Install Win 7 italian by using an english ISO

[Joe7]

A friend of mine left to me his netbook, a Toshiba NB-500 with 1 GB of memory and an 64bit atom CPU. The system is upgraded to windows 10 (32bit) from the original windows 7 starter (I think it was 32bit too) on a netbook.

The netbook is too slow, so I firstly checked for viruses and malwares, then I disabled all startup applications and not-MS services. I also changed to a lighter antivirus like MSE... but the system is still too slow. So I concluded that the slowness is caused by the poor hardware resources.

My friend reported a reasonable usability when he had just bought the netbook about three years ago, so I suggested a fresh install of windows 7 after a backup of all his data. The netbook has a recovery partition, but I prefer a fresh install, without Toshiba utilities.

Now, I have a windows 7 64bit DVD. I've customized it to allow release chose (starter, home premium, professional and so on). This Atom CPU is actually based on 64bit arch, but I suspect that the product key on the bottom sticky is referred to a 32 bit version of windows 7 starter.
So, question 1: If the pre-installed system was 32bit, can I do a fresh install using a 64 bit windows version and activate it with the original product key?

The original system language is Italian and I wanted to install an Italian localized system, cause my friend prefer it, but I can't find ISO-s in a language other than English...
So question 2: Is there a way to "add" some localization files (I don't know, something like language pack and so on...) in to the standard English ISO and so convert it to Italian language?
(I mean, I'm not interested in changing the language of installation wizard which could be also in English.. But the final installed system should be all in Italian).

Thanks a lot in advance!

 

[DavidE]

The product key (license) is good for 32-Bit or 64-Bit, it is only good for the version (Starter) on the COA sticker.

Try using the Heidoc ISO Downloader available here:
https://www.heidoc.net/joomla/techn...icrosoft-windows-and-office-iso-download-tool

They offer a Starter ISO where you can choose the language.
I can't read Italian, so i can't be sure if they have what you need.
The ISO's are downloaded from MS servers.

 

[Megahertz07]

Joe, related to hardware, you have the bottom line. MS says that the minimum memory amount for Win 7 is 1G for 32 bits and 2G for 64 Bits. On my experience, I would say that the minimum memory amount for Win 7 is 2G for 32 bits and 4G for 64 Bits.
That is the main reason for netbook to be too slow.
For free, you have two options: Install win 7 starter with the product key (license) you have or install a Linux (I would recommend Lubuntu or Mint). Any way, I would install a 32 bit version.
Linux is fast (doesn't need a antivirus), safe and has almost all Windows equivalent software. For free.

 

[Joe7]

Thank you!

From the bottom:
- Linux is my system since many many years ago, you are right it is very stable and is quite easy to customize it and make a not resources hungry system. Non viruses, non background unknown processes and so on. Anyway, the user has to be conscious he will be in front of a different system: If he is interested in trying Linux, using it and becoming familiar with that great system, then he will be fine and likely doesn't get back to Redmond.
Otherwise if user thinks to find a virus-free, light, free (just as in beer)"windows"... well he likely will be disappointed: hardware identification could be tricky, sdome software could be a little different: not always you find the same application you usually use to use... Sometimes you have to write some command on textual shell, and so on. For all these reasons, since my friend didn't seem interested in a Linux box, I would try to install windows.

- 32 bit, you are right I have to download an other ISO... 64 bit could work but with 1 GB of RAM memory it will be better to follow MS suggest about 32 bit.

- Heidoc ISO Downloader! Would be great, but I haven't a Windows system now, I'm working from Linux. Is there a way to use a similar tool from Linux? Would be very useful for me.

Thanks again!

 

[ThrashZone]

Hi,
You could confirm the exact windows version and language you need and we can get you a direct download link for you

Linux is okay but sharing files from linux to a windows machine may also transfer viruses that don't effect linux but do effect windows


Often you need to create a all versions installer out of a ultimate version to get a 64 bit home basic
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/85813-windows-7-universal-installation-disc-create.html

 

[Joe7]

I'm looking for Windows 7 - 32 bit (Italian)

I think we can do not care about Edition (professional, home basic, home premium, starter), because it is very easy to modify Win7 iso by removing ei.cfg file and have a "multi edition" ISO (when you install you will be asked for edition you are licensed to).
For widows 7 ISO to work, also license channel doesn't matter: you could have an ISO for OEM and you will be able to install and activate it against a Retail product key...
In my case the OS was preinstalled, and the license COA reports "Windows 7 Starter SNPC OA" (probably reselled by some market store for toshiba). Anyway I think it is very similar to OEM (one activated system for the current machine only).

