Linux and Windows 7

[James Naples]

Hello,

I am very pleased with my purchase of an dv7-3085dx model laptop. I have a problem though, and that is I wiped out the factory partitioning structure and configured my hard drive to share linux and windows 7 so I can dual boot. I'm new to windows 7 of course, but it doesnt seem like there is any control over the re-installation of windows 7 other than it doing a factory restore, which would wipe out all the work I just did.

Is there a way to install windows from the recovery discs or does an off the shelf copy of 7 let me do this? It seems a shame that I paid for this softawre license with my purchase and now I can't even use it. Any thoughts or suggestions wuold be geratly appreciated. I have submitted a email to support but out of the 3 I've sent so far I have gotten no response.

[Michal Kapalka (mikap)]

hi,

if i install my laptop, i always backup the finally installed OS with Norton Ghost, and them its possible any time to recover the OS form this backup, of course the data are placed on separated partition.

During the recovery you can define the new size of partition ...., there are several products for this solution.

mikap

[James Naples]

I have tried the recovery CD's and HP limits your options. I am hoping I can initiate the install via command line somehow.

As for the data it's a brand new install with all the junk crap that comes pre loaded. Of course my personal data is on other drives, but I'm trying to see If i can actually use these recovery discs to install with.

Worst case scenario I create an ISO of my linux partitions, restore my laptop to HP factory conditions, attempt to resize the existing partitions and copy over my linux data. This is a lot of work though, and I am hoping someone here has a tip to save me some time.

Thanks!

[Robert Brooks]

An alternative you should consider is to run Windows 7 as a virtual machine. You would install VM host software like VirtualBox or WMWare Workstation as a Linux application, create a virtual machine, and install Windows 7 into that. It is possible that your recovery disk could serve as an install disk in such a case, but I am not sure this would work.

I presume it is still the case that an OS license key is printed on a sticker on the bottom of the machine. If so, that key should work with any matching install media. It is my understanding that it would be legitimate to use any install disk, such as that provided for another machine, for this purpose, but check your license terms to be sure.

I have a Vista VM and a Windows 7 VM running as virtual machines on VirtualBox on Ubuntu Linux, and am very pleased with the arrangement. There are several advantages over dual boot; I believe it is almost fair to say that VMs make dual boot obsolete.