Question Cannot install Win7 - Drive is GPT partition error

[kep55]

I have an older 4TB drive I installed into an older PC running win10 22H2. I want to install win7 on this drive but the installer won't allow it. It says the drive has a GPT partition. I thought win7 could handle gpt. I ran disc format thinking that might work but no go, Joe. Do I need to break the 4TB into 4 or more smaller partitions?
And before anyone asks, I have some programs what will only run under win7 because mictosoft's sycophants crippled newer versions so they won't run under 7. And, no I NEVER had any security problems with win7, not did I have weekly fixes to security problems introduced in win10/11.

 

[COLGeek]

Re-partition. Make MBR. 2TB is max size for each partition, IIRC.

I would use GParted to do this easily and then install Win 7.

I still don't recommend Win 7 for daily use, but I understand your need.

 

[TerryLaze]

Re-partition. Make MBR. 2TB is max size for each partition, IIRC.

I would use GParted to do this easily and then install Win 7.

I still don't recommend Win 7 for daily use, but I understand your need.

Also, I think, win 7 has to be within the first 2Tb of the disk for it to start.

But also not every version of windows 7 has GPT support they added it to later versions, so if your disk/usb is old, from the first versions, it won't recognize GPT.

 

[TerryLaze]

You can also create a virtual hard drive from windows, install windows 7 on that and add it to the boot menu.
That circumvents all of the issues with win 7 and gpt and partitions, but it might be a bit slower in disk intensive things, and maybe your software will have issues running...

(google windows to go)

 

[kep55]

I put a 4TB Western Digital HDD from an NAS into my PC. I changed the drive to MBR. I can get two 800GB virtual drives with no problems. When I try to allocate the remaining 1.4TB, I can only do less than 100GB. I tried using windows disc management and AOMEI Partition Assistant but no go. I want the one 800GB volume for win7 (which I need for some old programs that won't run under win10. The second 800GB volume I want to install Linux Mint. The final 1.4TB I want to use for extra storage. Any suggestions?

 

[COLGeek]

Please don't start a new thread on the same topic as before. If it was me, I would use Gparted or a live Linux distro which would include it to create the three partitions.

 

[kep55]

Please don't start a new thread on the same topic as before. If it was me, I would use Gparted or a live Linux distro which would include it to create the three partitions.

Didn't realize I was on the same topic. I can make the live Mint and try that.

 

[kep55]

Re-partition. Make MBR. 2TB is max size for each partition, IIRC.

I would use GParted to do this easily and then install Win 7.

I still don't recommend Win 7 for daily use, but I understand your need.

I found out that a Bluetooth wireless keyboard / mouse won't work until after the PC boots completely. So, I plugged in an old Logitech USB combo and got the PC to boot into GParted on a USB dongle. And then, nothing. The PC sat with no video for a half hour. (At least I got to eat supper in peace.) Did I misUSB dongle.s something? FYI - I used Ventoy to get GParted and two other ISOs onto one 32GB