Downgrade Win 10 to Win 7 on Lenovo T440S - Installs but stuck on boot

[chrisss2016]

I have a Lenovo T440S that had Windows 10 installed. I needed to downgrade to Win 7 due to some software compatibility issues. I deleted all of the partitions, created one large partition, used the clean function in diskpart and converted to MBR, I then put my windows disk on a USB, formatting the USB drive in FAT32 for the install of win 7 since I have no optical drive. I also changed the bios from UEFI to legacy first and the CSM support to on. I booted to the USB with no problems and installed Windows 64 professional. The install seemed uneventful, I named the computer, selected a password and then the install completed and did the final restart. At that point it started to boot, the Lenovo "ThinkPad" splashscreen came on and went dark, as if it was going into windows, but then it repeated, the "ThinkPad" splash screen with the "To interrupt normal start up, press enter" message came up again and this repeats over and over with out end. I tried the reinstall and various and sundry bios settings but nothing helps. I also tried to repair using the USB win 7 installation drive, but I got a "This version of System Recovery Options is not compatible" error. Possibly because the drive is FAT32 and the installation is NTFS?? Right now my T440S is a brick and I am pulling my hair out. Any insight or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

[ICIT2LOL]

Hello and welcome Chris mate if you have the activation code for the machine and if you have access to another machine to make a bootable ISO then go to the link and download the ISO - clean the drive and reinstall from the bootable stick or disk whichever you prefer.
Microsoft Windows and Office ISO Download Tool
Just make sure you get the right version. I always clean a drive before I reinstall to prevent corruption but that choice is yours of course

 

[Megahertz07]

Don't think is the installation disk format. My Win7 installation USB flash disk is Fat 32 and works fine.
Did the Laptop came with Win 7 or 10?
Why did you install it as Legacy and not UEFI?
Why did you use Diskpart and not the installation wizard?

 

[chrisss2016]

Thanks for the replies. I first tried to install as UEFI, but when I had the bios set to UEFI only I could not boot from the USB. I could see the USB drive from the boot menu after pressing F12, but when I selected that drive to boot from it would not boot. When I changed the bios from UEFI to "both" (UEFI and Legacy with the UEFI first) then when I presssed F12 and the boot menu came up I could select the USB drive and it would boot from that and I could start the installation. But then when I got to the installation part, it would not install because the disk was set as GPT. So I used diskpart to delete all of the win 10 partitions, then used diskpart to "clean" any boot records and change from GPT to MBR so window could install. I did not format or anything else, just let the windows installation take care of the rest. Once I did that I was able to install win 7 with no problems. It completed the installation, but then it seems that once the installation was complete it seems like it can not boot from the new installation of windows, and jut repeats the bios start up over and over

 

[Megahertz07]

The USB installation disk must have \efi\boot folder to boot under UEFI.

http://www.sevenforums.com/attachme...ows-7-installer-stuck-setup-starting-boot.zip
Expand the folder on your Fat32 USB disk.
Set BIOS as before
OS=other (or disable secure boot)
Disable fast boot (enable after installation is working OK)
Boot =UEFI
Once you boot the USB installation disk under UEFI mode, (press F12 and when the boot menu come up, select the UEFI USB drive) go to install - advanced - delete all partitions
Win will create 3 partitions
- UEFI -100M Fat32
- MSR - 120M RAW
- Large NTFS
Install on Large NTFS