Clean install of Windows 7 from Windows8.1-problems opening everything

Hello,

I recently did a clean install of Windows 7 SP1 from Windows 8.1 using an official version of windows 7 on my Lenovo U530 Touch Ideapad. I am new to advanced technical knowledge with PCs and have just switched from a Mac so please forgive my ignorance, but I thought I backed-up my computer properly in windows 8 but realized after I wiped my hard drive that i didn't back it properly. I only backed up my windows 8 data. I didn't back up anything else that was pre-installed on the computer (once again, please forgive me if I'm not using the correct lingo).

So once I got windows 7 installed I downloaded all the drivers from Lenovo's site and it was working properly until I started installing windows updates. I was prompted for a reboot pretty soon after I started installing the updates. So i rebooted (in retrospect i should have waited, but it was a windows update window that prompted me for a reboot) when my computer started back up I couldn't get update to start, couldn't get control panel to open, and everything was very slow. Then i tried shutting down and there was a black screen with just my mouse icon showing. It sat like that for about 20 minutes and i forced shut down. I tired opening in safe mode and trying to restore to an earlier point and I can't even get anything (control panel/computer) to open in Safe mode.It seems to boot up fine but when i try to open anything it either takes forever (20mins+), freezes up, or just sits there like i never clicked on anything.

I thought it might be a driver issue or a .Net Framework issue, so I have been trying to get back to the restore point of right before I started to install all the drivers, so I got it to start the restore process and it sat in "preparing to restore your computer" for 50 mins then said system restore has failed. try again ( I didn't get the exact language there, I believe there was an error code). When I tried again i got "There was an unexpected error: Catastrophic failure (0x8000FFF) Please close system restore and try again"

I'm not sure what to do...

Any help is greatly appreciated! And please let me know what additional information I can provide that might help.
Thanks.

Everything needed is here to get and keep a perfect Clean Reinstall Windows 7
especially how drivers are best handled in the first driver-complete OS.

I'd delete all partitions again to be safest. Are you booting the installer as a UEFI device? What are the BIOS settings for UEFI, CSM, Legacy BIOS and Boot Priority order?

Thanks AddRAM- Yes I am booting from DVD from windows 7 and yes I do have the activation key. I'm only concerned with trying to activate it online since it was already activated before. From what I've heard i should just call and activate it over the phone and explain my situation?

Thanks Gregrocker. I just re-installed (before i checked back on here so I hope i did it right) and it seems to be working OK. I had to change the BIOS settings to legacy first and then it worked.

But I haven't installed all Windows updates yet. Should I get my AV installed first?

Yes i did boot from DVD and got "press any key" when i was first installing. No i was not in windows. Now that it is installed, I shouldn't be getting that boot from DVD anymore correct? Since it is booting from my HDD?

Also, I plan to get McAfee (which is free with my TWC subscription), will that conflict with Microsoft Security Essentials at all?

Thanks for the help.

Thanks for all the help!

Yes, install MSE or Panda Cloud free first and then install all Important and Optional Updates. Do not use MucAfee.

You should be following the steps in Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7 which will assure you get and keep a perfect install as long as you stick with the tools and methods in the tutorial, like a million others have without a single complaint or problem.