Anyway, I'm looking for an original genuine ISO with an md5 or sha1 code well known by MS. Nothing modified slipstreamed or so on.
Thanks!

EDIT:
Thanks a lot I'll check those links.
Thanks again!

 

[DavidE]

I had a site that listed links to MSDN pages that showed the SHA1 for Win 7 ISO's.
Unfortunately those links are no longer available (to me), I think MS removed them.
I did compare the sha1 a while ago, and the file downloaded always matched.

You can download and then search for the sha1 or mda5 to see if you can find confirmation that the download is genuine.

Here is a snip downloading using the Heidoc downloader that shows where it is downloading from.

 

[Joe7]

@TrashZone
Oh.. your post is disappeared... Anyway I got it and I downloaded the file.
I also found working links to torrents of that same ISOs (although I searched that sha1sum this morning but with no result... now I find it on the first attempt).
Anyway I have to prepare an USB flash to boot that iso, I go and look for infos. Thanks again.

PS.
Could you explain where you have obtained those links?
Also via PM if you prefer...

EDIT
@DavidE
Thank a lot, I verify sha1 of the downloaded ISO from Trash and it matched MSDN list. I think this is a permitted link, it contains just infos about ISO file
https://msdn.microsoft.com/subscriptions/downloads/default.aspx#FileId=46991

 

[ThrashZone]

Hi,
Sounded like you didn't want them so I removed them

 

[Megahertz07]

Joe, if your license is for Win 7 starter the general iso (home basic, home premium, professional and Ultimate) won't work as it doesn't contain the starter brand. As Starter wasn't for sale (was OEM) it won't be easy to find it.

 

[Joe7]

Just for knowledge.
On the site I found the link to the torrent of the same ISO they report the right sha-1 of the ISO:

Download 32 bit (x86) - SHA-1: 3378D4BFDBAB850407AB6047B68FA9CBB2275B75

But if you try to start torrent download, the torrent client reports an other hash...

I think the hash of the torrent doesn't match the sha1 of the ISO.
Anyway... I've that ISO on my local PC by now.

I'll let you know about the rest of the procedure. Thanks

 

[DavidE]

EDIT
@DavidE
Thank a lot, I verify sha1 of the downloaded ISO from Trash and it matched MSDN list. I think this is a permitted link, it contains just infos about ISO file
https://msdn.microsoft.com/subscriptions/downloads/default.aspx#FileId=46991

Yup, you got to the MSDN page i was trying to find so you can compare a download sha1 to what MSDN shows.
If they match, you should be ok.

EDIT:
I never downloaded using a torrent so i can't comment.

 

[Joe7]

Joe, if your license is for Win 7 starter the general iso (home basic, home premium, professional and Ultimate) won't work as it doesn't contain the starter brand. As Starter wasn't for sale (was OEM) it won't be easy to find it.

Uhmm, so isn't this procedure uvailable for "starter edition"?
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/85813-windows-7-universal-installation-disc-create.html

This image reports also "starter", so I thought that it works also for that case...
http://www.sevenforums.com/attachme...isc-create-win7-universal-install-disc-ss.png

 

[DavidE]

From what I've seen i think Starter is only available in the unlocked 32 Bit ISO.
It isn't available in 64 Bit, and that may cause some confusion.
I'm just guessing here.

 

[Joe7]

Yes Win 7 starter seems to be 32bit only. So in any case 32 bit ISO was needed, my 64bit wasn't useful in this case:
Microsoft Community

OK, so what Megahertz07 said is true in that sense: a 64bit ISO couldn't work because win 7 starter 64bit just doesn't exist.

As regard license channel (OEM, Retail and so on...). All OEM licensed system (usually pre-installed on notebooks, netbooks or compact pc but not only...) should be installed or reinstalled only by using the vendor support (Toshiba windows DVD for example... not our case, or recovery partitions and so on).
So if you use a general ISO DVD or USB Flash memory, you shouldn't be able to install and activate your product against the OEM license you own. But... well actually it works fine!
I've reinstalled windows 7 on an Acer compact PC and a samsung notebook in the past, by using my general ISO of windows 7 64bit... it worked fine also activation against the OEM product key of those machines.

