Windows 7 installation on a 32bit UEFI BIOS on a 64bit CPU

JMtz · 04 Jan 2019

Hello, I've been trying to install Windows 7 on a laptop with Windows 8.1. If I try to install the 32bit version from Windows itself (where the windows installation window pops up). I can't because I don't have enough space, and the option to install it from BIOS mode does not appear. But if I try installing the 64bit version, I can't run the setup program from windows, but it does appear on Boot from file on BIOS. But I don't know how to proceed from there. I would like to know what to do. Thank you

samuria · 04 Jan 2019

Welcome to the forum. How much memory do you have as that determines which to install. Are you booting from DVD or USB and do you want to do a clean install removing all data?

Megahertz07 · 04 Jan 2019

There are two types of installation
- Clean Install, where you boot from win 7 installation disk.
- Update install, where you launch setup from windows. MUST install same bit version and I'm not sure if you can do a downgrade (win 8 to win 7).

Win 7 32 bits is recommended if you have 4G of memory (or less).

- You must set Secure boot and Fast boot to disabled on BIOS.
- If your HDD or SSD is a EFI-GPT it is only compatible with Win 7 64bits. To install win 7 32 you must low format it to Legacy-MBR.

To help you install win 7, we need all your hardware specs (laptop brand and type, HDD or SSD size, memory size etc.)

Please open disk manager (C:\Windows\System32\diskmgmt.msc), expand the window and all columns (so we can read them) and with the snipping tool take a snapshot of whole window.
Post it here as an attachment. Use the paper clip on the answer box, browse to the file image - upload.

JMtz · 04 Jan 2019

Thanks for helping!
-Model: Inco Duplet S
-Processor: Intel Atom Z3735F
-System type: 32-bit OS, x64-based processor
-OS: Windows 8.1 with Bing
It is supposed to have 16GB of memory, but C: takes about 3.8GB from 9.07GB, the rest I guess you can see in Disk manager.

JMtz · 04 Jan 2019

As for Samuria, the laptop only has Micro SD and Micro USB support. I do have an OTG cable.

Megahertz07 · 04 Jan 2019

You have a very small SSD (16G) as a working disk and only 10G is dedicated to the OS (win 8). This is a special installation, probably with a Win 8 CE. There is no space to install a regular win7.
There is a recovery partition. I'm not very familiar with win 8, so I don't know if it is a factory recover (to reinstall win 8) or if it is a maintenance partition to fix eventually problems in the OS. As it is 100% free I would say it is a maintenance partition.

My advice is to leave as it is or you may end with a useless computer.

SIW2 · 04 Jan 2019

Looks like it might be emmc storage - glorified sd card.

There are various win7 emmc drivers around, but the space on that is tiny - usually they are soldered in.

JMtz · 04 Jan 2019

Ah I'll leave it as it is then. Thanks for helping, I'll go and find out how to make Windows 8 less ugly.

Megahertz07 · 05 Jan 2019

To make it look like Win 7 use Classic shell
Classic Shell - Start menu and other Windows enhancements

As the Recovery partition is empty you can resize the C: partition to make it bigger (3G) and the Recovery partition smaller (2.37G). Use disk manager (C:\Windows\System32\diskmgmt.msc)

JMtz · 05 Jan 2019

Thanks! I'll mark this thread as solved, once again thanks for the help.