Installing OS after hard drive upgrade: only restore partition

[Zenith]

Hello

I'm contemplating buying a netbook which will likely only have a restore partition and no OS cd, then upgrading to a small ssd. Is there a way to reinstate the OS on the new hard drive? E.g. Is asking the seller to send me an installation cd and buying an external optical drive the only option? Or can I somehow copy the OS partition to a usb and then reinstall from there?
Thank you,

Zenith

 

[Der-PC-Mann]

Windows 7 can be installed from a USB device, provided the BIOS supports booting from a USB device. I always install Windows 7 from a USB device. I lose CDs, but for some reason I never lose the USB thing... I just... sorta... forget where it is, sometimes... *shifty eyes* Not sure how you go about putting Windows 7 on a USB device, though... it was a long time since I did it, but I'm sure someone else here knows of it.

 

[cboucher]

Windows 7 can be installed from a USB device, provided the BIOS supports booting from a USB device. I always install Windows 7 from a USB device. I lose CDs, but for some reason I never lose the USB thing... I just... sorta... forget where it is, sometimes... *shifty eyes* Not sure how you go about putting Windows 7 on a USB device, though... it was a long time since I did it, but I'm sure someone else here knows of it.

Here are the instructions for creating a bootable usb flash drive that Derp man was referring to...


Installing Windows 7 via USB or SD Media:
Insert your removable media into a Windows XP or Vista PC (or Windows 7 PC) and run the following commands from an elevated command prompt.
1. diskpart
2. list disk (find the disk number for the removable media)
3. select disk #
4. clean
5. create partition primary
6. select partition 1
7. active
8. format fs=fat32
9. assign letter=y (or any free drive letter)
10. exit

Once that is complete put in the Windows installation DVD or mount the ISO (I use VirtualCloneDrive for this purpose) and run the following command.
xcopy x:\*.* /s/e/f y:\
Where “x” is the drive letter of the Windows DVD or mounted ISO. Once complete boot off the device and install the OS. When a new Windows 7 or 2008 R2 build is released, simply delete the contents, rerun the xcopy command and you are ready to go again. As a note this also works for Windows Vista and Server 2008.

 

[Der-PC-Mann]

Was that a typo, you trying to be funny, or you just being a child? :|