My friend has a Dell laptop that has a Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit on it. (Dell Win7 OEM Key sticker) His harddrive has failed, so he's got a new one & now he wants to reinstall Windows 7 but he doesnt have a Windows installation DVD (thanks Dell!!) I only have a Windows 7 Ultimate Retail (64bit & 32bit) installation disks & I know that these wont work with a OEM key. However, will a standard Win 7 Home Premium 64bit OEM disk work or will it HAVE to be a Dell one. I use a standard Win XP OEM disk to reinstall Windows all my friends/colleges laptops/PCs (as long as the PC has an OEM sticker). This works no matter what manufacture it was. But I was worried about the SLIC activation thing. Cheers guys.
It should be fine not many laptop makers lock down specific keys anymore and i dont think dell do. you should be fine using a standard win 7 64-bit HP OEM disc
I was going to use a full OEM disk - like this one: http://www.scan.co.uk/products/micr...remium-64-bit-sp1-operating-system-single-oem not HP/Dell specific.
as long as you not purchasing it should be fine you just need a disc. ive formatted plenty of dell laptops in the past with XP and vista on and had no issues using OEM MS discs.
Cool, thats what I thought. Just been reading a lot of articles saying it MUST be a Dell OEM Disk as this gets automattically activated by using the BIOS SLIC.
My HDD in my dell (inspiron 1525) laptop died and i used my code with my dads OEM disc that he bought when i built his Desktop, all works fine
Thanks Matt. Glad someone here had tried it. I was getting annoyed by the lack of info out there. Theres a lot of threads on a lot of forums that talk about using retail disk with OEM codes & Dell OEM disks but its hard to find anything on a Vanilla OEM disk & a dell OEM code.
Surely buying an whole new copy of Windows 7 is the least efficient way to perform this operation? You should probably contact the OEM and ask them to send you a install disk for Windows 7. I am pretty sure they will send you then disk for a smaller fee than a whole new licence.
on a another note......... if i 'get' {cough} the Win 7 Ultimate OEM disk, do you still get the option to install the version you want - is this correct or have they changed it since Vista Ultimate (which allowed you to pick 'Home Basic', 'Home Premium' etc)
Because what you're implying is a pirated copy and I doubt anyone here is going to recommend you do that.
For what it's worth all versions of Vista and Windows 7, except the Enterprise versions are identical. What triggers which version you are allowed to install is dictated by exactly *one* file, namely SOURCES\EI.CFG. If that file is removed, you'll be prompted for the version to install. Of course you'll still need a valid key for the version you choose. The removal of said file only creates a universal installation disc. You also still need a disc for each architecture (x86 and x64).
I'm not condoning or recommending, but he does have the OEM key. So he has effectively already bought it. Just my opinion.
^ Agreed. Its the Key thats important not the disk. Thats why Microsoft allows 30 day trails of Windows if you install it without the key. Plus its no difference to Matt_Lumleys post above - he just got the disk from his dad, he didnt buy it!!
I don't think most folk would have an issue with borrowing an install Disk. Everybody knows you pay for the licence to use the software and I don't think that is illegal in any way, given that your friend owns the licence. With regards to piracy, I have always thought pirate copies of software is just a really, really bad idea. You never know what other malicious software has been streamlined into the installer, especially a massive install like an Operating System. Anyway, what azrael- said seems your best bet or maybe even Linux
I'm not pirating a copy of Windows 7, i'm going to get a disk of my mate but he's lives 20 miles or so away. I'm not gonna bother going unless its going to work. But it seems that it does. And I cant install Linux as I dont have a goatee beard!
Yes, I tried Linux and it didn't work for me, but after I went a few days without shaving, and donned my socks and sandals combo, it seemed to work fine *No offence intended, I don't want some Linux user crashing through my window with their nunchucks. As they are prone to doing.
I don't feel that borrowing someones disc to install the OS is piracy as long as you have to code, the media you install it from is the same from version to version just the code that differs
