Create OS image only for re installation from Partitioned Hard drive

Back up OS image need info/help

Not exactly sure how to explain or even exactly what im looking for but basically I had an older laptop running windows 7 home premium that allowed me from the boot menu to re install windows & home premium w/o key or anything. It was placed on a partition of my hard drive. I would like to do this again but im not sure what exactly im looking for or how to search for it in shorter terms. It was an MSI Intel duel core laptop. I would like to put it on my toshiba quad core. Im familiar with partitioning software and image restoration but not sure what exactly i should be looking for to do this. Just a clean Reinstallation of my OS without needing keys i dont care to back up any information except my os which is a clean install.
Update Toshiba has this HDD recovery but i am not sure if this is what i need/want. MSI had a MSI recovery which did what i want. Is this the same/similar?

Post a screen shot of Windows Disk Management for the laptop in question.

The old laptop presumably had a "recovery' partition, which allows restoration to factory specifications---not to be confused with a clean install of Windows. As far as I know, the use of a recovery partition does not require the user to enter a Product Key.

If the laptop in question does not have such a partition and you do not have burned or purchased recovery disks, you may be forced to do a true clean install. You can easily download and burn a clean installation disc.

Why is your Product Key not available?

You can of course make an image of any current installation and later restore it, but I assume you are looking for some other method? An image restoration from an image file is not a clean installation either.

Here it is. I accidentally deleted it on my other laptop but it said 100% free space so it did nothing... My product key is available(sticker under my pc) and i dont need to use it if i use a generic windows home premium copy HOWEVER i lose all my drivers and so on. Its a pain if you have other computer available to you to download and transfer the data for the drivers. Im trying to keep the drivers and so on bloat ware as well if i have to

That picture shows a 1.46 GB recovery partition on the left.

You should be able to use it to restore your PC to factory specifications.

Is that what you want?

If not, what do you want?

well yes the reason i want ask though is the TOSHIBA recovery HDD service never works i did the process then it simply started windows normally.

so im looking for an alternative. I did i a guide regarding some software that takes the WIndows files off a CD and onto a hard drive partition and you can boot from there. But this thing made it so i could not access my original win 7 OS i had to reinstall windows in order to get to the (old windows) file and restore them. But this version of windows had no drivers installed so it became a pretty nice paper weight till i found the drivers i needed >.> using another PC

I'm not sure I have heard of a way to make your own "recovery partition", but there may be something out there like that.

I assume you know how to access and use that Toshiba partition and will take your word for it that it does not work.

In your shoes, I would consider either of the following:

Contacting Toshiba directly and asking them to send you a set of recovery CDs. These disks would serve the same purpose as a recovery partition. They might charge you for the disks.

Give up on the idea of a recovery partition and instead use imaging, probably with the Macrium application.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/58455-recovery-partition-create.html
this was the guide i used previously was nice except no drivers installed was a pain and thanks its a shame they dont send recovery CDs at all. I luckily bought 1 year warranty too so all is good ^^ even if i rage and throw it through a window its covered i will keep trying with the HDD recovery and thanks a ton anyways

sicex said:

Here it is. I accidentally deleted it on my other laptop but it said 100% free space so it did nothing...

Click to expand...

When Windows Disk Management reports an OEM's recovery partition which is 100% free never believe it. I believe it is a bug in Windows Disk Management. Check it with other utilities like Partition Wizard.
You may be able to purchase recovery disks from Toshiba. I'm not sure if they would regenerate a Toshiba recovery partition.

yeah that would make sense lol would also explain why the HDD recovery didnt work. I had (Re-purposed that 14gb extra space) hmm another pain is not being able to copy windows old to replace the current windows files