Create image from recovery partition

[DocB]

Hi,

when I bought my last ThinkPad, it came with a pre-installed W7 and a recovery partition. I actually used none of them.
But now I would need a VM with W7. Is there a way to clone a VM out of one of the a.m. partitions?

Thanks!

[mpack]

Not directly. Recovery partitions as a rule are not designed to "recover" on the wrong hardware.

The only way they can be used is to recover on the original system (*), then use something like Disk2VHD to image the original system. Even then it may not work - activation will be triggered, and may fail when it encounters e.g. the wrong BIOS.

(*) If it was me, and I had no other way, and of course assuming I still had the laptop, then I'd first image the existing laptop hdd as a backup using something like Macrium Reflect Free. Then I'd restore from the recovery partition, then use Disk2VHD to image Win7, then restore your preferred image using Macrium Reflect. I'd make myself very sure that I know how to use Macrium Reflect first! (e.g. that I know how to boot from the recovery CD/USB stick before I zap the disk contents). This entails a few risks, and as I already said, still may not work.

[Martin]

The clean way would be to use a normal OEM or retail Win7 ISO file and install the guest from there using the key from the COA sticker.

[mpack]

I'm not sure that would work. Assuming it has a CoA at all (those stopped being applied a while back), it may not work if the install DVD is from the wrong marketing channel, e.g. "royalty OEM home" vs retail.

[Martin]

All systems sold with Windows 7 must have a COA sticker. Starting with Windows 8 the key is integrated in the BIOS/UEFI.
The instructions to modify a Windows 7 ISO/DVD to the correct OEM build can be easily found on the net.

[mpack]

You could be correct, however the laptop must be quite old (2009/2010 ?) if Win7 was current at the time. I'm thinking it quite possibly a Win8 era laptop downgraded to Win7. In which case, does it have a CoA sticker? I wouldn't want to bet on it either way.

[DocB]

The Laptop is from 2013 I think, and I have a license sticker on the Laptop - MS-Tax paid - and tried already to install from a W7SP1 professional DVD. That of course failed as Lenovo has obviously a modified version, to which the license code fits (Bastards.....).
I usually keep my fingers off non-free software (except for this case where Juniper does not manage to connect to a Linux machine - although supported - and I need remote access to a customer), so no idea how to deal with this license stuff.
Any ideas welcome!

[Martin]

I've used the key from Lenovo COA stickers many times without problems to do a clean install.
You need to make sure that your ISO file is for the correct edition (ei.cfg must show EditionID: Professional and Channel: OEM).

[DocB]

Cool. Do you have a download link or such an image?

[mpack]

Windows is copyrighted. Please do not use this site to ask for links to stolen software.

[Martin]

If you already have an ISO file for Windows 7 it could be enough to use an ISO editor to change the file.

[DocB]

@mpack - please read the complete Thread - I have a valid license, so I'm not asking for stolen software.
@Martin - which is the file?

[mpack]

I was involved in this thread from the start, I have no need to review it. I'm sorry if you were offended, but if you are asking for download links for Win7 installers, then you are asking for a site that distributes stolen software, since Win7 is not available as a download from any legal site, at least not in the form required by your questions. This is against the forum rules. Whether or not you have a license is not our concern - you are not the only one who could follow the link.

[BillG]

The recovery partition is there to allow you to reinstall the OS on that machine. A vm is regarded as a separate machine as far as licensing is concerned, so installing this in a vm using the host's product key would not be legal (in addition to the technical problems).