Digital River Win7 ISO servers taken down again

[gregrocker]

The disk carries the same factory SLP preactivation that the PC ships with, so that the Product Key on the COA isn't used and if you use a keyfinder it will show a different key only valid for activation at factory.

So with any other clean installation DVD you'd activate with the Product Key on the COA sticker, but on your specific PC it carries the SLP factory activation file that sets the activation (at least) back to Factory condition.

Everything else is like a Clean Reinstall Windows 7 except for a Dell Logo on the System page.

Be sure to keep that disk. I'd even back up the ISO file using ImgBurn. But the best way to back up so that you never need to reinstall again is to save a backup image externally so if Win7 becomes irreparable you can reimage C in 20 minutes.

 

[groze]

The disk carries the same factory SLP preactivation that the PC ships with, so that the Product Key on the COA isn't used and if you use a keyfinder it will show a different key only valid for activation at factory.

So with any other clean installation DVD you'd activate with the Product Key on the COA sticker, but on your specific PC it carries the SLP factory activation file that sets the activation (at least) back to Factory condition.

Everything else is like a Clean Reinstall Windows 7 except for a Dell Logo on the System page.

Be sure to keep that disk. I'd even back up the ISO file using ImgBurn. But the best way to back up so that you never need to reinstall again is to save a backup image externally so if Win7 becomes irreparable you can reimage C in 20 minutes.

Thank You Gregrocker, I am actually using Macrium reflect image backup and restore. I use a usb hard drive to do an image backup and a image restore. So far it is working without any issues. I do have that backed up in another DVD, had to remove some of the languages except English to fit on another dvd.

 

[maxseven]

How much did Dell want for that Reinstallation DVD? Dell is the only maker who I understand provides them, and only on some models.

There is only self-activation and a Dell Logo added, no Dell-specific drivers which should come first from Windows Update before importing from the Dell Downloads page for your tag number (not the disk). The drivers disk may come in handy to get online if needed to install all Windows Updates.

But the disk can be used on other PC's if there is a Product Key to activate. This is because it is a standard Win7 installation DVD with two tiny add-ins.

Step 1 now edited here to reflect these apparently permanent changes: Clean Reinstall Windows 7

Interesting. I just bought a new Dell Latitude PC and got one of these discs with it, that is labelled W7ProSP1. I haven't had time to look at it, but wonder if it actually contains ALL OF the W7 64-bit OSes and could be modded to reveal same as discussed in this post. I will have to dig it out and look one day...

 

[gregrocker]

You can put the disk in the drive, open it to browse to Sources folder to search for ei.cfg. If it is there it should have all versions unlockable.

You can extract the ISO image file from disk using ImgBurn, then unlock using eicfg removal tool to see if it yields an all-versions ISO. Let us know what you find.

You could also manually create a USB install stick using USB Windows 7 Installation Key Drive - Create - Windows 7 Forums , copy files from disk into the stick, browse into Sources to delete ei.cfg file.