A little info if you dont mind...

J

Jonny125

Member
Hi there,

I just came across this page on my hunt to download some recovery disk images for some of my laptops.
http://systemdiscs.com/

Will these recovery images work on any computer?

Are they legit? (not particularly fussed either way) But will I have to put in a product key, and will the key on the windows sticker work?

I thought you had to get specific disks for a specific computer model/series.


Thanks in advance.
 
Hi Johnny,

The recovery CDs will work on any PC, but are not to be used to return the system to factory status. They're only made for fixing boot-related problems.

They're 100% legit and licensed from Microsoft. They actually used to be free, but we had to charge for them to pay Microsoft's licensing fees.
No product key is required.
 
Ok, so am I right in saying I wouldn't be able to use them to load the OS onto a replacement hard drive? I have genuine windows upgrade disk, but the product keys on the sticker do not work with it - I believe because my disk is an upgrade disk and not a clean install disk.

Thank you for your quick reply.
 
In that case, this is a long shot, to your knowledge do you know of anywhere I could download recovery disk images from? To my understanding this wouldn't be illegal as the manufacture only charges for them to cover the costs of the disk, not for a license (I may be wrong here).
 
The only place to get replacement media legally is either through Microsoft or from the OEM Vendor. There is no place that you can legally download the software from other than MSDN or TechNet which you have to be a member of to download from. Microsoft has it setup this way specifically. Any sites that offer it, like Digital River, are only to be for a promotion and to be taken down once the promotion is over. If the links stay active after the promotion is done with, then that is technically considered pirating from Microsoft. Even though it is just the media and not the serial. Microsoft does own the copyright to all things Windows related. So they can have it be illegal to download just the media as well. So you will have to contact the vendor or go to the Microsoft Media Replacement site to get the media you need.
 
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