[maddog10]

I've got a Dell pc with windows 7 Home premium preinstalled with a dell setup disk. If I reinstall with a downloaded copy of Win 7 Home premium will I be able to use the product key on the box or does that only work with the Dell setup?

 

Thanks

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Since you are downloading the OS from the internet, I advice you to be aware, and only download from sites you trust.

 

As for if the product key will work, It dependes if the OS you downloaded is an OEM version or not.

[ProgramGeeks]

Since you are downloading the OS from the internet, I advice you to be aware, and only download from sites you trust.

 

As for if the product key will work, It dependes if the OS you downloaded is an OEM version or not.

[maddog10]

I reckon the iso will be retail and I'm pretty confident the copy is legit. So it should be a retail copy

[zep516]

See if there is any help Here

I'm not a 100 percent how product keys work, but the link above is where I would download from.

Joe

[ProgramGeeks]

If it is a retail version, you can not use the product key, that product key that is on the box of the dell set up is only for OEM Windows 7 Home Premium.

[Plastic Nev]

Sorry guys but slightly wrong, but only if the the downloaded ISO copy has come from a Microsoft registered site such as Digital River.

This is one of the websites hosting the Digital River Microsoft authorised sites.

 

http://www.heidoc.ne...-download-links

 

If the ISO is downloaded from there, and is of the same version originally installed, then the original product key is good to go. However you may have to ring the Microsoft site on their automatic service to obtain the correct activation code once you have installed the OS.

 

Nev.

[phillpower2]

Nev is correct, as long as the exact same flavour of OS is to be installed there is no need to purchase a new product key, this on the proviso that the original motherboard has not been upgraded, in essence the downloaded ISO is merely a hard copy of the original pre installed OEM software albeit without the integrated Dell diagnostic tools and drivers etc.

 

FWIW: With brand name computers that are shipped with a pre installed OS it is far better to create a back up image of the HDD/partition/s on the HDD as that ensures that the OEM tools and drivers that are required are already present and will not need to be downloaded and installed separately, the latter can be a nightmare as it is very hard to do if the computer concerned has no internet access due to missing drivers etc, fellow member jeffcaissie is having this very problem here

[iammykyl]

Gday.

Is there something wrong with the computer?   Does it fail to Boot?

If you can start the computer, consider this option.

 

[ProgramGeeks]

The way I have been tought product keys was the way I know. Glad that forums is full of nice people! You learn things new everyday. So please diregard my earlier post

[Plastic Nev]

No Problem ProgramGeeks, you weren't far off, and as far as the older Windows XP, Microsoft never did make it possible to obtain a legal download of XP, you had to buy a disk.

 

Regarding backups, providing you have an external hard drive for the purpose, a complete image can be created and put onto the external drive, the complete image will contain everything, the operating system, installed programs and all data.

 

Should the worst happen and the computers hard drive completely fail, and providing you created a rescue disk at the time of making the image, then just fit a new hard drive and install the image off the external hard drive using the rescue disk, and you are back up and running again. It is best to make backup images at regular intervals so as to keep the backups up to date. You can delete previous images, except the last two to be safe.

 

An alternative is to make a complete clone. For this you need a spare internal type hard drive of the same size or larger as your computers hard drive, plus an adapter or other means of connecting the spare drive via USB to the computer. If you have spare SATA connections inside the computer, even better.

A clone is an exact replica of your existing hard drive which is put onto the spare hard drive, in times of trouble, you just remove the drive from the computer and fit the spare in its place and once again you are back up and running.

 

A software that seems to be recommended by most here is the free version of Macrium Reflect, which you can use to either create an image on your external hard drive, or the clone on your spare hard drive.

 

Any further information required for doing any of this, please don't hesitate to ask.

 

Nev.

Edited by Plastic Nev, 03 November 2014 - 09:37 AM.

[iammykyl]

It's been while since we heard from you.   Is you problem sorted or do you still need some help?   An update would be appreciated. 

 

Thanks