Windows 7 Professional 64 Bit Iso Download Compaq 57

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I need to reinstall Windows, but I don’t have an installation disc
Disc, spelled with a c and not a k, specifically refers to optical media.
CD, DVD, and Blu-ray technologies are all optical storage mechanisms that use lasers of one form or another to read from their corresponding media. As a result, those media are most properly referred to as discs, not disks.
The term “disk” is then reserved for everything else – most commonly, magnetic media such as hard disks.
(Click on the term for full definition.)

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'>disc. I never got one. What do I do?

It’s becoming more and more common to have a completely legal installation of Windows without installation media such as CDs or DVDs. This can cause some panic when you’re later instructed to make sure that you have media ready before installing some other software or hardware or if you ever find yourself needing to reinstall your system from scratch.

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Let’s look at how to prepare for this day and what straws you may have to grasp at should you arrive unprepared.

How you got here

Many computer manufacturers are pre-installing Windows without giving you the actual installation media to go with it.

I personally think this is a very bad practice, but I also understand that it may save the manufacturer (and ultimately you) a little bit of money.

Unfortunately, these short-term savings often have a much higher long-term cost.

The ideal solution: insist on installation media

When you purchase a new computer, I strongly recommend that you do what you can to get installation media. That’s the media that would allow you to reinstall Windows on a completely empty hard drive.

That “completely empty” part is important. Many of the recovery discs that do come with your system are not installation discs. Instead, they assume that the original Hard Disk Drive [HDD]

An HDD, or Hard Disk Drive, is typically a small box inside your computer that holds several metal disks coated with a magnetic material. They are not unlike a video or audio tape or the strip on the back of a credit card. The disk spins at a fairly high rate of speed, and special “heads” can read, or record, a pattern of bits (1s and 0s) on the magnetic surface. Those bits are assembled into bytes, which in turn are the files that you save, receive, or create.
Disks do not lose what’s on them when you turn off the power.
See also: Solid State Disks (SSD)
(Click on the term for full definition.)
'>hard disk is still in place and simply use a hidden partition
A partition is a division of the area on a physical hard disk (or disk-like device) into one or more logical disks.
(Click on the term for full definition.)
'>partition to perform a reinstallation or restoration.

The problem is that if the hard disk has been damaged and/or replaced, that hidden copy no longer exists and the recovery disks are useless.

Many manufacturers include installation media as an option:
Unfortunately, you can see that there is confusion in terms. In this case, Dell is referring to the installation media as recovery media. The key is that it spells out that it’s a recovery disk for “Genuine Windows 7 Professional,” implying that Windows itself is on the recovery disk. And they’re charging $3 for it.

If it were a recovery disk for your particular computer model without specifically mentioning Windows, and especially if it’s included for free, then it’s not likely to be what you want.

When in doubt, or if the option is not provided, ask specifically for reinstallation media that can be used to restore to “bare metal

Bare metal is a term used to refer to a computer that has no software installed on it. It consists only of its hardware components, and perhaps firmware such as a BIOS.
The distinction often comes up in the context of restoring a backup or resetting a machine. If a system can boot from its hard disk, then many options for backup restoration may be possible, ranging from restoring individual files using the backup software running in the operating system, to reinstalling the operating system using the information stored in a recovery partition.
On a “bare metal” system, there is nothing on the hard disk, and no other software on the machine in order to perform restore or recovery operations. Repair or recovery then usually requires a rescue or restore CD or USB device from which to boot. A machine whose hard drive has failed and been replaced with an empty one is usually in a “bare metal” state.
A machine sold without a pre-installed operating system can also be referred to as a “bare metal” machine.
(Click on the term for full definition.)
'>bare metal” – also known as an empty hard disk.

The costly solution: buy a retail copy

If you did not (or cannot) get an official Windows installation disc from your computer manufacturer, then the only true alternative is to purchase a retail copy.

You can try eBay for older versions of Windows or purchase one from other legitimate online vendors.

But be careful. So-called OEM copies are often illegal and may not work with all PCs. Each OEM copy is tailored to the computer manufacturer that originally sold it. If you have a computer from a different manufacturer, the disc may simply not work.

If you ever need to reinstall from scratch, a retail copy will work. After that, you would presumably download and install any manufacturer-specific device drivers if you decide that you need them.

Practical preparation: the system image

If you cannot get installation media from your computer manufacturer, then my recommendation is that you instead use a system backup

A backup is nothing more than an additional copy of data, ideally kept in a different location than the original.
If there’s only one copy of something – say a photograph on a mobile phone – then it’s not backed up. If that device were to fail or be lost, then the photograph would be lost forever as well.
Computers are excellent at making copies of digital data, and backups are one important use of that functionality.
It’s generally recommended that important data be backed up in at least one, ideally more, separate devices or media, such as an external hard disk. In addition, it’s recommended that critical data also be backed up in another physical location, such as a different building, or online.
More than anything, the important concept is that there never be only a single copy of important data. That’s not backed up.
See also: back up
(Click on the term for full definition.)
'>backup and imaging program like Macrium Reflect (the free edition will do for this) to take a complete image of all of the partitions on the machine and save that.

