Reinstalling Win7 Pro without disc

Randall F

Honorable
Jun 23, 2013
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10,510
My wife has a laptop that was given to her with Win7 Pro installed. She has been pretty careless with what she installs and needless to say, she has more than a few issues (trojans, adware ect ect).

I want to just reinstall windows, but I do not have the Pro disc. I have a few Win7 home discs from previous installs on other computers, and was wondering if I could do a clean install with one of those then immediately after install (without entering the key) use anytime upgrade to upgrade her system to the Pro version she has now. Once that is installed I can use her current key (which I recovered with Magic jellybean) to activate it.

I'm not trying to pull a fast one, just trying to figure out a way to do a clean install without the disc
 
What is the make and model of the laptop? Usually there is a factory reset (recovery?) partition on the hard drive which will enable you to restore it to it's original condition (like it was when it was purchased). If you provide the make and model I might be able to help you find the directions for reinstalling without the disc. You could also visit the laptop manufacturer's site and search under support for the directions.
 

Randall F

Honorable
Jun 23, 2013
4
0
10,510


Yes, the oem sticker is on the bottom of the laptop, with the key (it sits in a dock, didn't even think to look for the key there) . It is the 32 bit english version.

 

Randall F

Honorable
Jun 23, 2013
4
0
10,510


It is a Lenovo ThinkPad. There is a "Lenovo_Recovery (Q: )" partition.

 
This may work "When ThinkPad logo shows up on boot, press F11 to enter Rescue and Recovery, there you'll find an option to restore your system to factory state"
Source: http://forums.lenovo.com/t5/ThinkPad-Edge-S-series/Operating-System-Recovery/td-p/420521
If it doesn't then report back with the exact model number of the ThinkPad.
This link - http://support.lenovo.com/en_US/guides-and-manuals/default.page?# - may also prove to be useful as you should be able to find a manual here.
 

Randall F

Honorable
Jun 23, 2013
4
0
10,510
Thanks for the help, I will try to restore it to factory state. Is it safe to assume doing that will eradicate any trojans, rootkits or anything else that may be buried inside?
 


You should be fine as long as the virus has not infected the restore partition. You might consider running a virus scan via a USB drive or Anti-virus disc (if you have one) on the restore partition.