The nice folks at NeoSmart Technologies have created a set of Windows Vista Recovery CD image files. They are about 120 MB and are “out there on the torrents.” If you’re not familiar with working with .torrent files, it is not difficult. First, you’ll need to download the small torrent file and save it to a folder on your desktop.
Download the 32-bit version
Download the 64-bit version
A torrent file is really a request for a specific file. A torrent client is a program that knows how to use that request to download files that may be distributed on several different computers around the world or may be on only a few. A tiny, and easy to use bittorrent client is uTorrent. You will need a bittorrent client in order to download the actual .iso image file to create the bootable DVD. Here are the steps involved.
1. Download uTorrent.
2. Use your antivirus program to scan utorent.exe if you’re paranoid. (I am.)
3. Run uTorrent from the folder in which it downloaded.
4. Select the defaults on the first setup screen. It’ll probably work fine.
5. Select File -> Add Torrent and navigate to the folder in which you placed the torrent file.
6. Click the torrent file and click “Open.”
Don’t be dismayed if your download starts very slowly. Usually with large files, it will eventually accelerate to a speed that “maxes out” your connection. This is what uTorrent looks like when the download is complete.
