[SOLVED] Can't access manufacturer recovery wizard to remove windows 10

[w.e.coyote73]

I have an old windows 7 (2010) laptop which I foolishly allowed microsoft to upgrade to windows 10 when they offered free upgrade. Laptop now pretty unusable after all the window 10 upgrades. So I was trying to reinstall windows 7 from preinstalled factory image. but following manufacturer instructions by pressing 0 or F8 whilst booting doesn't start recovery wizard. Has microsoft disabled wizard when w10 installed? As far as i can see the hidden recovery files are still on c: drive. Any ideas?

 

[Lutfij]

Once you migrate from an OS older than Windows , the file structure on your drive will be changed from MBR to GPT and with that, it's likely that the partition is gone or that the files are rendered useless. You would need an installer for Windows 7 onto a bootable USB drive in order to remove your installation of Windows 10. Which right now is ...going to be impossible unless you have the installation DVD for the OS.

You could prove me wrong by passing an image of the files you're accepting as the recovery files.

 

[Colif]

Once you migrate from an OS older than Windows , the file structure on your drive will be changed from MBR to GPT

No it doesn't.

The only time a win 10 PC swaps from MBR to GPT is during an install or if you run that conversion command. Updating win 7 to 10 still leaves the disk format the same... slaps Lutfi for being silly

The rest is right though, op needs a USB installer. Who made laptop as you might be able to get an image from them.

you can make one but you need the product key 1st to produce it - https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows7

 

[howtobeironic]

Well, the bad thing about Windows 10 auto-upgrade is it MIGHT delete some recovery partitions or at least misalign them (like Lenovo OKR, it has REALLY specific instructions for its recovery partition, like it should have 0x10 (not the real one, I'm just throwing that ID off my head but google it and you should find) partition ID, must be the fourth partition in the drive etc.) and as MBR supports only four partitions per drive, there is a good chance it's unusable. You could bring it back, but it's A) not worth it, B) will require at least two full wipes. Though the instructions differ, you'll certainly have to do a wipe.

So, what will I recommend is, if it hasn't been 30 days since the upgrade happened, you can roll back.
"For a limited time after upgrading to Windows 10, you’ll be able to go back to your previous version of Windows by selecting the Start button, then select Settings > Update & Security > Recovery and then selecting Get started under Go back to the previous version of Windows 10. This will keep your personal files, but it'll remove apps and drivers installed after the upgrade, as well as any changes you made to settings. In most cases, you'll have 10 days to go back. "

Or, if it has been 30 days, you will need to reinstall the whole Windows 7 using an install media. You will have to do a fresh install, you can pretty much copy off/image whatever is important using Macrium Reflect (imaging software) or Hiren's Boot CD (recovery CD) and reinstall or copy them back when you're there.

As far as I know you can still retrieve the key from the Windows 10 install and reuse it to activate your Win 7, but you'll have to do the phone activation. Don't take my word for it though. https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us...-30-days/9240f20c-38ce-4bcb-86e5-da6c3d768ccd