Best way to reformat/recover with a one-use CD key for Windows?

Posted by CSarnia on Super User See other posts from Super User or by CSarnia
Published on 2010-04-19T18:27:52Z Indexed on 2010/04/19 18:33 UTC
Read the original article Hit count: 231

Filed under:

windows-7

|

reformatting

|

recovery

|

license-key

I have a copy of Windows 7 Professional that I have downloaded from the MSDN e-academy (thanks to my school). Now, the problem is that these license keys are one-use only.

If I need to reformat or do a factory reset, what is the best way for me to do so, without invalidating my license and screwing me out of an operating system?

© Super User or respective owner

Related posts about windows-7

Server 2012 DFS New Member Issue

as seen on Server Fault - Search for 'Server Fault'
I am trying to add a new member to our DFS topology. We have 3 DCs (VMs - VMware) running Windows server 2012, two servers are located in or Primary site and the third at our DR site. Currently the two servers at our primary site are currently replicating DFS (full mesh) and are working fine. I have… >>> More
error in IIS7 but not on IIS6

as seen on Server Fault - Search for 'Server Fault'
I have a website that is we are now deploying to windows 2008 servers that has worked in the past on IIS6 without a problem. It is using .net 2 framework. Most of the website works. Just when we create a screen report over a certain size on the server we get this error. Event code: 3005 Event… >>> More
error in IIS7 but not on IIS6

as seen on Server Fault - Search for 'Server Fault'
I have a website that is we are now deploying to windows 2008 servers that has worked in the past on IIS6 without a problem. It is using .net 2 framework. Most of the website works. Just when we create a screen report over a certain size on the server we get this error. Event code: 3005 Event… >>> More
Microsoft Management Console stops working when I add snap-in to it

as seen on Super User - Search for 'Super User'
I have Windows 7 Ultimate OS. I'm opening mmc.exe as administrator and trying add Certificates or any other snap-in, then while loading that snap-in MMC breaks and displays following message and after that it closes automatically once I click on close button on that message. What could be the problem… >>> More
Handling keyboard and mouse input (Win API)

as seen on Game Development - Search for 'Game Development'
There is a number of ways to catch mouse or keyboard under Windows. So I tried some of them, but every of them has some advantages and drawbacks. I want to ask you: Which method do use? I've tried these: WM_KEYDOWN/WM_KEYUP - Main disadvantage is that, I can't distinguish between left and right-handed… >>> More

Related posts about reformatting

Does reformatting the drive really removes spywares and viruses

as seen on Super User - Search for 'Super User'
I've recently read that the data that you deleted in windows using shift+del doesn't actually get deleted it is just made to be overwritable by other data that will soon be stored in your hard drive. And just marked as deleted. And there are some articles like this: http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/15037/use-an-ubuntu-live-cd-to-securely-wipe-your-pcs-hard-drive/ … >>> More
How to convince management that reformatting entire java code base is safe

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
How would one go about proving to management that a batch reformat of all .java files in a large code base (to place the code in compliance with the company's coding standards) is safe and will not affect functionality. The answers would have to appease the non-technical and the technical alike. >>> More
Windows Reformatting

as seen on Super User - Search for 'Super User'
I recently began formatting a hard drive via USB extenal drive when the power went off. When i powered it up again and connected the drive the drives dont show up under my computer. When i go to disk management, i see the drive but now it says unallocated space. The drive was initialy partitioned… >>> More
Reformatting a table based photo gallery to a UL based gallery

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
I have the following code: var table = $('.photogalleryTable').before('<ul class="photogallery"></ul>') table.find('td a').wrap('<li>').parent().appendTo('ul.photogallery'); table.remove(); This code finds a table with a list of photos and re-codes it to use a unordered list instead… >>> More
Is there any tool for reformatting C# code?

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
I am looking for a (preferably) command-line tool that can reformat the C# source code on a directory tree. Ideally, I should be able to customize the formatting. Bonus points if the tool can be run on mono (or linux). >>> More