convert from Mint 17 to Windows 7

5566seahawk · 07 Feb 2015

Brother built a Mint 17 PC for me after my Window 7 motherboard fried. Can't get used to Mint and want to go back to Win 7. Mint has 128Gb Crucial SSD that has all of the Mint OS and programs on it and a separate 1Tb WD HD for documents. How do I go to installing Win 7 on this. I will copy all of my documents to flash drive before. In fact, I have a spare SanDisk 128 GB SSD that I would like to install Windows 7 onto it. All the SanDisk has on it now is a clone of the Mint 17 OS. Format the SanDisk and the WD HD? My wife has a Windows 7 PC running which I can use if needed. I have a USB IDE/SATA cable adapter also. Lots of options for me but confused how to start. Thank you.

whs · 07 Feb 2015

That should be pretty easy. Get a Windows 7 license and install on the spare SSD. You can do that with the SSD attached externally. Make sure the SSD has an aligned primary active partition before you install. Then add the SSD to the build and switch the BIOS boot sequence. You can even keep Mint on the original SSD. No need to save any data since that is on a separate HDD.

5566seahawk · 07 Feb 2015

So I don't have to format the WD HD at all? I assume I have to format the SanDisk SSD though. I don't know what this means:"Make sure the SSD has an aligned primary active partition before you install." Can you please explain further? Thank you...

whs · 07 Feb 2015

If you have an aligned primary active partition on the spare SSD, then the installation will not create a seperate system partition (which I prefer). But you can also install if the SSD is all unallocated space (not freespace).. All those operations are easy to perform with Partition Wizard.

pbcopter · 07 Feb 2015

I would suggest disconnecting all other hard drives until after you install Windows 7 on the SSD.

AddRAM · 07 Feb 2015

Most definetly disconnect the hard drive and the Mint ssd during the install.

**Pauly** · 07 Feb 2015

Couple of tutorial walkthroughs you may find handy if your not used to the win 7 install process

Clean Install Windows 7

Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7

whs · 07 Feb 2015

Disconnecting the other drives is always a good idea. But if you install on an external drive and to a predefined aligned primary partition, that is not really necessary.