I'm replacing my motherboard in my windows 7 machine and will need to reinstall windows. Unfortunately I don't have access to the windows 7 upgrade. I pre-ordered with the student discount. I tried to go back to the original download that Microsoft e-mailed me but apparently that was only available for 30 days after purchase. Is there anyway I can get a legit copy of windows 7 without buying it again?

All you need is the KEY and you can use any other students upgrade disc to make yourself one.Now without the key, I guess you are purchasing a second copy.

How can I get the upgrade disc though? I don't know anyone else that has upgraded to windows 7.

You will need to contact studentwindows.us@digitalriver.com for assistance.Carey Frisch

Mohaavi, If DigitalRiver can't get you going, You might try something that I experienced. Story: I built a new machine a new I7 920 and put Windows 7RC on it. Was trying for the first time to do a Raid0 setup. Everything was working fine. Loaded in a lot of the programs that I use. Tried to tweek my video card. This caused a crash because I went too far. My Raid0 didn't load properly after that. My bios then change to start up on the next drive. It would not start after the start up screen. I had placed another drive into my new machine for data retrieval and earlier programs. The other drive was from a D 940 processor machine also running Windows 7RC. Just for the kick of it I tried something. In The bios a change was made from Raid to ATA/EIDE and I started the OS in SAFE MODE. It started up and then the found new hardware things started to pop up. I installed my motherboard software in and restarted the computer. Everything ran fine. So to myself the thought was this is a good time to do direct comparisons of the processors with the same programs and setup of the previous machine. There was quite a difference. This is the major point: I used it this way the rest of the day. The next day I got the Not Genuine warning. At this point for you I think you would have to re-validate by phone to Microsoft because you have changed machines. Reinstall would not be necessary and good to go. I put the other drive back into the D 940 machine after that. Both machines are working fine. Just a try. JB

If I can change motherboards without having to reinstall then I won't reinstall. BUT after doing some google searches everyone says that it is better to reinstall after changing out the motherboard.

Mohaavi; I really can't tell you any different. There would be possible driver errors I assume if they are the same name or same board manufacture. I don't know this for sure. This was just a suggestion relating to my experience. Mine have been running fine since July when this happened. I use to do it all of the time with XP and only had a problem with NVidia drivers with ATI cards. I used it as a process to tell if there was a hardware problem or a software problem. Starting up any of three of my computers that are running Intel processors can be done this way from one hard drive. And it has been working great for 2 years now. I can start up a Asus board w/E4700 onboard video, Abit w/Q9550 NVidia 280(just got this card was a 8500GT) and Intel w/D 940 ATI 4870. This may not be the right way. I tend to shy away from reinstalling now unless I have to. But it has worked for me. Vista and Windows 7 will not allow this without re-Validating. All computers are using the OS that was installed on them. The switch overs are only for test. The computer shops would just install the OS back on the computer and the rest was up to you or pay an additional fee for installs. That got old quick and at times that did not resolve the problem. Not trying to sell a procedure, just sharing something that happened. JB

Eh... I didn't get my computer from a shop. I ordered all the hardware from newegg and built it myself and I have no problem reinstalling the OS, I usually reinstall my OS once a year to keep it from getting bloated and slowing down anyways. Back on subject, I got it all worked out. After e-mailing studentwindows.us@digitalriver.com they sent me a link to a new download page. Thanks everyone for your timely replies.