Downgrading from windows 8

[Scott_J]

I am trying to downgrade from windows 8 that came in my nice shiny new laptop... needless to say I want win 7 back.

So got my copy of win 7 and put the disk in and its complaining that the disk is being blocked by security settings, research has showed this to be the UEFI settings, I switched the bios over to legacy and windows 7 disk worked.

however when I go to install win 7 64 on the HDD it says it can not due to the disk being GPT format, research showed that this format only works with UEFI...

only solution I have found is to delete all partitions and format the entire drive.

while I dislike windows 8, I dont want to delete the OEM backup partitions in case I ever have to send the laptop back or I decide to sell it on and can sell it with windows 8 (damn M$ and not giving win disk or S/N)


is there any option to keep the backup partitions and run win 7, is there a way to install a security license for win 7 for UEFI? or would I need to make a disk image and re-load the image when (if) I want win 8 back.

 

[gomerpile]

what kind of notebook

 

[johnbl]

I am trying to downgrade from windows 8 that came in my nice shiny new laptop... needless to say I want win 7 back.

So got my copy of win 7 and put the disk in and its complaining that the disk is being blocked by security settings, research has showed this to be the UEFI settings, I switched the bios over to legacy and windows 7 disk worked.

however when I go to install win 7 64 on the HDD it says it can not due to the disk being GPT format, research showed that this format only works with UEFI...

only solution I have found is to delete all partitions and format the entire drive.

while I dislike windows 8, I dont want to delete the OEM backup partitions in case I ever have to send the laptop back or I decide to sell it on and can sell it with windows 8 (damn M$ and not giving win disk or S/N)


is there any option to keep the backup partitions and run win 7, is there a way to install a security license for win 7 for UEFI? or would I need to make a disk image and re-load the image when (if) I want win 8 back.

I think you mean (damn "your OEM version" for not giving win disk or S/N)
OEM's make changes to the OS to "add value" Microsoft will not even have a copy of the disks for your machine. Most OEM's put the Windows key in the BIOS on new machines that comes with Windows 8. You should complain to your OEM if you do not like what they are doing. They will not improve otherwise. If you want the generic version of Windows 8 you can just download it from Microsoft. (I hope the generic version will read your encrypted key from your BIOS so you don't have to fight with your OEM to get a clear text version of your key)

 

[pjmelect]

Your title is wrong, it should say upgrading to Windows 7. 😀