Windows system image on my ssd

ignatzatsonic · 23 Apr 2012

Rfore44 said:

How do I find my product key? Sorry for the noob question.

It is probably on a sticker located at the bottom of the PC or possibly in a battery compartment.

It has 25 characters, in groups of 5, like this:

xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx

If you don't have it, you cannot activate a clean install.

Rfore44 · 23 Apr 2012

I'll get on that. And yes I have my 25 digit key, so downloading win 7 right now.

ignatzatsonic · 23 Apr 2012

Be SURE repeat SURE you are downloading the EXACT same version as your PC came with, such as:

Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit English, or whatever it happens to be.

Are you downloading from mydigitallife.info or elsewhere? Many downloadable ISOs are bogus and illegal.

Rfore44 · 23 Apr 2012

ignatzatsonic said:

Be SURE repeat SURE you are downloading the EXACT same version as your PC came with, such as:

Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit English, or whatever it happens to be.

Are you downloading from mydigitallife.info or elsewhere? Many downloadable ISOs are bogus and illegal.

Already check my dxdiag and am getting the right one, thanks for looking out.

karlsnooks · 23 Apr 2012

Sure hope you are downloading from a legit site.

Any way, I assume you are downloading an iso file.

That iso file can be burned to a DVD (you'll need 4GB size) which most are.

Or better yet. put the ISO on a usb stick.

Myself, I prepare a usb stick and then use 7-Zip to extract the iso to the usb stick which must be at least 4GB and 4 GB is ideal.

Here is how to prepare a USB stick.
PREPARE A UFD FOR USE (USB FLASH DRIVE)

Run CMD.EXE as administrator

Type following commands and hit ENTER key after each command.
DISKPART starts the DiskPart program
LIST DISK shows numeral assigned to disks
note the numeral assigned to your usb stick
The numeral 2 will be used in this example
SELECT DISK 2
DETAIL DISK the info shown will confirm the correctness of your selection
CLEAN ALL the entire usb stick will be overwritten with zeros
This can take awhile if usb stick has large capacity.
Keep the faith-the DiskPart prompt will eventually return.
CREATE PARTITION PRIMARY create a primary partition on the USB stick
FORMAT FS=NTFS format the partition
ACTIVE the partition can contain operating system startup files
ASSIGN the next available letter is assigned to the USB stick
EXIT exit from the DISKPART program
EXIT exit from the command shell
=================================

If your usb stick balks, then you know now that the stick is bad.

You can tell 7-Zip (which is free) to extract an ISO to the USB drive.

7-Zip

Rfore44 · 23 Apr 2012

Im getting it from mydigitallife.info it says it's a 3GB download

ignatzatsonic · 23 Apr 2012

Before proceeding with the clean install you should definitely make a set of recovery CDs so you can restore your PC to factory specifications if ever needed.

Your PC probably has a recovery partition that would also restore you to factory specs, but if you do a clean install, you would normally wipe out that partition. So, it's important to make the CDs.

With any luck, you will never have to use the recovery CDs.

karlsnooks · 23 Apr 2012

You just might find that DVDs are required for the "recovery" dvds.

Personally, I've never made them, but I can't argue with the logic of making them.

ignatzatsonic · 23 Apr 2012

Yeah, Karl may be right. You may need DVDs. I've never made them either. It may take 2 or 3 discs?

Rfore44 · 29 Apr 2012

So I used 7-zip to extract it to my USB, how do I get it on the new ssd. Do I restart my computer with the old HDD unplugged so just the SSD is plugged in with the USB stick in a slot or is there an easier way?