Need help on downgrading from Windows 8 to Windows 7

[Matthew Papa]

Hello.
I currently own an ASUS K55A-HI5121E laptop.
It's preloaded with Windows 8 and I want to downgrade it to Windows 7.


1.Will I be able to save the drivers of it or should I download all the drivers on the ASUS website and put it on a USB device/CD?

2. Will I able to use edit the restore partition and make it as Windows 7 as well?

3. And how will I know if the motherboard will support an SSD btw? Is the motherboard a SATA III one? Planning on buying a 60GB Intel 330 SSD. (Sorry out of the topic)

(I haven't reformatted a laptop in my life so I don't know what to do, I am a desktop guy so I hope it's all the same.)

 

[scannall]

Buy a Windows 7 DVD. Lots of places still have them in stock. Then boot from the DVD, format the drive and install Windows 7. After that, go to the ASUS website and download drivers if you are having an issue with something. It *may* work fine without any drivers from ASUS.

 

[USAFRet]

1. D/L all the drivers first, just in case
2. Doubtful
3. It appears to. All references I see say SATA III.

 

[Matthew Papa]

Thank you very much for your quick replies!
I'll just go download all the drivers first

 

[itpro]

As cheap as hard drives are, I would buy a new drive to install Win7 on and keep the Win8 drive just in case. Should something go wrong with the Win7 install (lack of driver support might be an issue), then you could always go back to the original drive. Should Win8.1 resolve whatever issues you have with Win8 you would still have that option as well.

 

[RetiredChief]

Concur with itpro , espeacialy since you are tinking of buying a SSD.

1) Yes down load all the win 7 drivers.
2) NO but that is NOT a problem. Windows 7 has an excellent Back-up app.
... Once you complete the windows 7 installation and all looks GOOD. Goto controll panel, elect back up, then on left side select create a system image. Since this is a single drive laptop, recommend you put the image on your back-up USB HDD - don't have, not nice (LOL). Should you ever need to "reinstall" windows, just pop in the repair disk (or windows installation disk), boot to the DVD, select repair, then restore from image - WALLA, 15 minutes later you reboot to the exact state the system was in when you created the image. NO re-install windows, wait for windows updates, no reinstall drivers and programs. Will not even have to re-activate windows. ONLY will have to re-load what ever changes were made after the image was created.

NOTE: for a single drive laptop, a 60 gig SSD is just to SMALL, also they are not cost effect when compared to a 120/128 gig SSD.

There are several things you need to do for a SSD, while installation is basically identical for SSDs and HDDs there are some minor diff, and tweeks you should do for a SSD. Such as:
.. Verify BIOS is set to AHCI, not IDE
.. Disconnect HDD before installing OS to SSD (Not a problem for a single drive Laptiop)
.. After installation to SSD need to 1) verify defrag is DISABLED, disable hibernation ect

 

[Matthew Papa]

I was planning to like take out the CD-ROM when not in use and place the SSD there. Not sure if that's possible but I read it somewhere!

 

[USAFRet]

I was planning to like take out the CD-ROM when not in use and place the SSD there. Not sure if that's possible but I read it somewhere!

?
If the SSD is your boot drive (as it should be), then no, you can't do it that way.

And 60GB is marginally too small. Definitely too small if it is the only drive. Look into a 128.

 

[Matthew Papa]

Yes the SSD will only be used for booting.
We'll see if I can squeeze some money out and get the 120GB one. Thanks!

 

[Matthew Papa]

I successfully downgraded my laptop to Windows 7 Ultimate. Took some time but all is going well. Thank you for the help!