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Options and advice regarding reinstalling Win 7 without original discs
The Wolfman
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
So it's the same old nightmare scenario. I made the fatal mistake of saying to a technologically illiterate family friend "Sure I'll take a quick look at your laptop!" and now they expect miracles while giving me next to no information ("It's slow" is the most technical explanation I'll get). As for how technologically illiterate, all she does on the thing is browse the web, email, and play Mafia Wars. Which resulted in this frigging surreal conversation.
"Hey, what's this Google Chrome? I heard about it a while ago."
"It's a web browser."
"...What's a web browser?"
"...Uhh, it's the thing you browse the net with. The thing you play Mafia Wars on."
"...???"
"Oh fuck my life..."
Either way, after numerous looks, I'm of the mind to just nuke the thing and start fresh. There's next to no data on the thing worth backing up either. The laptop has the sticker with the product key on it, Windows 7 premium Home edition. My plan is to just burn a disc of W7 and go from there. In doing some quick googling though, I found you can run into issues if it's an OEM version, which my luck it probably is. And all manner of discussion ranging from "It won't work/you need the manufacturer's disc" to "No problem at all.". I found MS's own site for the disc iso, but it wants the product key first, which I don't have but can easily call and ask her to read off for me.
I'm just wondering what my options and potential hurdles are here. To sum up, all I have access to is the laptop itself and the ol' windows sticker on it. It probably has a recovery partition, but since that shit usually reinstalls a bunch of bloatware too, I'd sooner just bypass that and go completely fresh. Will I have a problem regarding product keys and OEM, do I need a special version of W7, or will it all go smoothly.
Worst case "Fuck THIS!" scenario, the machine gets turfed and I just buy her a damn tablet and be done with it. Which she's pretty receptive to, this laptop is pretty darn big and she's not a fan of lugging it around. Especially since it's literally just an internet looking machine. Thing is, it's a pretty decent laptop though. Specs wise, it shouldn't be this ungodly slow and cumbersome. It shouldn't be unsalvageable. But I am limited in what I have available and my own limited knowledge.
Anybody got any advice or suggestions?
"Hey, what's this Google Chrome? I heard about it a while ago."
"It's a web browser."
"...What's a web browser?"
"...Uhh, it's the thing you browse the net with. The thing you play Mafia Wars on."
"...???"
"Oh fuck my life..."
Either way, after numerous looks, I'm of the mind to just nuke the thing and start fresh. There's next to no data on the thing worth backing up either. The laptop has the sticker with the product key on it, Windows 7 premium Home edition. My plan is to just burn a disc of W7 and go from there. In doing some quick googling though, I found you can run into issues if it's an OEM version, which my luck it probably is. And all manner of discussion ranging from "It won't work/you need the manufacturer's disc" to "No problem at all.". I found MS's own site for the disc iso, but it wants the product key first, which I don't have but can easily call and ask her to read off for me.
I'm just wondering what my options and potential hurdles are here. To sum up, all I have access to is the laptop itself and the ol' windows sticker on it. It probably has a recovery partition, but since that shit usually reinstalls a bunch of bloatware too, I'd sooner just bypass that and go completely fresh. Will I have a problem regarding product keys and OEM, do I need a special version of W7, or will it all go smoothly.
Worst case "Fuck THIS!" scenario, the machine gets turfed and I just buy her a damn tablet and be done with it. Which she's pretty receptive to, this laptop is pretty darn big and she's not a fan of lugging it around. Especially since it's literally just an internet looking machine. Thing is, it's a pretty decent laptop though. Specs wise, it shouldn't be this ungodly slow and cumbersome. It shouldn't be unsalvageable. But I am limited in what I have available and my own limited knowledge.
Anybody got any advice or suggestions?
"The sausage of Green Earth explodes with flavor like the cannon of culinary delight."
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and a usb stick.
The keys that run into trouble are either volume licenses, or ones you buy OEM from somewhere like newegg, but your laptop key won't fall under those two categories.
After that it'll all go smoothly, insert the key reboot laptop, follow instructions.
I don't know what exactly is wrong with it because it's the equivalent of going into a doctor's office and saying "My thing inside me hurts". Well, that could literally be anything from an upset tummy to ebola. And they expect me to be freakin' Dr. House on the matter. :P
Anyways, Windows 7 wise, you can use every installation media, you don't have to rely on the missing restore disks or restoration partition of the laptop.
Ranty edit:
Something I had to learn the hard way. Don't let perceived friendship guilt you into doing things. There are lots of people who call you buddy or friend to get something out of you. In my case, what I call third and fourth tier relationships (persons my friends know but I barley interact with) were the worst.
As result I instructed my friends to stop advertising me as free service repair. That is double douchebaggery, they gain popularity by recommending me while not being burdened with any responsibility, while I have to spend my valuable freetime fixing broken shit from strangers without any benefit besides a pat on the back.
Secondly, don't feel bad, if you decline. Real friends will forgive you, strangers won't bring you any benefits anyways if they use such roundabout ways just to save some bucks.
So again, most stuff I'm reading ranges from "It'll work" to "It won't work" to "You just have to edit the ei.cfg file and change it to OEM and it'll work".
Otherwise, I guess I just have to suss out a W7 iso from somewhere?
That brings up another question. Say I do that and upgrade it. If I were to decide to then wipe the thing and then reinstall W10 fresh, does the same product key work? And if I did have to go back to 7, would the same key still work (assuming it would in the first place before upgrading)?
And yes, you should be able to restore back to windows 7 if she doesn't like the 10 upgrade. there's even a "go back" option in windows 10 itself.
Lastsly, even if the machine is old you might try contacting the OEM of the computer. They *might* give you an ISO or send you a disc or something.
Even if you want to stick with Windows 7, as long as you're wiping the system anyway, it might be worth it to pop Windows 10 on it for a bit just to get the system permanently registered.