How to create lite Windows 7 for very small hard drive?

[van2]

I have a Chuwi Win10 tablet which is unusable because it came with Windows 10 and the updates have filled up all the 18 Gb that it has available, and can't even update anymore.

I would like to Install Windows 7, but I need to create a slimmed down version. I've read about NLite etc, but these seem to be old and non maintained,
Anyone know what's the best methods right now in 2018 for slimming down Win7 versions?
Also, what should I be looking to remove to be able to cut down at least 5 Gigs install size?
Thanks a lot

 

[mrjimphelps]

What is the total size of your hard drive?

A trick you could try is to install a big SD card into the tablet -- 64 GB would be a good size, if your tablet will take one that size. Windows 10 will use the available space on the SD card in order to do updates. This should get you through Windows 10 updates successfully.

I don't know how successful you would be in trying to install and run Windows 7 on this tablet. Not only because of not enough space on the hard drive, but also the fact that it is a tablet. However, I'll bet you could install and run Windows 8.1 on your tablet. Windows 8.1 can be run from an external drive, so you could probably install a big SD card in the tablet and run Windows 8.1 from the SD card. And you could run Classic Shell with Windows 8.1 to make it look and feel just like Windows 7. Best of all, Windows 8.1 will be supported by Microsoft till January of 2023. If you go the Windows 8.1 route by running it from an installed SD card, I suggest that you keep a good backup on hand, because sometimes SD cards fail.

 

[van2]

What is the total size of your hard drive?

The total size for the Windows partition is 18.6 Gb! It also has an addition 8Gb for Android, but I don't want to mess with the partitions if I don't have to.

 

[Paul Black]

Hi van2, welcome to Seven Forums.

You could create a customised ISO that you could use to install Windows 7.

There is various software available that will allow you to do this (to a certain extent), such as NTLite, RT7Lite, Win Toolkit etc. Although these have not been updated for a while (neither has Windows 7) they are still viable solution.

First though, you need to decide what you want to keep and what you don't want to keep (i.e. Windows Media Player etc).

Then you could use one of the above to slim the ISO down ready for a clean install onto the Tablet.

I hope this helps!

 

[van2]

Thanks for the response, but I've tried these tools and for example RT7Lite gives an error message so it's unusable. Has anyone here done this and recommend a method that actually works?

 

[Paul Black]

Hi van2,

I've tried these tools and for example RT7Lite gives an error message so it's unusable.
Has anyone here done this and recommends a method that actually works?

That's strange because I have used all three that I listed within the last three months and they all worked without any problems!
If you could perhaps tell us what is included in Windows 7 that you don't want installed then perhaps we can better help you!

Where did you get the ISO that you are going to use to reinstall?

I hope this helps!

 

[Paul Black]

Hi van2,

When I have used RT 7 Lite, it too gave me Script Errors, but all you need to do is to click Yes twice and carry on. Using RT 7 Lite can drastically reduce the total installation size, depending on what you want to remove. That's why I said in an earlier post, you need to decided what elements/components/programs etc you don't want to install!

Here is an excellent tutorial for using RT 7 Lite: Reduce Windows 7 OS Size

I hope this helps!

 

[ColinWG]

Oh snap, have you tried cleanmgr ?

When you launch it, it will ask for the drive, then scan the drive, and offer you a list of folders to scrub.

Do that as pass one.

You will notice a button on the app that says "Clean up system files"

This will scan the protected folders and present you with folders of things it considers delete-able.

Do that as pass two and see what sort of space you reclaim.