Reinstalling Win 7 have license, no disc

Stonecutter

Alright I'm trying to install windows 7 onto a freshly formatted drive, all of my other drives are borked and I lost my install disc. I have a license. I'm not completely computer retarded. I figure I'll just google windows 7 iso, burn that to a disc and then pop the disc in at start up.

Problem is I can't FIND the windows 7 iso. All of the links I find that point to it (like this one for example) point me to rar files, which, when unpacked, don't seem to have the iso in them, the biggest file in those RARs is a 2.7ish gig file named install.wim. Is that what I need to burn? Something tells me that's not going to do the trick.

dlinfiniti

you can call microsoft and ask them for a replacement disc
i believe its free and you just pay shipping

Rikushix

I was sure that Microsoft allowed you to download the .iso (since it wouldn't work without a proper license anyway), but all official microsoft support documents say that you need to contact your manufacturer for a new disc.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/326246

On the other hand:

These are the official images you would find on your disc anyway, so they're legit: http://www.w7forums.com/windows-7-iso-official-direct-download-links-t2910.html

Stonecutter

Rikushix wrote: »

I was sure that Microsoft allowed you to download the .iso (since it wouldn't work without a proper license anyway), but all official microsoft support documents say that you need to contact your manufacturer for a new disc.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/326246

On the other hand:

These are the official images you would find on your disc anyway, so they're legit: http://www.w7forums.com/windows-7-iso-official-direct-download-links-t2910.html

Yeah that's the same thing I downloaded from the other site. They're listed as .iso but when they come down the pipe they're .rar files

TNTrooper

Stonecutter wrote: »

Rikushix wrote: »

I was sure that Microsoft allowed you to download the .iso (since it wouldn't work without a proper license anyway), but all official microsoft support documents say that you need to contact your manufacturer for a new disc.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/326246

On the other hand:

These are the official images you would find on your disc anyway, so they're legit: http://www.w7forums.com/windows-7-iso-official-direct-download-links-t2910.html

Yeah that's the same thing I downloaded from the other site. They're listed as .iso but when they come down the pipe they're .rar files

Did you extract the .rar?

Edit: NVM didn't read enough of the OP. Can't say for sure but it looks like it is the .iso and our computer's default program with .iso is whatever you got to work with .rar cause it wants to extract them first.

Edit2: Just downloaded one myself and it was a .iso. Just burn to disc without extracting and you should be fine.