Windows 7 Volume License Image.

I just received a brand new Hp computer. it has 64 Windows 7 on it.
I want to keep the OS and create my image on it.
My concern/question is:

Am i going to have a problem if i keep the Product Key on the machine and then use KMS to reactivate it with the correct Product Key??

thanks,

Eddie

eddiemor, welcome to the forum! If you want to keep the OS that was installed by the OEM (HP), you certainly can keep it. What you need to do is use an imaging program such as Macrium Reflect (can be found in the Free Software Database on this forum, with a description of the product). Back up the entire drive ( the OS, the 100MB system partition, and recovery partition). Prior to doing this, you may want to burn recovery discs, this option should be in the Start Menu. Just type "Create recovery discs" in the box, and the program (Power2Go, with HP) will allow you do this. You'll need three to five quality DVD discs for this purpose (consult your owners manual for details, plus details on burning the recovery discs).

As far as using the same Product Key to activate another OS, you can't do it. That key is only meant for the OS that was preinstalled on your system, and when you do reinstall it, you won't have to enter the key, it's already preactivated for your OS. You don't have to remove the OEM key that was supplied by HP, as long as you have the OS backed up, and/or have recovery discs to reinstall it with.

If you want to install another OS on the drive, you'll need another key for what you install, it should be supplied with the other OS that you have.

Hope this helps.

Best of Luck,
Cat

Thank you Cat for your response!

another question.

Do you know or do you have a tutorial or file that would explained in detail the creation of a windows 7 image.
i have looked all over the place but get incomplete results or not detailed enough to follow the whole process.

I work for a school and have different labs which would require different software installed but want to keep the Default User consistant across the board..

thanks again and hope to hear from you again soon.

Regards,

Eddiemor

Welcome eddimor to the Windows 7 Forums website!

Personally, I think the Windows 7 backup application is a terrible piece of software. It only works about 50% of the time and takes forever to backup, sometimes up to 2 hours or more.

IF you have an external hard drive I would highly recommend using it along with Macrium Reflect Free to backup your system. Much easier and faster, takes about no more than 10 minutes at most.

It's too bad that Microsoft could not come up with a better backup solution than what is supplied with Windows 7. If you do use it, be sure to use DVD-RW or rewritable discs so if it hiccups on you, you won't be wasting a bunch of DVDs.

You can backup your product key and such using a free, legal application called Token Restore.

You can download it and read the short tutorial here: How to Backup and Restore Windows 7 Activation Status

This also saves on using up activations via the Windows Online activation method. This is perfectly legit to use as long as your product key is used on the same system it came with.