Managed to boot to USB device but now prompted for drivers

AlTarf · 11 Jan 2014

Hello. I'm new. I registered just today because I'm so PISSED at this UEFI thing with its Secure Boot and whatever else, which prevented any other booting than Windows itself......... but like it says on the title - I managed to boot my USB flash drive on the way to W7's installation. My goal is to install Windows 7 x64 Home Premium in another partition as I want to keep my pre-installed Windows 8 OS in the main partition and of course, all the recovery partitions because I generally like the OS, but I also want W7 at compatibility reasons or even as the optional OS I miss so much. So I bought this PC, it's a an Acer Az1620ar328, it's got an i3-3220 3,30 GHz with 4 GB RAM... it came with Windows 8 x64 Single Language, and now wanna install W7 in a different partition - nevertheless, when I finally launch to the bootable W7's installation and choose language, I get this horrific message:

http://www.mcbsys.com/techblog/wp-co...verneeded1.png

everything was so perfect until that as I made sure I could boot to W8 after configuring the UEFI to make it CAPABLE of booting another than just the OS of W8, so I went on acer.com, found my PC by using the serial number and downloaded its hard drive's driver so when giving it another try I'd use it to continue with W7's installation. However I got yet another horrific message saying that the driver could NOT be installed "contact the manufacturer to obtain the latest update" - I hate that sentence so much -.- but the thing is that IT IS the latest driver... so here's my problem. Anyone's got an idea what this could be? I really wanna install W7 alongside W8 and operate both. Thanks.

AlTarf · 11 Jan 2014

Please anyone answer, say anything, ask a simple question..... ANYTHING. I can specify more information. I really wanna solve this.......

gregrocker · 15 Jan 2014

Sorry but I've been busy doing exactly what you're trying to do, installing WIn7 in Dual boot to test on Win8 PC's. Each of these brands has different UEFI crapware so it's a different puzzle on almost every one. Unfortunately I haven't done an Acer yet, but the basics are that you must disable Secure Boot (normally under Security or Boot tabs in BIOS Setup) and then enable CSM or Legacy with UEFI first

Sometimes however you don't choose CSM or Legacy but keep it fully UEFI since you need a UEFI install to be able to Dual Boot with Win8 on the drive which is already victim of UEFI.

Other times you'll have choices for CSM or Legacy to mix the drives, but specify which - MBR or GPT - is to boot.

But the error you're getting is almost always a bad installer, and since you're using flash stick it could be that you haven't made the key file edit to install Win7 64 bit in UEFI shown in UEFI Bootable USB Flash Drive - Create in Windows under the Manual Option 2. But there's no need to do that because you can use the program in Option One which does it all for you, so that 's what I'd do first if you haven't.

Then if it doesn't boot check over those settings carefully, post back your choices (camera snap if possible) and any error message your getting.

AlTarf · 15 Jan 2014

Hey there. First of all, the drivers prompting error I'd get was due to not using the right ports to boot Windows 7's installation. I actually managed to get to the installation but then encountered myself with the GPT problem. No, I haven't tried the option one, but I will right now - have to first back up my stuff. Option one seems promising, thanks a lot for answering and please don't be, I know it's so tricky, it took me like a day just to install Windows 7 as I couldn't find a way to back up the recovery partitions and all that shit... so then did and formatted the whole drive, but now gonna try this cuz I like W8. Again, thanks for answering. I'll keep you up with the news.

AlTarf · 16 Jan 2014

Hello again. Sooo I did what you suggested, using the rufus software I mean, it sorta worked but this time I got a warning saying that "The partitions on the disk selected for installation are not in the recommended order. For additional information about installing to GPT disks go to the Microsoft website (Microsoft Corporation) and search for GPT." I mean it didn't prevent W7's installation, so I just ignored the warning and went on... it seem to have worked, I'm on W7 now installing necessary drivers, but W7 took over both OSs, I mean the dual boot now has that black style (when choosing the OS) I tried setting W8 as the default OS but didn't work, oh well I take it, better than nothing haha. Thanks a lot!

gregrocker · 16 Jan 2014

Post back a screenshot of Disk Management - Post a Screen Capture Image if you want and we'll check it over for you.

The benefit of having the black screen Windows Boot menu is that it doesn't have to restart out of Windows 8 GUI to start Win7, but just boots right into Win7. However we can help you adjust it if you want.