Thanks, I may be a little confused here, but as I read the USB/DVD download tool link it seems to be set up for a new initial installation. I can do that, but I would then have to load all the programs again. What I was looking for was to be able to boot up to directly on the USB and then reload onto laptop's C: drive a complete image that was previously loaded on an external drive that contains all my programs as well. I can do this now on my desktop computer from the "system recovery disc" CD made on that computer. and the desktop's full image backup on the desktop's external drive. But I appear not to be able to do that on my laptop because it does not contain a CD/DVD drive. I could purchase an an external CD/DVD, but it seems like there should be another option here.
I have also checked the windows 7 professional files I purchased. I have a Microsoft update disc and the update already on a bootable USB stick, In either case there appears to be no ISO file. Where is this normally obtained from?