HB wrote:


This Toshiba was given to me with nothing - no CD and no emergency boot
disc.

The Heidoc URL generator is still down, for obtaining retail
Windows 7 SP1 discs.

https://www.heidoc.net/joomla/techno...-download-tool

It's hard to say whether that designer will be able to get it
fixed again.

This is the result of running the current version (5.29).

https://s13.postimg.org/67kudtklj/heidoc.gif

Heidoc doesn't host the ISO files. It merely generates a URL
for a microsoft folder that contains the ISO. The URL (like other
Microsoft dynamic downloads) is only valid for 24 hours once
the URL is generated.

The "trick" for getting Windows 7 is broken right now, and
who knows whether it can ever be fixed.

*******

The second source of ISO files, is DigitalRiver, who is a
software seller, and they worked with Microsoft. And their
download servers were "open" and people used to get copies
of particular Windows 7 SKUs that way. I got a Home Premium x64
for my laptop that way. The DigitalRiver OS server has been closed
for several years now.

*******

If you have multiple computers, if one of them has a Retail
Win7 license key, you can use that with the official Microsoft
download page. Say for example, you had a desktop with Win7 Ultimate.
Take the license key from that, enter it on this page, and
order up a Win7 SP1 Home Premium for your laptop. All you need
is one good key, to download any SKU you need for Win7.
(You can change the country-code here from en-ca to whatever
country you're in. To make things nice and tidy. Like en-us
or en-gb and so on.)

https://www.microsoft.com/en-ca/soft...nload/windows7

As far as I'm concerned, anyone who has an OS to repair,
deserves an ISO to use, and this "license entry" idea is
for the birds. We don't want to rely on MSDN-inspired
Torrents for our install DVDs, now do we ? :-)

*******

It's quite possible the laptop has a restore partition,
which could also put the original OS back, whatever that
OS might be. It all depends on whether the hard drive was
ever replaced at some point, as to whether it's still
there.

Paul