Reformat laptop without recovery disc... Can I use any win7 CD?

[Boyiee]

I sold my laptop and am about to clean wipe it for the new guy. My laptop has no recovery or win7 cd's that came with it. Looking over the internet, there are all these guides to download these files and move iso's etc etc.

I have a windows 7 CD at home, oem, that I use for my desktop. Is it possible for me to just boot that up into the laptop, do a clean install of that windows, and just use the cd-key on the bottom of my laptop?

It's the same version.

[Killgannon]

short answer: yes this should work

longer answer: it may not work depending on the manufacturer, but that kind of thing has started to dwindle recently and doesnt happen much anymore... i'd try it, it should work

[Boyiee]

What do I do if it doesn't work? lol

[Caiyuo]

Pretty simple to activate Windows 7 without a key if it doesn't work, shouldn't really be an issue. http://forums.mydigitallife.info/thr...s-7-Repository

[Crowort]

You sure it doesn't have a hidden recovery partition? Make and model would help. It is most often accessed via a key stroke at startup around when you'd hit f8 for safemode.

[Boyiee]

Asus G73JH, I have a windows key, I just don't have discs. Bestbuy didn't provide them.

So I was hoping my win7 cd at home would work to at least reformat and install windows, then use the key on the bottom of the laptop like normal. Gotta wipe all my info and shit off the laptop for the guy who bought it.

[SephYuyX]

If it didnt come with any CDs, it has to be a partition as theyre not able to sell a new PC without a means to reinstall. Unless of course you deleted it. It may not come with Win CDs, but how about a 'Restore CD' of some sort?

I googled your model, and it says to:
1. Press [F9] during bootup (requires a Recovery Partition)
2. Press [Enter] to select Windows Setup [EMS Enabled]
3. Read the “ASUS Preload Wizard” screen and click Next.
4. Select a partition option and click Next. Partition options:
Recover Windows to first partition only.
This option will delete only the first partition, allowing you to keep other partitions, and create a new system partition as drive “C”.
Recover Windows to entire HD.
This option will delete all partitions from your hard disk drive and create a new system partition as drive “C”.
Recover Windows to entire HD with 2 partition.
This option will delete all partitions from your hard drive and create two new partitions “C” (60%) and “D” (40%).
5. Follow the on-screen instructions to complete the recovery process.

[Boyiee]

Guess I'll try doing that. There are no CD's whatsoever, and I didn't delete anything. Hopefully that will wipe it clean for me and work, if not I'll try the windows7 cd at home, and if hat doesn't work I'll just follow one of the guides I found online: http://forum.notebookreview.com/asus...7-install.html

That link seems like a lot of work for what I want to do though.

[Boyiee]

Recovery is working, pressed f9 and it seems to be erasing my hdd lol. Thanks for the help.