Sunday I returned home from an out of town trip and went to go turn on my desktop computer after a restart following an AVG update. I got a screen on attempting to reboot containing this message: The problem is that my ex-roommate stole my original installation disc (I have Windows 7 Home Ultimate [or is it Professional?] x64. I cannot afford to downgrade to Windows 10 and it would wipe my hard drive anyway, causing ALL of my files to be lost. Windows Memory Diagnostic Tool doesn't resolve the problem. I don't know what to do. I'm posting this from my laptop, but I haven't the disk for that either. Can anyone help?
Upgrade to Ubuntu, is my recommendation. Maybe wait until after the April release. (20.04) The upcoming LTS, Long Term Support, version will feature Python 3 and other updates that will improve the Linux experience even more. There are other nice distributions of Linux but Ubuntu combines a lot of advantages for those migrating from WinDOHs but need a very functional distribution that is easy to get up and running, and has a lot of binary packages available for direct app install. Mint is pretty good, too, and both are derived from Debian, which is a very solid distro in its own right. My money (well, actually it is free.) is on Ubuntu. Been using it since W8 came out and I left the bleating herd once and for all. W7 was not a bad version as far as that goes, but it is still secret source software marketed by a megacorporation that spends a larger budget on marketing than bug fixing. You are correct in your disdain for newer versions of WinDOHs, IMHO. There are pirate copies floating around out there, but should you trust them? I don't think it is very smart to do so. If you have your product key, you can download an ISO from Microsoft, and create your own installation media using either a USB flash drive or a DVD.
Click "Control Panel" to open the main utility window. Click the "System" link. This link opens a new window that shows several properties for your computer including the computer name, network type, CPU and memory capacity, and the product activation key. Scroll down to the section labeled "Windows Activation." In the "Product ID" line item, your product key is listed.
To recover your product key, you have to find where you wrote it down. If you didn't write it down somewhere, you have essentially thrown your W7 copy away. Why did you do that? Yes, you may kick yourself now. First, for being sucked in to getting hooked on a loser OS, even though it is way better than those that came after. Second, for not writing your product key down or at least saving the sticker or taking a pic of it. Oh, and also for not storing your disk securely and for having a thief for a roommate. I forgot about that. Ubuntu is free, like all Linux distros. Costs nothing. Back up your entire HD in a disk image, not just your user files. Better yet, replace and save the old HD. Start with a new hard drive. It will probably be faster and bigger. SSD would be great. But do save your entire hard drive one way or the other in case you want to reinstall what you got like you got it. You will need a USB thumb drive for the Ubuntu live image, and a tool (software, probably free) for creating a Live USB in winDOHs using the Ubuntu ISO file. You may need to edit your boot preferences so you can boot from USB drive. Then stick the thumb drive in a USB port and reboot from the Live USB. You will be given a choice of running Ubuntu from USB without disturbing your hard drive, or installing Ubuntu to your hard drive from the USB. I suggest you first try running Ubuntu from the USB, just to make sure it recognizes all of your hardware. It will be slower than an installed system but for testing your hardware that is okay. If processor/motherboard, mouse, printer, keyboard, cam, screen, all work okay, then if you like what you see, install. If you have a thumb drive laying around, and a spare hard drive for the image of your winDOHs system, then upgrading to Ubuntu will cost you nothing but an hour or so of your time. Ubuntu is pretty good at supporting all common hardware right out of the box. It is very rare that you have to find and install a driver in Ubuntu except with very specialized or cutting edge hardware with a small market share.
Good save, @jimjo1031 ! @Michael_W there is your answer, if you want to continue to use W7 so disregard my remarks about your copy of WinDOHs being forever lost. Download the W7 ISO, which is free I believe, and the software tools recommended for creating the install media, and you are good. Again, cost = $0. You would still probably be happier eventually with Ubuntu but now you have a choice, and either choice is free.
I do use Linux Distros on older PC's. Or a dual boot in my W7, but sadly W7 won't be supported any more.
Too bad. W7 I was okay with, back in the day. I had previously only dabbled in Linux. W8 drove me away for good. I liked XP, actually. Before that I was using OS/2 Warp, and before that, W3.1 and before that plain old DOS. Now, I would never go back to MS software. I don't trust a megacorp pushing closed source software to look out for my interests anymore.
I would use a Linux distro full time if I could get the printer to work. Some distros it's hard to do. I've used Peppermint, which is made for older PC's, it has everything you need, and it's freaking fast on newer models.
I have had good luck with HP printers. Have you tried configuring CUPS to manage your printers in Linux? I am using a Canon MX-492 now, in Ubuntu but I had to specify it as MX-490. My Raspberry Pis running Raspbian don't like it, though.
I have a Brother as I like to use separate refills for the colors, much cheaper. My Toshiba laptop with Peppermint recognizes the printer, just won't print when the document is sent there. It's an older Toshiba that I like cause of it's 18.4". I cracked the screen on it, so I'm using another laptop, a Lenovo, my Gf's, as she mostly uses her Samsung tablet. I might replace the screen on the Toshiba and just keep it dual boot with W7 for certain tasks, like printing until I can get it to work on linux.
I didn't throw it away. It was stolen along with roughly half my other belongings, by my psycho ex-roommate who is presently serving time in prison on other charges. I was lucky to recover what I did. I got what computer I could afford. I don't have the luxury of shelling out thousands on a Mac or treading into uncertain territory with a system I've never actually used. How am I supposed to make a backup when my computer won't even boot up? I'm just going to have to wait until me next paycheck and take it to a computer repair center I know. With any luck, maybe the guy can get it working without me losing all my files on my main hard drive.
