Windows 7: Restore windows 7 from xml files without windows installed

I have an Advent 4211B laptop which I have upgraded to Windows 7.

A couple of days ago whilst om holiday the HD just died on me. I have replaced the HD with another suitable drive but I no longer have the restore partition that was on the original HD.

To make matters far worse i cannot find the Windows 7 disk which I assure you is a fully legal version. Just as a matter of info I put my disks away somewhere safe whilst I went on holiday to make them safe from thieves but I have no idea where!!!!

I do have a windows image backup with files having extensions vhd and xml and I am wondering if there is any way to restore this backup without having Windows installed.

???????????

You want to recover and reinstate all your backup files without a windows install?

I am pretty that is impossible, DOS cannot read those extensions.

If you mean with, say for instance, Vista installed already, then i am not sure, possibly as i believe they use the same extensions for backing up.

BTW - if you have a COA on the bottom of the laptop for Win 7, then go find an ISO version of Win 7. Its not illegal to use an iso found on the net, it becomes illegal when you botch the license or duplicate, so on and so fourth (don't know why people make that mistake).

If its not for Win 7, then you better keep looking. Things turn up when you least expect it or when you start looking for something completely different.

Anyway, hope that all helps, post back if any more issue.

Kind regards
Toby

Lucky