Exploring the possibility of moving back to Windows 7 from Win 10 upgd


  1. 21546041
    Posts : 3
    Windows 7 Professional 64bit
       New #1

    Exploring the possibility of moving back to Windows 7 from Win 10 upgd


    Hello,

    My wife and I both moved to Windows 10 from Windows 7, and all went well for a while but I'm now exploring the possibility of moving back to Windows 7 on my wife's system. We are well beyond the thirty day reversal period. I have an identical drive I plan to do a clean install of Win 7 on using the original Windows 7 media, and I would like use the existing Win 10 drive as a storage drive thus leaving all her work in place. As I recall, there used to be a way to do this and not have to worry about a conflict at boot by deleting the OS command files of the "soon to be" storage drive. I'm not sure if this is still possible or how to proceed with the the process with the Win 10 OS. I certainly don't want the 10 Dr. to be recognized as a bootable drive. Is setting the boot order in the BIOS the correct way to go here, or can the boot info be moved, removed or renamed while still allowing the drive to be accessed for its data?

    Thank you
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  3. Layback Bear
    Posts : 25,847
    Windows 10 Pro. 64/ version 1709 Windows 7 Pro/64
       New #2

    If it was my computer I would backup all the data I wanted to save to a external drive. Then wipe and format the drive with W-10 and do a Clean Install of Windows 7.
    Once all that is done I would partition the new Windows 7 drive and make a partition for the saved data. Then copy not move/send to the data from the external drive to the new partition.

    What you end up with is a new install of Windows 7.
    A new partition with your saved data and the saved data still on the external drive for safe keeping.
    Last edited by Layback Bear; 03 Jan 2016 at 03:06. Reason: some high light and underlining
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  4. AddRAM
    Posts : 13,576
    Windows 10 Pro x64
       New #3

    If you don`t want to take Jacks advice, you`d have to mark the windows 10 drive inactive and make sure it`s connected to at least the 2nd sata port on the motherboard, and 2nd or 3rd in the bios.
    Make sure you install 7 with all other drives unplugged.
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  6. 21546041
    Posts : 3
    Windows 7 Professional 64bit
    Thread Starter
       New #4

    Thank you both very much. These are both quite helpful in pointing me in the correct direction.

    Much appreciated.
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  7. torchwood
    Posts : 7,107
    W7 home premium 32bit/W7HP 64bit/w10 tp insider ring
       New #5

    unplug


    Make sure you follow the direction in the last line of Addram's post

    Roy
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