dell - Installing Windows 7 on notebook with Windows 8 pre installed?

28
2014-03
  • Tavio

    I have just acquired a Dell Inspiron 7720 with Windows 8 pre installed. I want to remove Windows 8 and install Windows 7 in it. Windows 8 is installed in the C: partition which is in GPT style. There are 2 other partitions that seem to be related to Recovery. I don't care about the data in C: but I don't want to lose what's in Recovery. All partitions are in the same physical disk, which has 1TB of total space.

    What I tried to do was to go into BIOS, change boot from UEFI to Legacy and boot from my Windows 7 DVD. The installation process then complained that Windows 7 could not be installed in C: because it is a GPT partition.

    In my google searches I learned that Windows 7 can be installed in a GPT partition if I enable UEFI in the BIOS and then boot from the Windows 7 DVD in UEFI mode. However, I have no idea how to boot from the Windows 7 DVD in UEFI mode.

    Can anybody advise me on how do acomplish this?

    Thanks!

    P.S.: I did a search here in superuser before asking, but all I found was a thread teaching how to get to the bios configuration screen. I am able to do that, my problem lies elsewhere.

    • Answers
  • magicandre1981

    I had the same issue with the Dell 7520 (15R SE)

    You need to go to the UEFI with F2 and set the option Load Legacy Option ROM to true.

    Now Windows 7 still uses UEFI, but UEFI loads the old VGA BIOS ROM which allows the installation of older Operating systems.

  • ernie

    While I'm not familiar with that particular system and UEFI/BIOS, generally the steps would be:

    • Enable UEFI
    • Disable Secure Boot as Windows 7 does not support it
    • Boot from the DVD - depending on the BIOS, the boot devices may show both legacy and UEFI options in the boot menu; make sure to select the UEFI version if that's the case.

    • Related Question

    How to CLEAN INSTALL Windows 7 Professional 64Bit on Dell Inspiron 15R Turbo / Special Edition laptop?
  • Shiva

    I recently bought a Dell Inspiron 15R Turbo/Special Edition with following configuration:

    1. 3rd Generation Intel® Core™ i5-3210M processor,
    2. Windows 8 Single Language, English (64bit),
    3. 8GB 2 DIMM (4GB x2) DDR3 1600Mhz,
    4. 1.0TB 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive,
    5. 15.6" FHD Anti-glare (1920x1080) For ICC,
    6. AMD Radeon™ HD 7730M DDR3 2GB - ICC,
    7. 12.7" SATA Tray Load DVD+/-RW,
    8. Intel® Centrino® Wireless-N 2230,
    9. 802.11b/g/n + Bluetooth v4.0 & 6-cell Lithium Ion (48WHr) Battery, and
    10. Blue colored USB ports which support USB ver 3.0 I guess

    As I am not impressed with Windows 8 Single Language 64bit OS, I want to format & clean install Windows 7 Professional 64Bit on this laptop.

    I tried doing that by changing the SATA operation to Intel Smart Response Technology and disabling the Secure Boot option. Though it boots from the DVD & shows the first (all black & grey screen) which says Windows loading files; the installation freezes at the second screen that says 'Starting Windows'.

    What is the procedure to do a clean installation of Windows 7 Professional 64bit on this laptop?


    • Related Answers
  • user197769

    I had the same problem, but found I could install Win 7 Pro if I changed the BOOT mode to "Legacy; Secure boot: OFF".

    Note: At the end of my install I had no network drivers loaded, so had to download these from Dell copy them across to the laptop and then perform an installation. Once installed I had network/Internet access and could complete all other software upgrades directly from the laptop.

  • ThePiachu

    It is possible that you might be having problems with your hard drive drivers. Here is an explanation on how to install additional drivers during Windows installation:

    1. First Load BIOS to Default

    2. Confirm RAID is ON under Sata Controllers

    3. Proceed with OSRI

    4. Once in the partition table Page, if the drive is still not visible, Remove teh OS CD and insert the Drivers adn resources DVD sent from Dell.

    5. Click on Load Drivers- this will take about few seconds and detect the Intel Controller Driver. Select and Click Next.

    6. Now it should show the Drives available and you should be able to proceed with completion of OS installation.

    I had a similar problem with my Dell laptop while making a clean installation myself.

  • magicandre1981

    I found the cause. You need to go to the UEFI with F2 and set the option Load Legacy Option ROM to true.

    After a reboot you can boot from Windows 7 DVD and install Windows 7 without the freeze.