My mistake. I said you threw it away because you did not take the sensible precaution of writing down your product key. With the product key it is simple to download FREE OF CHARGE the official ISO image direct from Microsoft. However as you see in Jimjo's post, you can easily find your product key on your computer. So you lost nothing. You need a USB thumb drive. Borrow it. You only need it for a couple of hours. Get the product key. Write it down. Download the ISO and write it to the USB drive as per Microsoft's instructions. Boot from the USB and repair your WinDOHs installation, or else do a full reinstall. Simple. Nothing to buy. To go with Ubuntu, just find a junk computer with a reasonably big hard drive. Download the Ubuntu ISO, write it to the USB drive as per the instructions. Physically swap hard drives. Boot from the USB and hit "Install". Easy sneezy. Any HD bigger than about 30GB will be just fine. If you are really on a tight budget, don't pay someone a couple hundred bucks to do something you can easily do yourself for nothing, or at most, the cost of a cheap hard drive and a USB stick. Maybe a second one, to save your personal files, just as an overabundance of caution. Oh, I see your computer will not boot. Have you tried to boot from a USB drive? You should be able to use a live rescue USB to start your system. The Ubuntu Live USB should do it, maybe the Windows install USB. Attempt to boot from a likely rescue USB. If it won't boot from the USB by itself you may have to help it along a bit. Keep pressing F1, F2, F10, and F12. One or another should enable you to choose an alternate drive to boot from. From there, you'll figure it out. Absolutely a Mac would be a terrible idea. Especially on a budget. A PC capable of running most Linux distributions you should be able to get for free from someone. Or W7, for that matter. When you get things straightened out, do get yourself an external drive big enough to make a weekly backup image of your HD, and every day back up files that have changed since the last full image backup. Believe me, that will save your bacon some day, especially if you are running winDOHs. Create and keep safe install media for whatever system you choose. WRITE DOWN your product key if one is needed. (Linux doesn't need one... it is free and you can distribute it and install it as much as you like, so no activation exists.)
BTW, not keeping an up to date backup IS the same as throwing them away, because you KNOW that sooner or later the originals will be lost. Hard drives do fail, you know. It is not an "if" thing, but a "when" thing.
I had it written down. That paper was either lost or tossed out after I was put in the position of having to leave my last place in a hurry. I was under imminent danger of physical assault or even death from that maniac. I didn't have the luxury of time to make sure I had everything. I literally had a few minutes to gather as much as I and my small group of people could carry in that moment. Please stop assuming you know what I did or didn't do. I have flash drives, but that's it. There's the secondary hard drive in my computer, but if you simply mean external drives, those I had are also gone.
You have a second HD in your computer? That makes things a bit easier. So first you have to get the computer booted up. We know that, right? And we know how to do it, right? The W7 install USB should do that. If not, a Ubuntu Live USB will certainly do it. So looks like you will need an hour or two on a friend's computer or library computer or whatever. Maybe some office-r-us type place. A Kinko's, maybe. You got to download the W7 image, or the Ubuntu image, or both, and then set up the thumb drive as a bootable device. You could download the ISO image to your phone to save time on the borrowed computer. Well, that is, if you have an Android and not an i-thing. Really hard to accomplish even the simplest tasks on an iphone. But you will need a PC to flash the ISO to the thumb drive, anyway unless you go hardcore terminal on a rooted android and use dd or parted or some other tool that is probably too geeky for you at this point. So let's just say you will need a couple hours on another computer, with internet access. Once you got the Live USB, boot your computer with it and see if you can access your personal files. If so, copy everything from your boot drive to your second drive, and repair WinDOHs, or else reinstall WinDOHs or install Ubuntu, then you still have your personal files on the second HD on your puter. Still nice and simple, as recovery operations go, and still free or almost free. Is your boot drive encrypted? If not, being it is a Windows system, the files should still be accessible from another computer. You MIGHT have to create a user account on the host computer with the same user name as you used for your W7 user account, I don't know. I am so used to Linux I really don't remember when or if WinDOHs started restricting access to user files. But if you log on with the same credentials even with good User Account Control, you should be able to read and copy your files. You may want to get a SATA to USB adapter. HINT: for 2-1/2" drives just cannibalize the adapter from a dead external USB hard drive. Otherwise get one from NewEgg or Amazon for cheap. Then you don't have to open up the host computer, just plug into USB port. Copy your personal files to one of your thumb drives. Now you can stick the HD back in your computer and install an operating system on it. Of course if you insist, you can let some repair geek do it for you, at a price, but you CAN get your computer up and running again on your own if you just DO it. Don't lose your cool and get all frustrated. You can do this.
But I don't have the product key or access to a USB thumb drive. Any info regarding my W7 product key would be on the main hard drive, which refuses to boot up. I don't know anybody who has a thumb drive.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01LW2NKPZ/?tag=thshde-20 You previously stated that you had some of these already, but as you can see you can buy some for chimp change anyway. You aren't listening. Boot your computer with a thumb drive and get the product key or if not possible get your personal files. And if still not possible, remove the boot drive and stick another in there, even your second drive. Install an operating system. I didn't come here to argue I am just answering your request for help. Maybe you should just take your computer to a repair shop and I will now unsub from this thread. It doesn't seem to be helping you and it is wasting my time. See ya.
I saw a 1TB flash frive on Amazon for $20, so when I get paid next Friday I'll send away for a couple. Until then, however, I'm stuck with a desktop that refuses to boot up. And even with a USB drive, with no way to recover my product key, I just don't see any way to do this. I have no way to install Ubu-whatever onto my desktop since it refuses to boot up.
