Where to download Windows 7 ? (1 Viewer)

[Gregg Loewen]

hi guys

My Lenovo laptop's hard drive is ready to die. I want to install and new drive and do a fresh install of windows. Problem is I don't have the w7 disc that came with the laptop (not sure it came with one?).
I do have the windows 7 Microsoft code on the bottom of the laptop.

I have been trying to google but cant seem to find my answer to the question:

Where can I find a link to down load Windows 7 ?

TIA

Gregg

 

[Clinton McClure]

You should be able to download from Digital River. http://forum.notebookreview.com/windows-os-software/604187-legal-download-digitalriver-windows-7-sp1-13-languages.html

 

[Patrick_S]

You can purchase the Recovery discs from Lenovo. In this day and age it is really important to make the recovery discs when you get a new computer since they rarely provide you with physical discs these days.

 

[Gregg Loewen]

hi guys

I just wanted to do a follow up. I did contact Lenovo and they wanted $45 plus shipping for the recovery CDs.

Being sold on ebay for $30.

I also found a few online sites that will do an iso download for $20.

I did a bit more googling and found out that my laptop has a "thinkvantage" button / software. After attaching an external DVD-R drive i used the thinkvantage button and was able to burn a boot disc, then the w7 discs, and all the drivers!! Very cool. Good work Lenovo!

All is good.

 

[Patrick_S]

That's great news.$45 to get you the discs, that is just crazy, glad to see you were able to recover without having to spend the money.

 

[Clinton McClure]

Lenovo did a little forward thinking with that tool. Glad you got it all worked out Gregg.

 

[schan1269]

I'll tag along with this one(unless there is traction for its own thread)...

I have an elder XP laptop that will need Vista or 7(don't think it meets the requirements of 8) by April...

Has anybody done this...or is everybody chucking the computers...???

 

[Stan]

Not adding much to this thread, but bought an HP Pavilion dv6 about a year ago. Had to rebuild it once, the "D" drive had everything for me to start over. You lose your "C" drive, but everything else starts from scratch. Brand new "C" drive, followed by zillion updates, then just add your personal software.

Hopefully you've got backups of things.

I'll take the advice of people on this thread, I never got discs with my install, just the "D" drive partition which doesn't help much if your hard drive croaks.

 

[Dennis Nicholls]

I'll take the advice of people on this thread, I never got discs with my install, just the "D" drive partition which doesn't help much if your hard drive croaks.

Win 7 has an amazing amount of backup software built in. I bought a cheap second HD for my desktop and the system is set up to do a weekly mirror backup to drive D. The D drive is bootable. I've already restored a couple of times from the D drive. But Win 7 also permits building a set of restoration discs on DVD-R so I do that every few months.

 

[Stan]

Win 7 has an amazing amount of backup software built in. I bought a cheap second HD for my desktop and the system is set up to do a weekly mirror backup to drive D. The D drive is bootable. I've already restored a couple of times from the D drive. But Win 7 also permits building a set of restoration discs on DVD-R so I do that every few months.

How do you do the DVD-R stuff. Everything is built into my laptop, I can burn DVDs, but have no idea how to do restoration discs.

Thanks for any advice you can give me.

 

[Clinton McClure]

I found out the hard way with some Dell Inspiron laptops that the backup DVDs I created when I set up the systems were missing vital boot files and I couldn't restore jack squat from them. Research revealed it to be a known problem with no solution other than to send in your laptop and submit yourself to the Dell service network. I stopped recommending Dell laptops for Windows users after that.

 

[Sam Posten]

All the digital river links are dead, tells me that my licenses are not eligible for a free download, no way to get downloads for the 10+ licenses I still have free for Office, absolute nightmare now trying to find soneone who actually still owns a disk.Never again.

 

[mattCR]

This is why you keep isos.

 

[Sam Posten]

Tossed em all! I'm OSX only cept for 2 gaming boxes which don't run office.

 

[renoldscott]

why you do not install Windows 8 because that's latest version and more features available.

 

[Sam Posten]

I'll tell you why:
http://www.hometheaterforum.com/topic/315346-windows-8-usability-disaster/

And welcome to HTF!

 

[Gary Seven]

Windows 8.1 is a solid OS. It is not the disaster that thread says it is ... not anymore. I have installed and configured 8.1 and it runs better than 7 and I do not lose the functionality I had in 7. Granted, you have to configure a bit but I do that in 7 as well.

All MS OS can be accessed via the MS site.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/default.aspx#fbid=WfBLWc4E3Uq

You can register with MSDN and get the downloads but you will need the product key to activate. Naturally if you have a MSDN subscription you will get a key otherwise, you can try the key that came with your computer as that may work.

 

[Sam Posten]

Gary/Gaston, this thread originated in September of '13. Windows 8 vanilla most assuredly was a dog for many of us on legacy desktop hardware. I've got no qualms recommending 8.1 for most folks today, and it continues to improve the UI and we all knew the changes under the hood made it a 'faster more secure OS. But answering our new user's question with a bit of history seemed appropriate.
I'll have to check our your MSDN links but I am pretty sure it doesn't work the way you think it will without a subscription. I was on Technet not MSDN and all my download links were pulled once my subscription ended, fortunately I made sure I copied the keys I was entitled to before that happened. Those keys continue to work, so if I could pull the ISOs from a free MSDN sub that would be nice. Sadly they jacked the prices of Technet so high it no longer made economic sense for me given how few deployments other than personal use I do for MS machines now, and while those personal uses were discouraged they weren't verboten so long as you weren't selling them off.

 

[Gary Seven]

Once registered with MSDN (basically, an email account registered with MSDN), you will have access to downloads. You will not have a subscription so you will not have keys but you can still download the isos. Once downloaded and installed, you can try the keys in your possession. You can also download some things that don't need keys like SQL Server and even Windows 3.11.

 

[Sam Posten]

Interesting. Wonder why they killed the links through TechNet then.... As I said I've pretty much backed off paying attention to Microsoft OSes the way I used to, I guess they realigned what they wanted TechNet and MSDN each to bring.