Cant seem to figure out if this install is viable

[Laidback36]

I am a college student and looking forward to building a gaming desktop over the summer but have not been able to figure out if this is possible:

My school offers free windows 7 professional and ultimate to all of its students through download (awesome right?) but it brings me to a snag.
I am currently on a macbook (my only computer) and was wondering if it was in any way possible to download the files to an external hard drive and install from that?
From what i have looked though this is possible, but every place i have seen has the annoying detail of having to be running a previous version of windows in order to do this...

As much as possible i would like to avoid having to get the full disks just because i do not get nearly the same discount..
Thank you for your help if anyone has any recommendations

 

[bobusboy]

Here's what I did:

Downloaded an ISO of windows 7 home premium and installed it on my new pc (no valid CD key required just use one that you find on line for now; because of the trial period)

Took the downloaded upgrade to windows 7 professional and installed it and used my legitimate CD key to activate it.

Time consuming to install windows 7 twice but it works perfectly, just make sure that if you have a 64bit version of windows that you're upgrading to, that you download the correct version of the ISO you're going to install.

IF the school version is a full version not an upgrade then just download an ISO burn it to a disk and use the CD key your school will give you to install it.

 

[hang-the-9]

If the versions they offer are "upgrade" versions, you need to have a previous version of Windows running on the computer to sue those.

 

[smorizio]

there are a few tools you can use. as long as the mac does not change the iso image you can mount it onto a cd/dvd with any iso image maker for the mac. microsoft gives out free iso to usb maker here.
http://www.microsoftstore.com/store/msstore/html/pbPage.Help_Win7_usbdvd_dwnTool
buy a 4 or 8 gig usb stick and put the iso image on it.
also to let you know windows 8 cs is also a free download if you dont mind in a few months that you have to wipe your pc and put the full version of windows 7 or eight on it.

 

[Laidback36]

Best answer selected by Laidback36.

 

[Laidback36]

Thank you for the quick responses!