How do I get a new Windows ISO?

lGriml

Before I get to the main point, a brief history:

I've had my Acer Aspire 5750z for several years now. 2 years after my purchase, the hard drive failed on me.. I sent it in to get it fixed and within 2 weeks it came back as a refurbished product. A year later it went out once again and the warranty had already expired. The only choice I had now was to buy a brand new HD. I went with a WD Blue Caviar 1TB laptop HDand reinstalled my version of windows with no hitch per the product key on the back of my laptop. Around the time Windows 10 came out (I forget when, exactly) I decided to take the update and never looked back! Fast forward to 2016 the HD was still running strong and I wanted to upgrade my system. I took my HD and put it into a brand new desktop rig complete with a brand new Asus m5a97 r2.0, Nvidia GTX 750TI Strix GPU, 2 Kinston Hyperx Fury 8gm RAM sticks, 500w EVGA Power Supply, and an AMD FX 6300 Processor (Yes, I skipped out on getting a dvd or cd player.. bite me.) After getting everything properly installed, I discovered it had held all of my data on the HD. Now... fast forward to just 4 days ago - my system was running into some issues and I could tell it was time for a new HD. Before I could even consider which HD to buy, however, it died and I was left computer-less. I bought a couple of 1TB desktop HD's deciding to go big this time. I downloaded the windows 10 iso onto my usb flash drive thinking I would be able to use it to restore my windows but, obviously, to no avail.

TLDR: HD died and I had to get a new one and now need to install my OS on it with my product key.

So here's the problem... I am currently running Windows 10S mainly because I did not know that it was different and am currently regretting it. I tried searching for a new Windows 7 iso on Digital River, as you do when you are in need of a new iso but could not find one. I searched the microsoft web site and found where I could get them. It asked me for my product key; I input the product key and it came up with the following message "The product key you entered appears to be for software pre-installed by the device manufacturer. Please contact the device manufacturer for software recovery options." Since the laptop was originally an Acer product and the product key as produced for it, I am guessing I am to contact someone in Acer about this issue. So.. I'm in the right place, correct?

lGriml

     bump^

JackE

Do you have the original ACER machine's Serial No. ID (SNID)? If yes, you may still be able to purchase the DVD or USB installation media for about $40 from the ACER store https://store.acer.com/en-us/extended/recovery/   But it's an ACER-specific Win7, so the installation might choke on another machine if that's what you're trying to do. Unfortunately, Microsoft's new and unimproved lifecycle policies  https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/13853/windows-lifecycle-fact-sheet    have essentially ended easily getting generic isos as you already know. If you google "windows 7 iso" "germany" you may be able to track down a German t orren t site that still has them.

But you may want to seriously consider another option that I already jumped on. A LinuxMint Cinnamon 18.3 installation. Easier to install on a Windows UEFI or Legacy machine than a Windows installation. And everything pretty much works right out of the install box. Mine was easy to setup with the look, feel & function of a finely-tuned Win7 machine --- the last decent Windows version IMO. I don't have to use Win10 anymore on my new Win10 machine. And the programs and apps like LibreOffice that come with Cinnamon allows me to do more without having to pay more. As I've said to others, I think Microsoft has shot itself in the foot with its new policies and has opened 'windows' of opportunity for alternatives to finally break the pcos status quo in the next few years.

Jack E/NJ