Windows 10 Epic Fail - How to Restore Win 7???

[SadWindowsUser]

Two weeks ago my desktop PC did a forced upgrade to Win 10. Worked fine until the first check for updates/drivers/etc. - about 15 minutes. After it started updating the performance went to ****, then eventually stopped working. Initially I received an error on booting which stated "ATTEMPTED_EXECUTE_OF_NONEXECUTE_MEMORY".

Several restarts later, I achieved the now infamous choose a keyboard input language screen, for which no input devices respond. Again, restart after restart... to no avail.

But wait... it gets better - days (and multiple reboots/hacks/tricks) later, I just get the black screen with the blue Win 10 banner.

I tried to roll back to Win7 (Home Premium - 64 bit) using the original install disk. It tried repeatedly, but determined no errors - then booted to the black screen of Win 10 death.

Eventually I opted to the DOS prompt from the repair menu, changed the Windows.old folder name to Windows and changed the new Windows (10) folder to Windows.sh!t to try to force loading of Win7 at boot. It kind of worked. I got to a new screen asking me to choose which operating system to load:

Windows 10 (recovered)

Windows 7 (recovered)

I chose Windows 7 - and it booted normally, but instead of a desktop screen, I now get a black screen with a message that my version of windows is pirated... ****??? It won't let me go any further.

I have now removed the hard drive, installed a spare 250GB HD, and reinstalled Win 7 fresh from the CD. Seems to work.

My question is - do I have a hope of restoring the original Win 7 install on the original HD; and if not, is there a way to salvage my installed programs from the original HD? I really don't want to go through the hassle of reinstalling 30 programs. Can I run them from the original HD?

I've wasted 40 hours, which I would love to bill MS for, since I didn't choose to upgrade a half-****, half-completed OS from them - they essentially pushed it. I don't want to waste another 40 hours reinstalling and configuring additional programs and settings. Those hours could better be utilized shopping for, configuring and using a MAC at this point. Windows has about lost this customer.

Any shortcuts to fix this mess is appreciated.

 

[COLGeek]

Unfortunately, I think you are at the point where your best bet is a full, clean install of 7 (and upgrade to 10 if desired) and your applications. If you choose to upgrade to 10, what to install your apps until after the upgrade is complete.

 

[johnbl]

Sure if you install the Windows 7 boot loader to complete your attempt to manually go back to Windows 7.
Boot on a Windows 7 repair disk and use the bootrec.exe commands. There are a series of them,best to google them.
Here is a link. just run all the bootrec commands
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/927392


Ps. You could fix the Windows 10 install but it would still have stripped out the pirate hack and you would not be validated anyway. The problem would have been with your bios and usb drivers and you should have updated both before attempting the Windows 10 update.

Two weeks ago my desktop PC did a forced upgrade to Win 10. Worked fine until the first check for updates/drivers/etc. - about 15 minutes. After it started updating the performance went to ****, then eventually stopped working. Initially I received an error on booting which stated "ATTEMPTED_EXECUTE_OF_NONEXECUTE_MEMORY".

Several restarts later, I achieved the now infamous choose a keyboard input language screen, for which no input devices respond. Again, restart after restart... to no avail.

But wait... it gets better - days (and multiple reboots/hacks/tricks) later, I just get the black screen with the blue Win 10 banner.

I tried to roll back to Win7 (Home Premium - 64 bit) using the original install disk. It tried repeatedly, but determined no errors - then booted to the black screen of Win 10 death.

Eventually I opted to the DOS prompt from the repair menu, changed the Windows.old folder name to Windows and changed the new Windows (10) folder to Windows.sh!t to try to force loading of Win7 at boot. It kind of worked. I got to a new screen asking me to choose which operating system to load:

Windows 10 (recovered)

Windows 7 (recovered)

I chose Windows 7 - and it booted normally, but instead of a desktop screen, I now get a black screen with a message that my version of windows is pirated... ****??? It won't let me go any further.

I have now removed the hard drive, installed a spare 250GB HD, and reinstalled Win 7 fresh from the CD. Seems to work.

My question is - do I have a hope of restoring the original Win 7 install on the original HD; and if not, is there a way to salvage my installed programs from the original HD? I really don't want to go through the hassle of reinstalling 30 programs. Can I run them from the original HD?

I've wasted 40 hours, which I would love to bill MS for, since I didn't choose to upgrade a half-****, half-completed OS from them - they essentially pushed it. I don't want to waste another 40 hours reinstalling and configuring additional programs and settings. Those hours could better be utilized shopping for, configuring and using a MAC at this point. Windows has about lost this customer.

Any shortcuts to fix this mess is appreciated.