Windows 7: Bootable ISO from an installed system with no recovery facility.

In short... how to make a copy of an installed system to have it as a bootable installation DVD when there is no recovery hidden partition?

...
After motherboard and hard drive problems and consequently being repaired I received my laptop from the repair center with a freshly installed Windows 7 Ultimate x64 (besides a Linux system also installed, i.e., dual boot). Although having my own DVD from the original installation before the repair, I like the way they installed the OEM version and it seems to run better than my previous installation.

Being so I would like to make a copy of it and reserving it for eventual need of re-installation. Is it possible to do it?
There is no hidden partition nor other sort of recovery utility/folder - I only realized that after trying to do the copy with the utility RT7Lite.

I know I cant use my own installation key on this version but only the one already installed and only on the same computer.

Thanks and my best regards.



Jarbas

Hi Jarbas .... it is not that possible to make a bootable disk from the installed system. But one thing you can do, for future needs of fresh installs, is image backups.

See the links ....

Backup Complete Computer - Create an Image Backup and

Imaging with free Macrium

As your system is just fresh installed, if you back it up now, it will be a good asset to you. In future, you can anytime restore the backup, it will be as good as a fresh installation.

To restore, follow the link

System Image Recovery .

Hi Arc,

Thank you so much for your quick and informative reply.


Jarbas

You should have the repair techs give you a copy of Windows 7 install DVD.

Dear Britton30,
Edging in sideways, I have a Sony vaio with win.7 Home Premium 64-bit installed(brand new). I was not provided with the installation DVD,though the sticker on the underside of the lappy has the license key! I have downloaded the .iso link for it from Digital life( a link provided by wanchoo). It's a zip file and i am unable to burn it. Any help?
Regards and thanks,
sreedhav

You need to extract the .iso from the zip files then burn it. Usually those aren't zipped though.
try this http://www.mydigitallife.info/offici...digital-river/
then make a bootable DVD or USB drive Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool

He wants Win 7 Ultimate X64 which is not available for download from Digital River.

But ...

From what I've seen and read here, all Windows 7 DVDs have all versions on it. The controlling factor is the ei.cfg file. So ...

How to Select Any Edition or Version (SKU) of Windows 7 to Install From Single Edition DVD Disc Media or ISO

For this one you need to have or download from Digital River, a X64 version.
Windows 7 Professional X64: http://msft-dnl.digitalrivercontent..../X15-65805.iso

or create a universal X86/X64 install DVD or Flash drive (this is what i have).

You would have to also download a X86 version:
http://msft-dnl.digitalrivercontent..../X15-65804.iso

then follow this tutorial:

Windows 7 Universal Installation Disc - Create

It the first few. I think it is the Ultimate iso which can be unlocked as a universal installer.

Dear Britton30,
Thanks! The .zip file i downloaded was from this site:Download Windows 7 ISO (Official 32-bit and 64-bit Direct Download Links) « My Digital Life

The link you gave looks different and i hope to find an .iso file to burn!
regards,
sreedhav

You're welcome. The link should yield a ready to burn iso for you and the Windows USB/DVD tool will let you create bootable media.