Problem installing Win 7 on a Win8/10 laptop with UFEI

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  • SuperHanz
    PCHF Member
    • Feb 2017
    • 2

    #1

    Problem installing Win 7 on a Win8/10 laptop with UFEI

    Hi. I am looking for help with my Acer v3-571 Laptop. It came preinstalled with Win 8 and I later upgraded to Win 10. All my other machines use Win 7 and so I decided I’d like to install this on the Acer laptop when the time came for a refresh as I don’t like 10, and like 8 even less so.
    Before I started, I made a partition on the hard drive from within Windows, and in it I put all the files I was concerned about keeping. (This is what I have always done when re installing operating systems in the past.)
    When I rebooted the laptop I couldn’t get the Win 7 DVD to boot. I tried the usual changing the DVD drive higher in the order in the boot sequence etc which didn’t work, so I changed the boot mode in the bios to Legacy, instead of UEFI which enabled me to boot the Win 7 install DVD.
    I was able to get to the part where you can see the partitions on the hard drive and choose where you want to install windows. I opted to to format the partition where windows 10 had been installed, and then attempted to select this partition for my fresh Win 7 install. I noticed I was not able to select the partition, below the window which displays the partitions was a message: "Windows cannot be installed to Disk ) partition 4. (Show details) - (details: Windows cannot be installed to the disk. The selected disk is of the GPT partition style.) I then tried to make a UEFI bootable Win 7 USB storage flash drive using Rufus. This did boot, but only got as far as the Win 7 loading graphic before freezing.

    So I am now in a situation where I am unable to install Windows 7, but I am also unable to restore Windows 10, as I deleted the partition. The recovery partition is still intact, and so when I boot the laptop (back in UEFI) it takes me into the recovery screens. However, if I select the option ‘reset this PC’, I am told that ‘the drive is locked. Unlock the drive and try again’, or ‘Unable to reset your PC. A required drive partition is missing’. Can anyone suggest a way I can install windows & on this Laptop and Hard drive, or alternatively, can I put the hard drive in another PC and retrieve the files I need from the partition I made to save my files, and then format in such a way that I can then install Win 7 on it using legacy bios settings?

    Thanks for any help in advance.
  • jmarket
    PCHF Owner
    • Jan 2015
    • 7634

    #2
    Hi @SuperHanz and welcome

    Windows 7 does support UEFI but only the 64-bit version. The 32-bit versions does not.

    Windows 7 must be booted in legacy boot mode for the installation to start.

    Refer to this TechNet article and see if it might help alleviate your issues https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/...ased-computer/

    Comment

    • SuperHanz
      PCHF Member
      • Feb 2017
      • 2

      #3
      Hi, jmarket, and thanks for taking the time to reply to my message.

      With regards to booting in legacy boot mode, I did actually manage to get Win 7 to boot from the CD by doing this. The problem is, because the drive is formatted for UEFI, It wont actually let me install Win 7 to the drive. However, it did let me use the ‘format’ button to format the main large partition where Win 8 was installed. This means I can no longer restore Windows 8. Furthermore, I made a partition on the drive whilst I still had Win 8 on it and saved all my stuff there. So I can’t just stick the drive in another machine and format it, I either need a way to install Win on the hard drive with that partition intact, so I can access my backed up files on that partition when Win 7 in installed, or failing this, I need to put the drive in another machine and take off the stuff I need to keep before formatting it to use in legacy mode.
      Any further suggestions would be most welcome.

      Thanks

      Comment

      • Rustys
        PCHF Member
        • Jul 2016
        • 7862

        #4
        Get an USB HDD and transfer the information to that.

        Comment

        • veeg
          PCHF Director
          • Jul 2016
          • 8982

          #5
          Any updates for us?

          Comment

          • veeg
            PCHF Director
            • Jul 2016
            • 8982

            #6
            Any updates for us? After 48 hrs this thread will be closed.

            Comment

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