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I need to reinstall windows 7 but I want to see if I can create the new install inside virtualbox and install some programs and throw my drivers in a folder, then boot ghost or something similar to install it on to my existing hard drive. I have an external USB hard drive I can use to do this part. I just don't know very much about virtualbox or ghost but I've messed around a bit with VMs.

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  • It has been several days since we heard from you. Have you made any progress?
    – Run5k
    Nov 12, 2016 at 3:20

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Although I have heard many great things about VirtualBox, I have never known someone who has actually done this with that software. Hopefully someone can chime in who has experience in that regard.

Personally, I have reloaded literally hundreds of Windows 7 physical workstations and there may be a much more simple way to achieve your desired end-state result:

  1. Backup the pertinent files and folders (Desktop, Documents, Downloads, Favorites, Music, Pictures, Videos) on the current Windows 7 machine.
  2. Utilize that external USB drive to save a copy of the %SystemDrive%\Windows\System32\DriverStore folder.
  3. Ensure that you have the appropriate product key for your software applications.
  4. Perform the full wipe-and-reload of the Windows 7 operating system.
  5. Check the Device Manager for any missing hardware drivers.
  6. If there are missing hardware drivers, right-click on each one and select Update Driver Software.
  7. Within the ensuing GUI, point it at the DriverStore folder on the external USB drive and use the option to search sub-folders, also.

Once you are done, you should have a clean install of Windows 7 with all of the drivers from the previous build and you can install any programs that you need.

Hopefully that helps out a bit.

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