISO.