Can i restore to a smaller drive

I have tried to restore from a 640 GB drive to a 500 G drive and have had no luck.  Restore goes through with no errors, but does not create a Windows OS partition at all..  Big problem.. Drive size should not matter as long as the drive is large enough to install the software....

I agree. I think if you buy a set of recovery disks they may work within a reasonable range of the size.
If you are using ones you made via the recovery manager, those will not work on a smaller hard drive.
I used the factory disks on mine and got that HDD too small error, but I was trying to install on a 80 GB HDD and the smallest drive offered in my model was 160 GB.
Here is the link you need:
http://www.mydigitallife.info/official-windows-7-sp1-iso-from-digital-river/
Again:
1. Download the 32 or 64 bit version of W7 that is on the MS COA sticker on the bottom of your PC. and burn the ISO to a DVD using a CD burning program capable of burning ISO files.
2. Install and use the 25 digit product key on the bottom of your notebook on the COA sticker, to activate the installation.
3. Download any drivers you need from your notebook's support and driver page.
Best Regards,
Paul

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