Making progress.
Looks like this is down to the *.efi files on the installation media as well as the WinPE files.
It appears to be okay to swap in all of the Windows 8.x *.efi files except the "bcd" file.
I am currently messing around with boot.wim contents.
I made even more progress!
I managed to do a UEFI install, GPT volumes and all.
Unfortunately I have only delayed the problem...
When I boot the UEFI-installed Windows 7 on this machine, I've got no video past the boot splash screen. This is where I will need help going forward. Is there a graphics driver I need to slipstream?
My machine has Intel HD Graphics 4400.
I feel like I'm getting close here.
I have never heard of the need to do that for any device with Win7. There is 7Lite to slipstream in drivers but we've never used it here that I've seen except early in beta to see if editing the OS had any efficacy (it didn't).
How did you see the installation media's progress on screen if there is no display? Those same drivers that allowed the install display should be available in the OS at the minimum. Then you'd pull in the latest driver from Windows Updates or if not provided during Updates from the PC's Support Downloads webpage.
Are there display-related settings in your BIOS setup?
Do you have the latest BIOS firmware?
I`m dieing to see/hear what the benefit to Windows 7 will be when this is all said and done.
Well now you did.
I didn't. And that kept me from doing the installation the normal way. Then I had a choice to make, I either give up and go legacy(since nobody else knew anything) or I get creative and invent a new way to install Windows 7. And I did. I made a hybrid installation media that uses the EFI and WinPE from Windows 8.x (hence why I could see during installation). It's quite amusing when the installer GUI shows Windows 8 but I'm actually installing Windows 7. Of course there was a catch after I did that part of installation, Windows 7 was still not producing anything on the screen. Slipstreaming Intel graphics drivers with the installation did not work.
I had to create an external drive with a bootloader so I could do a legacy boot of Windows 7 to install the driver, as the legacy boot mode on this machine only boots from MBR which the UEFI GPT install lacks.
Windows Update found no drivers of any kind this time around, just the trackpad. Usually I get a bit more out of it than that.
There's still a caveat afterwards, there is no video in Safe Mode because Windows 7 really, really doesn't work with this UEFI+graphics chipset combination. My guess was that Windows 7 uses vga.sys or vgapnp.sys or something like that (I don't know for sure) for basic VGA/SVGA output, but Windows 8.x doesn't have those believe it or not. Got a solution for this?
Yeah, this was the most difficult install of an OS I've ever done.
Just output display settings, the LCD panel, VGA output and HDMI, nothing else. I tried those but they made no difference when using Windows 7 installation media.
Oh comeon, I'm not a n00b!
Last edited by r00tb33r; 17 Jan 2015 at 16:54.
Here's something I need though. Since this install was so difficult to do, I definitely won't want to do it again. I want to create bootable restore media that will do a complete restore, with all of the partitions.
Is there a software product that does that?
Macrium Reflect Free dos this well.
Use it to create a backup image on an external USB hard drive then create the rescue media from within Macrium that you can boot to restore the image with.
I use Acronis True Image but it's not free. Macrium is free.
Yes, simply store a backup image to external hard drive, then if Win7 ever becomes irreparable reimage C in 20 minutes and you're back up and running. Macrium Imaging - Windows 7 Help Forums
If you keep data on a separate partition then it will be safe in its own vault and waiting for the new OS to link using User Folders - Change Default Location or Library - Include a Folder - Windows 7 Forums and Library - Set Save Folder - Windows 7 Help Forums.
Just be sure to keep the data backed up externally too in case of HD failure: Backup User and System Files
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