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How-To Geek Forums / Windows 7

reinstall windows 7 without discs with a product key

(12 posts)
  • Started 6 months ago by bobby
  • Latest reply from afuhnk
  • Topic Viewed 386 times

bobby
Posts: 5

Can anyone advise how to reinstall windows 7, please? I do have the product key, but do not have the security discs since windows is giving me an error

Posted 6 months ago #
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mfletch
mfletch
Posts: 1434

Hi and welcome to How-To-Geek

First can you please tel us what make of computer you have as some have a back-up drive to reinstall back to factory settings {no need for discs}

Posted 6 months ago #
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bobby
Posts: 5

asus, Windows 7 home premium,

Posted 6 months ago #
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whs
whs
Posts: 17584

Turn on the PC, Press F9 when you see the ASUS logo, and then choose the second item to recover OS to the first partition.

Press [F9] during bootup (requires a Recovery Partition)

Press [Enter] to select Windows Setup [EMS Enabled] Read the “ASUS Preload Wizard” screen and click Next.

Select a partition option and click Next. Follow the on-screen instructions to complete the recovery process

Posted 6 months ago #
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afuhnk
afuhnk
Posts: 309

Reinstallting Windows using ASUS Factory Restore will not ask you for a product key. It is "embedded" in the recovery image.

Posted 6 months ago #
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bobby
Posts: 5

whs, it keeps on restarting windows - is this the normal reinstallation process? thank you

Posted 6 months ago #
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whs
whs
Posts: 17584

A couple of restarts are possible. A lot more would indicate a problem.

Posted 6 months ago #
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bobby
Posts: 5

WHS, you did, in seconds, what many "specialists" around me, could not (or did not want to) do. THANK YOU VERY MUCH! And God Bless you!

Posted 6 months ago #
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afuhnk
afuhnk
Posts: 309

ASUS recovery process takes about 30-45 minutes to PREPARE then maybe an hour to actually perform.

Posted 6 months ago #
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bobby
Posts: 5

afuhnk, thank you very much as well for your concern and time.
PS - Windows is actually still preparing the back-up discs burn which I will not miss burning now...Somehow creation of images seems too long...

Posted 6 months ago #
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whs
whs
Posts: 17584

bobby, I am glad you are making progress. For imaging I suggest you use free Macrium. That is faster and more reliable than the Windows imaging. Here is a tutorial to get you started.

And if you do not want to install free Macrium, you can download the Macrium WinPE .iso from my skydrive. If you burn that to CD (e.g. with ImgBurn) and boot the system from that CD, you can image and recover the system.

I was able to image my C partition in 4 minutes - note though that my system is on a SSD and my external disk is eSata attached. On a typical HDD installation and a USB2 attached disk you should figure 20 to 30 minutes.

Posted 6 months ago #
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afuhnk
afuhnk
Posts: 309

afuhnk, thank you very much as well for your concern and time.
PS - Windows is actually still preparing the back-up discs burn which I will not miss burning now...Somehow creation of images seems too long...

Are you talking about the ASUS Backup Discs? Or just a backup of your data?

You can put all your data on the D: partition (usually, for ASUS, the HDD is split in C: and D: - when you reinstall using the F9 key you are given the choice to reinstal over the C or both D. If you pick C only, everything on D will remain untouched. Still, it's a good idea of backing up your data to cds/dvds/or external drive)

Posted 6 months ago #
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