Downgraded Win 8 to 7, will system restore revert back to Win 8?

Fieldinator89 · 14 Jul 2014

Horrible laptop. I wish I would have had the knowledge now that I did upon purchasing.

Toshiba Satellita C55Dt-A5231
500gb HDD. No idea where the other 200gb went. Only read about a total of 300gb now. I am wondering if system restore will fix this. Also when laptop was received it had windows 8 as the pre-installed OS. I downgraded to Windows 7 and am wondering if I do a system reset, will this kick me back to Windows 8? Also, could anything wrong occur due to the BIOS and UEFI with windows 8 etc. Thank you for your inputs.

Jeremy

jimbo45 · 14 Jul 2014

Hi there.

If you don't like the laptop - just restore to state it was in when you bought it and return it - most places give you some time if you don't like a product to return it. Of course if you deleted the restore partition without taking your own backup - then you've got problems -

-- Whatever system you have it always amazes me how many times we have to re-iterate on these Forums to ALWAYS TAKE BACKUP -- even on a brand new PC -- you might never use the original backup but sometimes you need it -- things like FREE MACRIUM are totally 100% free and why people don't do this is beyond my understanding.

(If you haven't destroyed the original recovery partition or have got it on a backup then you can restore the system to the initial "Shop bought" state).

Cheers
jimbo

Fieldinator89 · 14 Jul 2014

I do not wish to restore to Windows 8. I am just hoping to default the storage settings etc. In hindsight, I see the value in creating an initial restore. And I'm sure it's beyond the point of return I am sure. At the time of purchase I was not involved in the activities that I am now and knew very little about what the computer specs meant. Either way it was a rip off. I suppose the touch screen was what drove the price. And that feature was quite annoying. Anyhow, soo I should not restore? Was that the answer?

Ztruker · 14 Jul 2014

System Restore will not bring you back to Windows 8. It will restore you to an earlier time in Windows 7.

What is the problem you are trying to fix? If it's wondering where the hard drive space went, install Treesize Free, it will show you where the space is being used. Most will be consumed by System Restore and Shadow copy and Recycle bin (if you have not emptied it).

SIW2 · 14 Jul 2014

@Jimbo,

It is because most people have never heard of an image.

They have no idea what it is.

They might some vague idea about backing up files, but that is all.

There are several good free versions available. My pick is Aomei backupper, but macrium and Paragon and others also have them. It would save a lot of people a lot of trouble if they did what you suggest.

Mark Phelps · 14 Jul 2014

500gb HDD. No idea where the other 200gb went. Only read about a total of 300gb now. I am wondering if system restore will fix this.

No, System Restore, or more appropriately named Operating System Restore will simply reset the OS and some system files back to their installed versions on the date of the restore. That will not affect your user data.

Also when laptop was received it had windows 8 as the pre-installed OS. I downgraded to Windows 7 and am wondering if I do a system reset, will this kick me back to Windows 8?

Ordinarily, yes, a Reset will do what the word implies -- reset the system back to its original condition. But that is only true as long as the original Recovery partition is still in place. If you messed with that during your "downgrade" to Win7, Reset is not going to work.

gregrocker · 14 Jul 2014

Did you pay attention to where you were installing Win7 on the hard drive? If you wanted to Dual Boot you should have created a new partition to install to. If you wanted to replace Win8 you needed to delete all partitions to create and format a new one to install.

Post back a screenshot of Disk Management - Post a Screen Capture Image
so we can see what you've done. Tell us what is on each partition if you know.

Are you satisfied with the performance of Win7 so far? If not or if your install was done much differently than the perfect install compiled in Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7 then I would do it over.

Fieldinator89 · 14 Jul 2014

I'm assuming it's the 183gb unallocated??

gregrocker · 14 Jul 2014

Jeremy -

It looks correct althought the Bitlocker encryption if not intended should be undone as it can mess you up later unless carefully managed. The 183gb Unallocated is empty and can be created into a new Logical data partition or you can extend C into the space using How to extend partition easily with Partition Wizard - video help.

No you can never revert to an old OS using System Restore, just System Imaging which is the best way to preserved your install so you don't have to reinstall again.

If you're happy with your install then you can back up an image externally. Backup Complete Computer - Create an Image Backup

Fieldinator89 · 14 Jul 2014

I downloaded the tool. I was following the video, but immediately upon clicking 'expand partition', a pop up says 'cannot extend partition, not enough space'. I can right click the unallocated space and choose 'wipe partition'. Is this what I should do, and then attempt to extend?