Posted by Draenin

Mentioning it by name only doesn't seem to be. Vendetta seems to have taken care of that, though. :p

I've already pmed them a specific link to which file to download, yeah sure I can say Piratebay.  

If you already have a copy of Windows, don't pirate it. That's like stealing bread from a store because you're too lazy to go home and get it from your cabinet. (Yeah, I made a bread reference, go ahead and laugh.)

Check out http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-recovery. Besides this, there are also direct links to legal ISOs of Windows that you will later have to activate. It kind of worries me that there are all of these solutions for recovering media yet people still jump to illegal measures simply because "they can."

A good first step would be to mount the hard drive externally and extracting any data that you may need. Turn the computer off, make sure you are grounded, take out the hard drive, and hook it up to a desktop SATA port. Access it on the desktop and copy over any files which you would like to retain.

With this, it's likely that something within the boot portion of your OS broke so your files are still there.  

Posted by BboyEatsbacon

If you already have a copy of Windows, don't pirate it. That's like stealing bread from a store because you're too lazy to go home and get it from your cabinet. (Yeah, I made a bread reference, go ahead and laugh.)

Check out http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-recovery. Besides this, there are also direct links to legal ISOs of Windows that you will later have to activate. It kind of worries me that there are all of these solutions for recovering media yet people still jump to illegal measures simply because "they can."

A good first step would be to mount the hard drive externally and extracting any data that you may need. Turn the computer off, make sure you are grounded, take out the hard drive, and hook it up to a desktop SATA port. Access it on the desktop and copy over any files which you would like to retain.
M
With this, it's likely that something within the boot portion of your OS broke so your files are still there.

I actually don't have the Windows 7 disc, and don't ever remember seeing it when I bought my laptop. (I could be wrong, since it's been a few years since I've got this laptop, 4-5 years at most.) Yoshired posted that it would cost $40
to renew it, but I don't have that amount, so what else can I do? (I know you will probably reply with something like "So you're saying if you're hungry for bread, you're just going to go out to the store and steal it?" Answer is no. I'm just looking for different solutions to solve my problem.

Thanks for those links and the instructions. I'll see what I can do with those!

EDIT: Don't think I've mention that I usually get lost doing these kinds of technology related things.

Haha. Just a fact about me that I thought I should include.  

Haha, it's all cool. No more bread references!

If you know what version of Windows 7 you have, I'd go to the direct links download. If you're less tech-savvy when it comes to this kind of thing and you don't have any real data that you'd like to save, I'd just do a clean install and forget about saving things.

Download the correct ISO from that link, insert a blank DVD-R disk into your DVD slot, then right-click the newly downloaded .ISO Windows 7 file and select "Burn Disk Image." Select your DVD drive and go through the interface to burn the disk.

After the disk gets done burning, insert the disk into your laptop. Turn off your laptop and as it is rebooting, it should say something about "Boot Menu" and "BIOS Settings," hit the button on your keyboard that corresponds with the Boot Menu-ish option.

Select your DVD drive and go through the self-guided installation process for Windows 7. You should have a sticker on your laptop either somewhere on the surface or under your battery. I would recommend taking a picture of this so that you can have easy reference to it. When it asks you for your product key during the installation, go ahead and provide the one listed on your sticker.

The installation may tell you that the key requires you to call a phone number or so to activate it since it's already in use. Call this number and IIRC it's an automated system that will activate your new install and deactivate your old one. If it's not an automated system, just explain to the tech what you're trying to do and he should be able to sort out the activation codes.  

Posted by BboyEatsbacon

Haha, it's all cool. No more bread references!

If you know what version of Windows 7 you have, I'd go to the direct links download. If you're less tech-savvy when it comes to this kind of thing and you don't have any real data that you'd like to save, I'd just do a clean install and forget about saving things.

Download the correct ISO from that link, insert a blank DVD-R disk into your DVD slot, then right-click the newly downloaded .ISO Windows 7 file and select "Burn Disk Image." Select your DVD drive and go through the interface to burn the disk.

After the disk gets done burning, insert the disk into your laptop. Turn off your laptop and as it is rebooting, it should say something about "Boot Menu" and "BIOS Settings," hit the button on your keyboard that corresponds with the Boot Menu-ish option.

Select your DVD drive and go through the self-guided installation process for Windows 7. You should have a sticker on your laptop either somewhere on the surface or under your battery. I would recommend taking a picture of this so that you can have easy reference to it. When it asks you for your product key during the installation, go ahead and provide the one listed on your sticker.

The installation may tell you that the key requires you to call a phone number or so to activate it since it's already in use. Call this number and IIRC it's an automated system that will activate your new install and deactivate your old one. If it's not an automated system, just explain to the tech what you're trying to do and he should be able to sort out the activation codes.

Thanks! I'll try the methods the users before you provided me, and if it doesn't work, I'll give this a try :p  

Your laptop probably has a recovery partition on it