How to reformat my Win10 Satellite Laptop and get Win7 back.

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anken

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Hi, I'm planning to reformat my C-Drive. Win.10 has been downloaded (I didn't intent to do it) over my original Win7which came installed on the Satellite.
My Satellite Laptop is about 4 years old and I have never reformatted it. Now, it has a slow start up and is in need to reformat. I have made backups for my important files on my external HDD.
The win7 product key is on the bottom of the laptop.
Since I don't have the Win7 CD, I'm not sure about how to get back to Win7.
I press the number 0 on startup and get to the point of erasing everything on the HDD. I just don't know how to get Win7 back....After the reformat and erase, how do I download Win7? I'm not sure if I will have the opportunity to do it then.
I will appreciate if anybody has any suggestions. Thanks in advance, Ann
 
Solution
USAFRet


For a clean install of Win 10, you do not need the license key.
When you upgraded from 7 to 10, you now have a 'digital entitlement'. YOu don't need a new license key.
Your system details are...
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anken

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Thank you for your suggestion.
My experience seem to be that when Win10 was downloaded over Win7 it's not as stable. Since I don't have a product key for Win10, I would like to go back to Win7. Win7 has been function well until the (not requested) Win10 download. I think that after 4 years it's about time to reformat anyway. I'm wondering about getting Win7 back without the CD. If the HDD is wiped clean...how can I download Win7? Here's my thought....
I have an older spare laptop which came with Vista and I purchased Win7 for it. Now....if I use the Win7 CD which I purchased to replace Vista, use it on the Satellite laptop and enter the product key located on the bottom of this laptop. The way I see it, it's not cheating because the price of the Satellite included the price of the OS and I'm just "borrowing" to get back to Win 7 on this laptop. Does that seem reasonable?
I appreciate very much to be able to come to this forum and have learned a lot from it since then. Again, thank you in advance for your input.
 
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USAFRet

USAFRet

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Sometimes, the 'Upgrade' from Win 7 to Win 10 messed up a few things, resulting in poor performance.
In almost ALL cases I've seen, a clean install of Win 10 fixed things.

For Win 7:
Go here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows7
And see if you can download the Win 7 ISO file, using the license key.
Unfortunately, this will probably fail due to it being an OEM license.
They expect you to get this from the manufacturer, not Microsoft.

But try it anyway.
 
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anken

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Wow! Thanks for your quick answer!
So, I need to contact Toshiba for the Win7 download ISO file? I suppose if I download it in advance and place it temporarily on the external HDD it might work? I'm sorry about questioning the same thing again since I have not formatted HDD yet and I don't know for sure if I can go online to do any downloads right after the reformat.
As for Win10, yes, I would like to have a clean install, but how do I go about getting a product key for it without purchasing another OS?
Again, thanks for your suggestions!
 
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USAFRet

USAFRet

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For a clean install of Win 10, you do not need the license key.
When you upgraded from 7 to 10, you now have a 'digital entitlement'. YOu don't need a new license key.
Your system details are stored at the Microsoft mothership.

A full wipe and reinstall of Win 10 on that same hardware will activate itself when it goes online after the install.
From a working PC, create your own Win 10 DVD or USB here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10
 
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anken

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I finally understood.... Have downloaded Win10 to flash drive and will reformat with Win10 as soon as possible.
Thank you so much for your help and most of all for your patience !!
 
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