Bootable ISO from an installed system with no recovery facility.

[jarbas]

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

 

[Arc]

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 ....

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/663-backup-complete-computer-create-image-backup.html and

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/73828-imaging-free-macrium.html

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

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/675-system-image-recovery.html .

 

[jarbas]

Hi Arc,

Thank you so much for your quick and informative reply.


Jarbas

 

[Britton30]

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

 

[sreedhav]

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

 

[Britton30]

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/official-windows-7-sp1-iso-from-digital-river/
then make a bootable DVD or USB drive http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/31541-windows-7-usb-dvd-download-tool.html

 

[Ztruker]

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.net/msvista/pub/X15-65805/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.net/msvista/pub/X15-65804/X15-65804.iso

then follow this tutorial:

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/85813-windows-7-universal-installation-disc-create.html

 

[Britton30]

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

 

[sreedhav]

You need to extract the .iso from the zip files then burn it. Usually those aren't zipped though.
try this Official Windows 7 SP1 ISO from Digital River « My Digital Life
then make a bootable DVD or USB drive http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/31541-windows-7-usb-dvd-download-tool.html

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

 

[Britton30]

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.

 

[Ztruker]

I created a Universal Installer from my Pro X64 dvd.