I'd love some help setting up my new hard drive...

[BradyC]

Ok, here's the backstory, you can skip it if you want- I just felt like clarifying.

So I've recently gotten a new hdd, and to make a long story short I don't have the old one but I do have a disk image on an external hard drive. Because I'm a genius I lost my disk copy of windows 7 and neglected to make a reinstall disk or something like that. Because of this, I have to make a recovery disk with an .iso downloaded of the internet. The problem I've encountered with that is that microsoft shut down there old site where you could easily download any .iso all willy-nilly. There new site needs a product key from a retail version of windows 7, which is a problem for me because I have an OEM version of windows which they for some reason don't support. After some searching I found another "verified" site that should have some clean .iso files to download. Now here is where I would love some help;

1. Will there be any issues I need to fix if I burn the recovery disk on a mac? I read some where in yahoo answers that I'd need to change some special lines of code or set up the burn utility some way.

2. Will a standard windows 7 .iso work with my OEM version? I've heard many mixed answers, and would love for you guys to verify.

Thanks! You guys have been so helpful!

 

[jaslion]

Ok, here's the backstory, you can skip it if you want- I just felt like clarifying.

So I've recently gotten a new hdd, and to make a long story short I don't have the old one but I do have a disk image on an external hard drive. Because I'm a genius I lost my disk copy of windows 7 and neglected to make a reinstall disk or something like that. Because of this, I have to make a recovery disk with an .iso downloaded of the internet. The problem I've encountered with that is that microsoft shut down there old site where you could easily download any .iso all willy-nilly. There new site needs a product key from a retail version of windows 7, which is a problem for me because I have an OEM version of windows which they for some reason don't support. After some searching I found another "verified" site that should have some clean .iso files to download. Now here is where I would love some help;

1. Will there be any issues I need to fix if I burn the recovery disk on a mac? I read some where in yahoo answers that I'd need to change some special lines of code or set up the burn utility some way.

2. Will a standard windows 7 .iso work with my OEM version? I've heard many mixed answers, and would love for you guys to verify.

Thanks! You guys have been so helpful!

Burning an image on osx or windows is no different. Also OEM keys work just fine. A windows 7 key is a windows 7 key.

 

[geofelt]

All windows dvd's are the same, differing only in 32 or 64 bit versions.
Your oem key will let you reactivate if you do a clean install on the same motherboard.
Just be careful where you download a iso from. Some may contain malware.
If you can borrow a windows 7 dvd it is safer.

And... This would be an opportune time to convert to a ssd. You will not regret it.

 

[BradyC]

Burning an image on osx or windows is no different. Also OEM keys work just fine. A windows 7 key is a windows 7 key.

Great to know that burning the disk won't be complicated- but I'm not so sure about your second point. After entering the key to their website I got the message "The product key you entered appears to be for software that was pre-installed on a device. Please contact the device manufacturer for software recovery options." And after contacting support I was told that regular iso files aren't always compatible with OEM versions of windows, so they could give one to me (which I'm pretty sure is bs). Never the less I appreciate the help!

 

[BradyC]

All windows dvd's are the same, differing only in 32 or 64 bit versions.
Your oem key will let you reactivate if you do a clean install on the same motherboard.
Just be careful where you download a iso from. Some may contain malware.
If you can borrow a windows 7 dvd it is safer.

And... This would be an opportune time to convert to a ssd. You will not regret it.

Thanks!