hi, I am new on this forum, but not new with windows or OS setup.
I was running win 7 (64bit) pleasantly but decided to install Win10, did all the needed stuff for getting dual boot setup.
Win10 booted fine, when selected from dual boot menu, but I have many issues on win10, Lenovo laptop is begging for mercy on win10 for many things, my android phone gets disconnected every few seconds
if I use youtube, laptop becomes sluggish.
USB3 will not install, which worked in win7 earlier.
Fed up with win10, even after disabling driver signature, making sure every driver is correct which I am installing, but
this laptop hates win 10 as of now.
Now if I choose to run win7, lappy reboots and thats a LOOP.
my win7 installation is shown in Drive letter E:
while windows 10 is shown in C:
What would be the safest way of Re-installating win 7 on E: without loosing the following
the crappy win 10 of c:/
dual mode option on win 7 +10
What I want is to run win7 setup which has SP1 integrated and still be able to boot in win10 if I needed later
I have activation keys for both provided by my office which is based on volume licensing.
Many thanks for your time
First, I would recommend turning off Fast Startup in Windows 10:
Fast Startup - Turn On or Off in Windows 10 - Windows 10 blog
Then from the power icon in Windows 10, select Restart. The fast startup "hibernation" file has been known to cause problems for some people attempting to boot back into Windows 7.
If that doesn't work, and you have data files you need to save from Windows 7, make sure to back them up. I would recommend making an image with Macrium Reflect Free. If you can't get Reflect Free to install and run on your laptop, if you have another computer you can install it and make a rescue disc/USB, boot the laptop from the rescue disc/USB and that will allow you to make a backup image.
If Windows 7 won't boot with fast startup disabled in Windows 10, you will have to clean install Windows 7 over the Windows 7 you have now. Boot from the Windows 7 install media. Click the Install Now button. Choose Custom Install option. Select the partition that contains Windows 7. You can format that partition to wipe the previous Windows 7 installation - or you can just select it and install to it and it will copy the current Windows 7 files to windows.old. What you do notwant to do is delete that partition. Point the Windows 7 to install to the partition for Windows 7 and just install to it. This will keep your dual boot with Windows 10 and not affect the Windows 10 operating system partition.
Thanks a lot for showing a Ray of Hope.
I already have taken all the needed files from win7 install which I want to over-write.
So I would format it and do a fresh install,
however I would like to use "Macrium Reflect Free" to image the win10 installation i have as its the only concern and thing i want to save.
is it possible to save win10 partition using this tool and play with win7 installation.
Many Thanks.
Yep. You can image just one partition or the whole disk. You'll need storage somewhere large enough to save the image file - it will be a single image file about 90% as large as the used space of the partition(s) you are imaging.
After you make the image file, later on you can mount it using Reflect Free and you will get a drive letter with the contents of the image file (make sure to check the box for access to restricted files/folders). You can pull individual files from the image without having to restore the entire image.
Hey I guys I am in a similar position but I don't already have an existing dual boot. I fully committed to windows 10. It's mostly fine but theres some weird problem I cant seem to fix and just want to install win7 and see if the problem persists there.
I created a new partition for it but was afraid to run the win7 setup in case I loose win10 in the process..
Past experience has shown me that if you dont already have the dual boot, installing an older version of windows breaks the newer one..
So yeah was a bit scared to try it.
have used Macrium Reflect workstation for 3 partions...works okay.
Good graphical interface. Does not seem to work well with raid 0.
Use Acronis 16 for raid.
Acronis for me on those 3 partions, was a failure.
Charl
Ive had problems with Macrium before not retoring boot loaders etc.. I dont want to restore images just want to get it right 1st time lol
Must be a very old version then - it is very reliable now.