# Installing Dell Windows 7 image in VM

## justin_brody

Hello!

Has anybody managed to install Windows 7 into a VMWare virtual machine from a Dell image?

I have a Dell laptop that didn't come with a Windows disk.  It does have two partitions (/dev/sda1 and /dev/sda2) that look like they're for recovery; presumably that's what I'd use to reinstall everything back to the default.

Does anyone have any ideas about how I could use these to install Windows 7 on a virtual machine?

Any help greatly appreciated!

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## NeddySeagoon

justin_brody,

You probably feed the partition images to a VM then try to boot one of them.

Even if the booting works, one of the things that the recovery image will do is look for signs that its actually running on the system it was made for, then bail out if not. A VM won't look like a Dell, so its game over.

You also need to look at the licencing implications. The GPL (Gates Private Licence) probably forbids installing on any other hardware than the system that the image was provided on.

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## wjb

Windows OEM licenses are for one machine only - not transferable.

The Dell installed windows is almost certainly an OEM one.

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## Mistwolf

If you are still running windows on that machine, there should be an option to create a recover DVD as part of the Dell utilities...or they used to be a few years back.  can't remember if it created a boot disk to access the recover partition or if it actually created a streamlined windows DVD.

NeddySeagoon: last time I played with the recovery partition on a Dell (granted, a few years back), it was a partition to store a hard drive clone/ghost image.  So you would not be able to boot from that partition either way.

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