BOUGHT RESTORE CD FROM EBAY BUT NOW FOUND LAPTOP PRODUCT KEY

Answer Best answer as chosen by user jenianis21

That restore CD is not what it seems.

by R. Proffitt - 11/27/12 9:36 AM

In Reply to: BOUGHT RESTORE CD FROM EBAY BUT NOW FOUND LAPTOP PRODUCT KEY by jenianis21

I am getting more reports of ebay CD (actually it's a DVD!) that has a cracked Windows on it. They do this for reasons I hope are obvious. To get folk to part with money.

OK, No restore CD I've used in years has me entering in the product key. But your story is incomplete except that it's likely you didn't get a restore CD/DVD for your system.

I'd ask the laptop's maker for these.
Bob

Was this reply helpful? (0) (0)

Staff pick

Report offensive post

Email to friend

Permalink

Answer Best answer as chosen by user jenianis21

Restore DVD download

by wpgwpg - 11/27/12 9:50 AM

In Reply to: BOUGHT RESTORE CD FROM EBAY BUT NOW FOUND LAPTOP PRODUCT KEY by jenianis21

You can download a free ISO image for your version of Windows from here
http://www.mydigitallife.info/official-windows-7-sp1-iso-from-digital-river/ and put in your key. Bear in mind that you will need to download most of the drivers you'll need from your manufacturer's web site. If you need software to burn the ISO to a DVD, you can use the free Imgburn from http://www.imgburn.com .

When you buy a new computer (desktop or laptop) the user guide (which is on your hard drive) has instructions you're supposed to follow to burn the recovery discs. Since you didn't do that, you'll need to contact your computer manufacturer to get them. These have the advantage of coming with all the drivers you need plus all the pre-installed software that might've come with your computer.

When you've gotten your system back like you want it, I urge you to get yourself an external hard drive and a good 3rd party backup program. You can set it up to do everything automagically at the time and frequency of your choice. 1 TB external hard drives are about $70 these days and a really good FREE backup program is the Easeus todo backup free which you can download from
http://www.todo-backup.com/products/home/free-backup-software.htm . That can save you a lot of time and frustration the next time something like this happens. Sooner or later it happens to all computers for one reason or another.

Good luck.