If Starter edition differs from the others let me know. Anyway I will leave recovery partition untouched, if there will be any problems hope I will be able to reset the netbook to factory default.

 

[DavidE]

If you use the manufacturer recovery media/utility it will use the OEM SLP key that is generic for that manufacturer / OS, and used on thousands of PC's.
You can't do a clean install using an OEM SLP key, it only works with manufacturer recovery media/utility.

If you want to do a clean install you need to use the readable OEM COA key on the COA sticker.
That's what you've done and that's fine and legal.

You have 2 different licenses, OEM-SLP, and OEM-COA.

As you're working on different versions and different languages, i'll post this to make things more confusing.
I recently learned that different versions of Win 7 might offer 64 Bit depending on Language/region/country.
You can read the whole thread, or start here at post #25:
http://www.sevenforums.com/windows-...estion-about-seriel-number-3.html#post3283015

 

[Megahertz07]

Fond this link for Win 7 starter Italian (torrent)
https://turbolab.it/scarica/46
Scan it before running.

 

[Joe7]

OK Megahertz, thanks!
I've already prepared an usb key based on "ultimate" ISO (Italian of course). I removed also ei.cfg file from "sources" dir to unlock all editions (now also "starter" should be available).
So I'll try this one. If I'll not be able to activate it through netbook COA product key, I'll try your link. Thanks again.
I'll report how has gone with a recap of all the procedure I followed...
See you!

 

[Joe7]

Hi all, a quick update about windows setup:
- My usb key created by copying in windows ISO worked fine, I have been able to choose "Starter" edition
- I've also inserted product key printed on the netbook bottom and now system seems to work much better than before when it was equiped with windows 10
- I'm installing all drivers I found on Toshiba website... But seems realtek wifi adapter driver is missing, I can't find it between the others on the support web page. So I'm unable to try the product activation at now.

I've also opened a thread about on drivers section of this forum:
http://www.sevenforums.com/drivers/401182-toshiba-nb-500-realtek-wireless-card.html

I'll let you know as soon as I solved.

 

[Joe7]

Mission complete!

I regularly activated OS, It worked: so It is possible to obtain a regular activated win 7 starter system from an iso of win 7 ultimate.
A recap:
- we wanted to obtain an installed and activated system windows7 starter edition and we have found an ISO of win 7 ultimate edition

- downloaded "italian" ISO of windows 7 ultimate 32bit and verified via sha1sum against the reported ISO:
MSDN Subscriber Downloads
32bit version is needed because requested "starter edition" at 64bit just doesn't exists. So it shouldn't be possible to install a started edition from an ISO of win 7 "some other edition" at 64bit". Anyway I didn't test this way, may be it works but I have some doubts about activation...

- mounted it in loop (I worked from linux, in windows you have to mount ISO in any way and be able to access its content)

mkdir /mnt/iso
mount -o loop -t auto /path/to/iso/windows7itaetc.iso /mnt/iso

- prepare an usb flash memory (Assume it is associated to /dev/sdf device file) with a single partition formatted in ntfs filesystem and write a working boot block:

ms-sys -7 /dev/sdf
fdisk /dev/sdf (and create a new primary partition type ntfs - "Id=7")
mkfs.ntfs -f /dev/sdf1
mkdir /mnt/usbkey
mount -t ntfs-3g /dev/sdf1 /mnt/usbkey

- Copied data from iso to usbkey and removed ei.cfg file to unlock all win7 releases: this is needed because I had a starter license but an ultimate ISO. It very useful anyway to remove this file because the next time I need to fresh install win7 on an other machine with an other edition license I will be free to reuse this ISO and to just choose the right edition.

cp -a /mnt/iso/* /mnt/usbkey/
find /mnt/usbkey -iname ei.cfg (and check where is the ei.cfg, it should be in "sources" subdir)
rm /mnt/usbkey/sources/ei.cfg
umount /mnt/usbkey

- inserted the above usbkey in the target netbook and launched installation. I removed the old system partition but preserved the manufacturer factory reset partition and the windows seven recovery partition (they ware a little hard drive amount of space).

- typed also product key during installation, but It was not recognized when I connect it to the net. So I have to retry activation manually and this time it worked fine. May be I made a typing mistake...

That's all.
Hope this will help who have to do a fresh install of windows seven...
And thaks a lot again to all you for help me in finding the right iso file!