Windows 7 OEM - Can you get the original DVD?

Totality · 3 Apr 2010 at 21:06

I have a laptop that came with Windows 7 home premium installed. It allows you to create recovery discs but then if you need to recover the machine it will install all the crapware again which I have taken ages to get rid of!

I'm assuming that I now have a licence to run Windows 7 home premium as OEM but is there anywhere I can get a plain copy of windows that will work with the licence so I can just wipe the drive and recovery partition and install a nice clean version?

I miss the old days when buying a machine meant you received a proper OEM version of the OS so you could simply wipe it and put that on

SnoozE · 3 Apr 2010 at 21:17

You could try something like Driveimage XML

Get rid of all the bloatware then create an image of your drive with this on an external drive.

Then you can format your current lappy drive into 1 partition as you want and reimage it with your your OS as you want it.

Totality · 3 Apr 2010 at 22:04

Ahh I don't have an optical drive as of yet. It's the Acer 1810tz ultra portable so no DVD drive! Made me laugh when the popup said dont forget to burn the recovery discs when it's not even possible. It has the standard recovery partition but I want to just reformat and remove it.

I've read online that you can get the standard ISO for Windows 7, edit a file to make it OEM then use your key to reinstall. I have a normal version of Windows 7 so I may have to give that a go. Doesn't look like there's any other choice!

darkwildchild79 · 4 Apr 2010 at 16:53

lol, well that is what you call generic software... try using acronis true image, i used it to back my system back to when i first do my install/drivers

Mujja · 4 Apr 2010 at 17:04

the file you edit in the iso makes all versions available during install. the key you use mames it oem or retail.

you can install from a usb disk if you dont have a optical drive. i'll email you a link to a guide later.

Totality · 9 Apr 2010 at 14:13

Mujja said:
the file you edit in the iso makes all versions available during install. the key you use mames it oem or retail.

you can install from a usb disk if you dont have a optical drive. i'll email you a link to a guide later.

If you could post the guide for which file to edit that would be cool as it would help others. I already know how to install via ISO so that part is OK.

The laptop also came with 64-bit windows but only has 3GB of ram! I would prefer 32-bit for program compatability so is it possible to downgrade to a 32-bit version? I can easily just install a full version from Technet as I'm a subscriber, but would like to just use the licence that came with the laptop! The licence on the back doesn't say 32-bit or 64-bit.