Need a bit of help /g/

Clone the entire hdd to another one.

>>55763749
Hm, I guess that could work. But I really wouldn't mind a fresh one, the old is at least 5 years old and it shows. Can't I extract the windows key from somwhere the system, then re-intall the whole thing from a clean iso?

>>55763630
THere are ways to do that, yes, look on MDL. But you can also use a 7 SP1 iso and DAZ Loader
http://mirror.corenoc.de/digitalrivercontent.net/

>>55764487
You're looking for advanced token manager. Or you could just clean install windows 7 and enter the product key on your case. Or you could upgrade to 10

File: 1461298157928.gif (2MB, 446x246px) Image search: [Google]

2MB, 446x246px

>>55763630
If it came preinstalled, it's likely there's a hidden partition on your drive containing the OEM installer, commonly used to reset your installation back to factory default. You can check for this by opening the boot selection menu when your computer is at the BIOS boot screen.
If it's there, I suggest cloning everything to a new drive, then replacing your aging HDD with the new drive. You can then boot from the OEM partition in order to perform a factory reset, giving you a fresh install without need for keys or anything else.

>>55764644
Bad idea. Recovery partitions tend to hate being cloned to a new disk. They shouldn't, but they do. Either because of license restrictions or drivers. Better to just clean install unless there's some piece of bloateware you actually want from the original install

The fuck? Just fucking torrent Windows 7 Ultimate and be done with it.

>>55764717
I personally haven't run into issues with this, though I've only done so with laptops that came with windows 7 and weren't hammered down by uefi shit. I guess more modern laptops might throw a hissy fit over it though.

>>55764764
Also depends on the brand. That's part of the problem with non-standardized recoveries

>>55763630
Its better to just do a clean install.

Make sure to write down your product key somewhere first.

>>55764825
>Make sure to write down your product key somewhere first.
But I don't have a product key. The store just had this Win installed but we didn't actually pay for it, only the hardware.

I assume the guy who runs the place must install the same Windows on every PC he sells. I didn't care much tbqh, it's an original install so it never bothered me for anything.

>>55765810
If it's legit windows it should always have a sticker with a key somewhere on it. If it doesn't you can hunt around for programs that extract the key from the software. There are a lot of them

>>55765910
If the computer still works
1) Click Start Menu

2) Right click computer

3) Click properties

4) Under "Windows Activation" the key

>>55765810
Produkey by Nirsoft. Consider yourself foodspeed.

>>55767739
Noooo...that's the product id

>>55763630
here is loonix useful for a change:

get loonix and install it on usb (puppy or something similar)
open gparted
clone win partition on external hdd
stut down loonix
replace hdd
start up loonix
clone win partition on new hdd using gparted again and set boot flag
stomp loonix usb with your foot
done