Solved Win 7 clean reinstall without bloatware for Toshiba OEM laptop

[TomStrong]

I'd like to do the following and would really appreciate some help and advice. I have a nearly five year old Toshiba L500-1XD laptop which came with Win 7 64-bit home premium. It's slowed down considerably and is my secondary PC now so I'd like to do a clean reinstall and give to my daughter.

I have the Toshiba recovery disk but don't want to reinstall from it as I don't want any of the bloatware that came with the laptop.

I've grabbed the ISO file from this Digitalriver mirror [assume moderator has removed the link], written down my OEM product key and created the bootable usb drive. But the more I read about it the more I'm worried that since it's an OEM install, Microsoft won't let me activate it in the end.

Can anyone advise if the best course of action is to go ahead, reinstall from Toshiba recovery disk and live with bloatware or just leave things as they are.

Many thanks

 

[Golden]

You have two choices:

1. Use the .ISO you grabbed and install following this:
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/219487-clean-reinstall-factory-oem-windows-7-a.html

2. Install from the Toshiba Recovery Disks, then follow this to clean up bloatware:
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/219576-clean-up-factory-bloatware.html

If I was you, I would choose option 2 since you can't be sure how clean that downloaded .ISO is. Option 2 will allow you to clean up the bloatware to a high degree.

Another consideration, if you can locate a genuine .ISO, say from a friend, then you could perform Option 1 and activate using the product key on the COA sticker (explained in the OEM tutorial above). The source of the installation .ISO isn't critical, its the product key that is. You can indeed activate an OEM installation, having clean installed it - that has happened here thousands of times without issues

 

[TomStrong]

Thanks Golden. I was going to follow that 'Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7' post anyway. And have verified the downloaded .ISO's MD5 and SHA-1 sums with Microsoft's MSDN subscriber downloads. Would you then suggest option 1 over 2?

 

[Golden]

Tricky question that. If it was me, and I couldn't borrow a genuine ISO to do an OEM install, personally I would go for Option 2. I absolutely have to to trust the source of the .ISO, even beyond the MD5 and SHA. Thats just me though.

 

[TomStrong]

Thank you, I understand. My main point of concern was activating using OEM key. I'll look for the most authentic ISO I can find.

Two additional queries.

- The product key on the sticker under my laptop is different from the product key I get when I run Magic Jelly Bean Key. Should I assume the former is for the original Win 7 home edition and the latter is for SP1?

- If I go for option 1 and able to get a genuine Win 7, can I install Win 7 Ultimate instead of Home using same OEM product key by using the Ei.cfg Removal Utility?

 

[Golden]

The key on the COA is definately the one to use - both for vanilla and SP1. The key that MJB reports is the mass key that is used in the factory when they install the images to the systems - don't try use that, it won't work.

No, you can only install the same version as stated on the COA sticker - so if yours says Home Premium, then you will only be able to activate a Home Premium installation with the key from that COA sticker. You can install either x86 (32 bit) or x64 (64 bit).

 

[TomStrong]

Excellent, thanks a bunch for your help.

 

[Golden]

 

[gregrocker]

If you got the ISO from Digital River before it shut down then there are no worries. If you also verified the SHA-1 HASH then you are good to go with Clean Reinstall Windows 7.

Let us know how it goes.

 

[TomStrong]

All done, formatted hard drive, installed the OS and now just tried to activate Windows with original sticker product key - SUCCESS! I'm so happy. Thanks for all your help guys.

 

[AddRAM]

Excellent work, Good Job

 

[Golden]

All done, formatted hard drive, installed the OS and now just tried to activate Windows with original sticker product key - SUCCESS! I'm so happy. Thanks for all your help guys.

it's a pleasure

 

[sasch]

I'm going to do the same thing with my toshiba lap top but i cannot find a copy of windows 7 home premium. Can you help me with this?

 

[Layback Bear]

Welcome to our forum sasch.

Do you have a COA key for Windows Home Premium?

Their should be a Microsoft sticker on the bottom or in the battery compartment. I looks something like this.



If you have a proper COA key this site may or may not help getting Windows 7.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows7

 

[sasch]

I have the sticker and found win home prem ISO file that i hash verified but the windows is an OEM edition so i don't know how to activated it after the installation.

 

[ThrashZone]

Entering the activation key might be advised

 

[sasch]

Should I select the activate online option?

 

[ThrashZone]

Hi,
You can yes
You can activate later after you go to your desktop and make sure you have internet drivers installed by clicking Start and right click the Computer listing on the right column and click on Properties,
On the bottom it will show activate now or similar.

You can't check for updates until windows is activated or windows may check for updates but won't install them yet until windows is activated.