[kantoya]

I have a Gateway netbook which does not have a CD drive. I have had this for three years and although I have backed up my data files to an external hard drive, I have never made a recovery disk, and since I don't have a CD drive I don't know how to do this. My netbook came with Windows 7 already installed.

My husband has the Windows 7 CD that came with his laptop, so is it possible to copy that CD onto my external drive and use this to reinstall Windows 7 O.S. should my netbook's hard drive ever gets totally corrupted such that I would have to reformat it?

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Hello kantoya,

Welcome to Geekstogo.

The link below takes you to Gateway support and instructions on how to restore your machine to factory settings. This is the same as reformatting. Care needs to be exercised because all your personal files/data will be erased. You need to back up all the data you want to keep before to proceed. No doubt you are already doing that with your external hard drive.

Check the link out and see if the pictures/instructions make sense when you refer to your own machine.

http://support.gatew...515910su9.shtml

[emeraldnzl]

Hello kantoya,

Welcome to Geekstogo.

The link below takes you to Gateway support and instructions on how to restore your machine to factory settings. This is the same as reformatting. Care needs to be exercised because all your personal files/data will be erased. You need to back up all the data you want to keep before to proceed. No doubt you are already doing that with your external hard drive.

Check the link out and see if the pictures/instructions make sense when you refer to your own machine.

http://support.gatew...515910su9.shtml

[kantoya]

Hi Emeraldnzlacked

Many thanks for your reply. I know that facility exists, and is OK if, any reason, having backed up all my data, I need to wipe the hard drive clean.

However, supposing my hard drive gets totally corrupted, of just crashes and needs to be reformatted, how to I reinstall windows without a CD drive?

[Wolfeymole]

Your husband has an OEM version of Windows 7 which is tied to his machine.

You cannot use his disk to reinstall Windows 7 to your Netbook via any method.

[phillpower2]

Hello kantoya

You will need to use a USB device, some information suggesting one method which will require a USB memory stick that has a minimum of a 4GB storage capacity + the 25 digit product key for the OS that is installed on the HDD, this may be found on the base of the netbook or inside the battery compartment, please ensure that you have an alternative record of the product code written down and kept in a safe place, if you do not presently have the product key I suggest that you obtain it using Belarc Advisor

Next you will need the Windows 7 USB/DVD download tool

Then download a Windows 7 ISO fromHere

Hope this helps.

[kantoya]

Hi Phillpower2, Many thanks for that.

[phillpower2]

You are most welcome kantoya