[Downgrade W10 to W7] Windows 7 won't boot

[Minjan]

Hello sevenforum users,

I have been trying to replace pre-installed Windows 10 to Windows 7 x64 in UEFI (Secure boot disabled) on my girlfriend lap Acer V15 V3-575G-50W2. Bios version is 1.10. I have various reasons to downgrade, please accept it
I almost have lost my sanity with such a task (why should be so difficult to install another OS?)

As I wrote earlier, I wan't to install W7 in UEFI - so far I have successfully booted W7 x64 USB device, formatted Primary Partition (no other partitions were modified or formatted), the installation was almost made, just one restart was needed at the end of installation as usually. After the restart, the "Starting Windows" screen appeared, but it frozed almost immediately.

I'm running out of ideas now - I'm completely clueless and have no idea, what to search for...

Thanks for any usefull advice ^^

 

[Taplice]

Try to run Windows 7 in a virtual machine hosted by Windows 10.

 

[Megahertz07]

Have it already pass trough the OOBE where you define user?
Try booting safe mode (F8), and if it boots, go to device manager and install all missing drives and then reboot.

 

[Minjan]

Hi Megahertz07,
it didn't pass to OOBE, it freezes while the "Starting Windows 7" is displayed.

It also freezes in safe mode...I can see list of drivers loading and it always stops after "..disk.sys" driver was loaded.
I want to mention that the laptop has hybrid HDD (with 8GB SSD "cache").

 

[tommyg562000]

I suggest upgrading to Windows 10.

 

[Megahertz07]

I'm not telling that is your case, but I've recently discover that on some new hardware, Windows 7 isn't possible to install.
A similar post is http://www.sevenforums.com/installation-setup/398482-windows-7-x64-uefi-install-even-possible.html

 

[Layback Bear]

I suggest upgrading to Windows 10.

Did you not read this from post #1

I have been trying to replace pre-installed Windows 10 to Windows 7 x64 in UEFI (Secure boot disabled) on my girlfriend lap Acer V15 V3-575G-50W2. Bios version is 1.10. I have various reasons to downgrade, please accept it

 

[ThrashZone]

Hi,
Yea not too many people here understand or want too install win-7 with uefi
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorial...e-firmware-interface-install-windows-7-a.html

Did you clean the disk or during the install ?
It's best to clean it with another computer.

 

[Minjan]

Hi,
Yea not too many people here understand or want too install win-7 with uefi
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorial...e-firmware-interface-install-windows-7-a.html

Did you clean the disk or during the install ?
It's best to clean it with another computer.

Hi,
I already read the link you have posted, but....I noticed this point:

• A blank, partition-free, hard disk for installation.

So I have to remove all the recovery partitions from previous W10 installations? I still can access to recovery and other options thru boot menu item "Windows 10" with options like: Change UEFI settings, Run CMD, Boot from other device, etc.....and I formatted primary partition...

If needed, I will wipe whole disk, but I still want to access W10 (license), OEM software and recovery tools, so thats why I didn't clean whole disk, but only primary partition.

 

[Megahertz07]

Did you created a DVD or USB flash factory recovery disk?
If you didn't do it BEFORE wiping the disk.
If your BIOS doesn't have a option to created a DVD or USB flash factory recovery disk, install Win 10 using the Win 10 key that came with the laptop, install the Acer recovery program and then created a DVD or USB flash factory recovery disk.
Once you have the recovery disk, it's safe to clean the disk partitions.

 

[Minjan]

Did you created a DVD or USB flash factory recovery disk?
If you didn't do it BEFORE wiping the disk.
If your BIOS doesn't have a option to created a DVD or USB flash factory recovery disk, install Win 10 using the Win 10 key that came with the laptop, install the Acer recovery program and then created a DVD or USB flash factory recovery disk.
Once you have the recovery disk, it's safe to clean the disk partitions.

Before I wiped disk, I made a full windows recovery (folder called "WindowsImageBackup" with loads of data, main recovery file has about 30GB and it's .vhdx file). It is saved on other PC. Is that an adequate recovery backup to wipe whole disk, including those small recovery partitions?

 

[Megahertz07]

A UEFI disk for win 10 has at least 4 partitions:
- One 100MB FAT 32 UEFI partition for the boot loaders
- One 120MB RAW partition MS reserved
- One 30 MB NTFS Windows 10 recovery partition
- One remaining space, NTFS Windows 10 partition
Manufactures also creates a ~30 MB partition that holds a factory recovery system. With this partition you should create DVD's or USB flash disk to recover to factory settings in case your have a disk failure.
I'm not familiar with windows recovery, but if it makes a image of only the Windows 10 partition, you won't be able to restore your system because you also need, at least, the UEFI partition. You should have created a DISK (all partitions) backup.
If you haven't erased the ~30 MB partition that holds the factory recovery system, you should create this disks before erasing all partitions.

 

[profdlp]

Did you not read this from post #1

Look at his post history.

 

[torchwood]

Hi Minjan,
Some OEM comps cannot actually support W7,
as the Bios has been updated to support W10, if there's not a downgrade BIOS update, which there is not for your model, (originally 8.1 but W10 OEM'ed)
I think your going to be out of luck.
I also suspect it does not have downgrade rights, the product key you need for W7 is not the same as the Digital Entitlement key you have for W10, you would need to buy a new one, difficult to come by nowadays.

Roy