  • Manuel Quijada

    I have just managed to get rid of Windows 8 and installing Windows 7 in my laptop. I hope this helps:

    1) Preparing
    1.1) Download all required Windows 7 (64 bits) drivers from DELL (http://www.dell.com/support/drivers/us/en/19/Product/inspiron-17r-se-7720). The SATA driver (Serial-ATA_Driver_VWCH1_WN_11.6.0.1030_A02.EXE) is needed while installing Windows. The rest (see the list in Section 3) will be needed after installing Windows.
    1.2) Execute “Serial-ATA_Driver_VWCH1_WN_11.6.0.1030_A02.EXE” and select the option that allows to extract the contents of the package without installing the drivers.
    1.3) Save the resulting files into a flash memory device, within a folder named “Serial-ATA_Driver_VWCH1_WN_11.6.0.1030_A02” (for example).

    NOTE: An alternate method (more complex and with few advantages) is making a bootable DVD from the original Windows installation disk for including the SATA drivers. This is explained in “Tutorial: How to clean install Windows on Inspiron 17R SE” (forum.notebookreview.com/dell-inspiron-dell-studio/686824-tutorial-how-clean-install-windows-inspiron-17r-se.html). Instead of using "Ultraiso" (the evaluation license cannot work with Windows DVD because it contains files greater than 300 MB), "Imgburn" (www.imgburn.com/) can be used for making the bootable image. See “How to create a Windows Vista / 7 installation disc (bootable) using ImgBurn” (forum.imgburn.com/index.php?showtopic=11194).

    2) Installing Windows
    2.1) Plug the flash memory device (including DELL Inspiron SATA drivers) and insert Windows 7 installation DVD.
    2.2) Reboot the laptop, press F12 (Boot Options), change the UEFI boot mode to Legacy (Secure boot: OFF) and boot from the DVD. Windows installation process should start.
    2.3) After selecting Windows installation language and accepting the license terms, select "Custom (advanced)" installation type. Then the list of available disks and partitions will appear (not all of them will be shown because a proper SATA driver is missing). So:
    2.4) Click on "Load Driver", click "Browse" and select "Removable Disk" (the flash memory device). Then select the directory "Serial-ATA_Driver_VWCH1_WN_11.6.0.1030_A02\f6flpy-x64\f6flpy-x64". The complete list of partitions should appear after installing the driver.

    Notes: If the installation of the SATA driver fails, retry. It is also possible to have unexpected blue screen errors for "iaStor.sys" (address FFFFF880030A043B) when Windows is about to automatically restart, but they can be ignored (seemingly). These problems occurred to me only when using the alternate method (making a bootable DVD including the SATA drivers).

    2.5) Select a partition and continue installing Windows normally.

    Note: Delete the existing partitions and create a new one if the installation complains about "GPT style" partitions.

    3) Installing the rest of drivers
    When Windows 7 is completely installed, this should be the situation in the Device Manager:

    When preparing (see Section 1), the following drivers for Windows 7 should have been downloaded from www.dell.com/support/drivers/us/en/19/Product/inspiron-17r-se-7720. Installing them in this order worked for me:

    3.1) Intel Chipset Device Software (SM Bus Controller): Chipset_Driver_RPHMX_WN_9.3.0.1021_A01.EXE
    3.2) Intel Management Engine Components (PCI Simple Communications Controller): Chipset_Driver_MNN8P_WN_8.0.0.1262_A03.EXE
    3.3) Intel USB 3.0 eXtensible Host Controller (Universal Serial Bus Controller): Chipset_Driver_M2RXF_WN_1.0.6.245_A03.EXE
    3.4) Realtek USB 2.0 Card Reader Controller (USB2.0-CRW): Chipset_Driver_MTT9W_WN_6.1.8400.39030_A01.EXE
    3.5) Realtek PCIe FE Family Controller (Ethernet Controller): Network_Driver_P7W53_WN_7.065.1025.2012_A02.EXE
    3.6) Intel Centrino Advanced-N 2230 WiFi (Network Controller): Network_Driver_HP8FN_WN_15.3.1.2_A03.EXE
    3.7) NVIDIA Graphics Driver (NVIDIA Stereo Controller): Video_Nvidia_A04_W74_Setup_PYG93_ZPE.exe

    4) Configuring Intel Smart Response
    There is no need to install “Intel Rapid Storage Technology Driver” nor configuring anything. After downloading "SetupRST.exe" from Intel web page, I was surprised to see that the System drive was already being accelerated:

  • Cpt. Jack

    I had the same problem with a very similar laptop and was able to figure out how to get passed the Windows Starting freeze screen.

    I actually followed the instructions from the following site... Step number 4 describes the changes that need to be made in the BIOS in order to Install a fresh copy of Windows 7.

    http://www.dell.com/support/troubleshooting/us/en/555/KCS/KcsArticles/ArticleIframeView?docid=590895&doclang=EN#Unique-Hyphenated-Issue-Here-4

  • mike

    install windows XP, then u are free to install the rest. Something to do with RAID or some ish, worked for me, windows 8 pro 64bit installed fine after XP and even the Wifi driver were there