I’ve recently got access to MSDNAA. That’s MSDN Academic Alliance. This program for universities allows students to get Microsoft tools free of charge for personal use.
My dream was to have licensed version of Microsoft Windows. In post-soviet countries, it’s really that hard to use one. But with msdnaa my dream came true.
I’ve downloaded client application (<500kb). This one is downloading iso-image of the item, I’ve chosen on microsoft.com. Finally, it downloaded 2,3 Gb Windows 7 Professional Retail x86 iso-file.
Unfortunately, I had no free dvd-r at that moment, and my dvd-drive was in such a horrible state, that it could hardly read any dvd. I don’t even mention it’s ability to write smth :/ But lightscribe works as it should 
So, I’ve downloaded Microsoft ISO2USB tool. This one allows users to burn their iso to usb-drive, and install OS from it. Unfortunately, it failed. That one needed some extra libraries, which I couldn’t find.
I found one third-party tool, which did that for me.
I’m rebooting my system… and there it is! Windows 7 installation!
Unfortunately, right after first screen, my setup failed It couldn’t find any drivers for my lapton, so with the message “Insert dvd/choose location of drivers” all my dreams fainted.
I’ve been trying lot’s of solutions. But nothing could help me.
The only outcome, I’ve faced was: several new partitions on hard-drive, no OS at all.
Right at that moment, I’ve found my Ubuntu 10.10 CD. That’s the only non-brain-damaging solution! It installed from the first time. No pop-alerts! Easy as abc! Even after logging into my braid new ubuntu installation, I wasn’t satisfied enough. I had a valid Win7 Pro key! I had no Win7 Pro. That’s ridiculous.
I thought, the only place in internet, where I can find valid iso-image of Win7 can be somewhere in torrents! I’ve logged into one of the most popular torrent sites out here and quickly found Genuine Win 7 Retail.
But there where no Pro. Only Ultimate revisions. Somewhere, I’ve read, that Ultimate installation has all the versions inside: from Starter to Ultimate, except Enterprise. And yes! You just have to remove or modify
/isoimage/sources/ei.cfg file! That definitely cool
I’ve downloaded win 7 ultimate, changed that ei.cfg with the one from the image, which I’ve got from msdnaa. Finally I’ve got working Windows 7 Professional installation image. The only problem was, that I installed Ubuntu, and got too accustomed to it. Moreover, my dvd-drive wasn’t working correctly I’ve downloaded Virtual Box and installed Windows 7 Pro inside it. It completed successfully and passed validation test with the key provided.
Currently, I’m working under ubuntu, and waiting for the moment, when I’ll suddenly kill my system with “rm -rf /” Then, I’ll try installing Win7 once more
Have a nice day 😉