I’d also do it as soon as possible after receiving that new machine.

That backup image takes the place of installation media in the case of system failures. If you ever need to reinstall from scratch, then you can simply restore that backup image and your machine will be exactly as it was when you took that backup, including any hidden recovery partition because you’ll have backed that up as well.

Best of all, restoring a backup image can be performed onto an empty replacement hard disk.

Like the retail option, a system image does not help when Windows asks you to insert the original media. Instead, it’s important protection from future system and hard drive failures.

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A vanishing straw for older Windows: the I386 folder

In Windows XP, one of the common places to find an image of the installation media is the folder named I386. This is typically in the root

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Root actually has several different meanings in technology.
When applied to hard disks or other file storage media, the root refers to the topmost folder in which files are placed.
File systems allow you to organize files into folders, and of course folders can contain other folders. This is typically thought of as a tree structure (often, though not always, conceptually drawn and thought of as an upside down tree). For example:

In this image, “C:” represents the “root” of the C: drive; the topmost folder into which files and folders can be placed. It is unique in that it is, itself, not contained within another folder.
When applied to operating systems, root is the name of the administrator or super-user account in Linux and Unix systems. It is conceptually equivalent to the Windows “Administrator” account.
To root a device is to gain access to the root account, or its equivalent, so as to be able to perform actions such as installing or uninstalling software that would otherwise be prevented by the system’s default configuration.
(Click on the term for full definition.)
'>root of the C: drive. (There may be several others elsewhere on the machine, but the one that we care about will contain close to 7,000 files, two of which will be winnt.exe

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and winnt32.exe.)

The I386 directory is typically one of the top-level directories on the distribution media, but most importantly, it is the directory that contains the distributed copy of Windows. Winnt.exe and winnt32.exe are the DOS and protected mode setup programs, respectively. (You’d only need those if you were planning to re-install Windows from scratch – I use them here as an easy way to identify that we have the right directory.)

Unfortunately, you have no way to create a bootable disc image from the I386 folder. You can certainly burn to CD or DVD for backup (and I encourage you to do so), but this does not create the equivalent of true Windows installation media.

Using the I386 in place of installation media when Windows asks for the original is fairly straightforward. Typically, the “Insert disc” message has only an OK and Cancel button. Press OK, allowing it to fail because you didn’t insert a disk. The next dialog will typically ask you to provide the location of the CD-ROM; just type in the full path of the I386 directory that you discovered above.

Unfortunately, the I386 folder appears to have disappeared in Windows 7.

About that manufacturer supplied restore disc

The restore disk that was supplied by the manufacturer is typically not a reinstallation disc. You cannot use it to reinstall Windows onto an empty hard drive.

If the hard drive has not been damaged, however, then the manufacturer supplied restore disc can be useful.

As I mentioned earlier, manufacturers often include a copy of Windows on your hard disk. Once upon a time, it may have been the I386 folder. These days, it’s typically in a hidden partition on your hard drive.

A hidden partition that the restore disc knows how to access.

The net result is that the manufacturer-supplied system restore disc can be used to restore your system to its factory-original condition as long as the original hard disk remains intact.

While this doesn’t help you if the hard disk fails, it’s a valuable approach to restoring your system after software-related issues, such as software rot or a bad malware [malicious software]

Malware is short for malicious software. Malware is a kind of catchall phrase that encompasses pretty much any kind of software that could cause harm to your data or your machine.
(Click on the term for full definition.)
'>malware infection.

If you’re still stuck…

Unfortunately, the most common scenario is that people reach a problem point that requires installation media, they have none, and they have not prepared.

Your options at this point are few.

  • Contact your computer manufacturer and see if they will supply installation media. While it’s not common, I have actually heard of this scenario working.
  • Purchase a retail copy of Windows. If you must choose OEM, make sure it’s the OEM version for your machine.
  • Borrow an installation disc that matches what’s installed on your machine – right down to the Windows version and OEM manufacturer. This exact match is required to ensure that your product key will work to activate the installation. You should extract or write down the product key from your existing system prior to any reinstall. (Warning: Depending on many factors, this could actually be illegal. It seems moral to me, because you’re simply replacing or repairing a copy of Windows that you already own, but copy protection laws in certain locales often categorize this as a violation.)

And next time, you should either insist on getting actual installation media when you get your machine or at least take that system image backup

An image backup is a complete copy of a hard disk or other media being backed up. The copy is complete in that it can be restored to a completely empty hard drive – as in a replacement hard drive after a failure – and the result is a hard drive that contains everything that the original did.
(Click on the term for full definition.)
'>image backup as soon as it arrives.