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

[JMtz]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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

 

[Megahertz07]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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