installing windows from a recovery partition

[yag]

Is it possible to install windows 7 on a VB using the "recovery partition" you have on some machine ?

So, that's my situation : i bought second hand a netbook, it comes with windows7 on it, as "OEM". And there is a "recovery partition", to re-install the system in case it fails.
I don't want it as a main OS, first i don't like it, then it is so so slow on such basic machines. But i need to use some specific software, among which a company VPN, which only works on windows. So, I would like to install my favourite Arch on the physical machine, and put the OEM w7 on a virtual box, just to run the few but important windows programs i need.
How would this be possible ?
thanks,

[mpack]

Is it possible to install windows 7 on a VB using the "recovery partition" you have on some machine ?

Probably not, but as it's non standard we have no way to be sure.

A recovery partition will typically only install on the original hardware. That will be the first thing it checks, and of course when inside a VM it isn't going to like what it sees. You might have better luck letting Win7 install itself, and then P2V the whole disk using Disk2VHD (if that term is unfamiliar, Google for "p2v site:forums.virtualbox.org"). However even in this case activation would certainly fail, and reactivation on "alien" virtual hardware may not be allowed.

IMHO it's much better to just buy a clean license for VM use. Second hand ones are cheap enough, if price matters to you. Just make sure you don't end up buying someone else's recovery CD. It needs to be full install, OEM is ok but not branded OEM (HP, Dell etc).

[Martin]

On a system with a Win 7 recovery partition you should have a license key sticker. In most cases this key can be used to activate a normal clean install from a DVD/ISO inside a VM.

[mpack]

You'd need to make sure that the CD you install from is for the same variant as the product key. E.g. if the notebook version was OEM home basic (IMHO, virtually certain), then the install DVD need to be that too, otherwise the product key may be refused.