Installation :: How To Downgrade 7 Without Recovery
Oct 12, 2015
My computer's been a mess since I bought it from a pawn shop. It was working perfectly when I bought it, but when I tried to reset it it crashed and continually started restarting. I fixed it, but after that I found my computer was 32 bit with a 64x bit processor, so I tried to upgrade it to 64 bit but the windows media creation tool isn't working properly so I'm going to try to downgrade to Windows 7 instead.
I upgraded to the latest build (10240) today but managed to enter the enterprise product key by mistake. Is there anyway to change back to pro without reinstalling? I've tried reverting to the previous build but it says the files have been deleted.
I recently purchased a Hp Pavillion laptop pre-installed with Windows 10. I like Windows 10 because it is simple and to the point. However, I am interested in using certain software like StarDock & such, but it is not compatible with Windows 10. Since my computer came pre-installed with Windows 10 I cannot "revert". I have a Windows 7 iso on my computer & I have tried multiple times to run Windows 7. I ran the installer, it prompted me to restart my computer. and there were two bootable options, Windows 10 & Windows setup.
I'm getting worse performance when gaming I think because of my switchable graphics, therefore I would like to know how to downgrade after the 30 day deadline.
I recently upgraded to Win 10 on my laptop but it's completely broken. I boot up and sign in ok but then I just get a black screen with a cursor. The only way I can access anything is through the task manager > run new task. I've tried everything but nothing works so I want to rollback to Win 7.
But the problem is that in order to do so I need to access settings which I'm unable to. I can click the link under user controls in control panel but nothing happens. I tried a fix (Settings doesnt launch, or launches the Store instead - Microsoft Community) but it didn't work. There doesn't seem to be any way of accessing it and hence no way of rolling back.
I recently upgraded to Windows 10 and now i want to downgrade, because the OS gets more and more limiting with every Insider Build and Update (How do you expect locking the Taskbar texture to not be changed to the Taskbar my Classic,XP Luna,and Aero have?) and for gaming reasons (Minecraft keeps on crashing,due to 10s automatic driver updates). Unfortunatly, with the way MicroLocker provided,since my laptop came with 8.1, Settings only let's me downgrade to 8.1, which is the OS i hated more than 10 (Even though it's limitful, 10 is better than 8). So how can i do that?
After installing Windows 10, I changed my Administrator account password, losing my EFS-encryption on some system files.
I didn't read the fine print:
Now, I can't downgrade because it keeps giving me the error when trying to downgrade that I need to remove the Administrator (even though I de-activated it through net user Administrator /active:no).
I am trying to create a recovery USB drive from which I can install Windows 10 fresh, if needed. Or quickly restore system images in case of a drive issue. There are a couple of things I am not clear about.
Background:
I have an ASUS laptop that came with Windows 8.1, UEFI (upgraded to Windows 10 at the moment). Initially, I created a Windows 8.1 recovery USB and reinstalled Win 8.1 using it. From what I understand, the 100MB EFI partition is normally the first one. On restoration, the following was created
305 MB Win 8.1 system partition 100 MB EFI C drive Manufacturer recovery partition
When it upgraded to Win 10, it ended up with the following partition structure
305 MB Win 8.1 system partition 100 MB EFI C drive 450 MB system partition (I believe this is Win 10 system partition) Manufacturer recovery partition
Questions:
The trouble is, now when I create a Windows 10 recovery USB drive, it really creates just a rescue drive (< 1GB in size) even though the 'copy system files' option is selected. I believe a recovery USB drive needs at least a 16GB drive. Not sure what is happening here?!!!
Also, is there a way to make Win 8.1 recovery create the system partition adjacent to the C drive so it can resize it to 450 MB during the upgrade? Or maybe create a 500MB partition beforehand that Win 8.1 uses during recovery and later is upgraded to Win 10? Can I create the partitions beforehand using GParted Live USB and expect the Windows recovery process to use them?
I have a handful of questions and issues with "Create Recovery Drive"
1. How dose Windows 10 Recovery disk work? When I first tried to create a recovery drive, it specifies the drive size I would need. One said I would need a USB that would take up to 8GB, the other specifies 16Gb. Since USB drives come in it's denominations of 4,8,16,32,64,...., I got 16GB and 32GB respectively.
2. Does Recovery USB Drives need to be recreated once in a while as an update since system files are added to the USB?
I have three Windows 10 PCs I need to create Recovery Drives on each of them with system files inclusive.
3. New Del Desktop, arrived with Windows 10 (64Bit). It asks for a USB that would take 16GB, I inserted 32GB but it created a recovery drive that is 8+GB only. Why? I wish it would have asked for 16Gb so I don't have to spend to get the 32Gb USB. By the way, when I inserted a 16GB USB, it would not continue.
4. Dell notebook XPS, upgraded from Windows 7 (32Bit) to Windows 10 (32Bit). When I tried to create a Recovery USB drive, it asks for 16Gb USB. When I continued, it stalled at a windows that would not highlight the "NEXT" button. This button is grayed, so I cannot create a Recovery USB.
5. Third PC is a HP desktop I upgraded from Window 7 (64Bit) to Windows 10 (64Bit). The Create Recovery USB with system files did not work. When I started the recovery, it just kept chunning and chunning for a very long time and will not stop.
I purchased a Dell Inspiron 15 7000 with a 120GB SSD and a 1TB hard disk. I have the OS on the SSD (C:) together with the programs. So far I have installed Office 365 and little else. I have moved the data directories from C:Users to the D: drive.
The laptop came with no CDs or OS disks and Dell tell me none are available so I have created a recovery USB disk. At the end of that process it informed me that I could now delete any recovery partitions on the boot drive to create extra disk space. On trying this the option failed "Unable to delete partition". The reason for doing this is to recover the drive space used by 3 of the 5 partitions on the SSD. They take up over 32GB of the 120GB I bought. I've never needed to use a recovery partition and would have no issue with having to do a full install from CD or USB in future.
Disk Management does not have a "Delete partition" option for any of the SSD partitions. Would a re-install from the recovery USB stick allow me to delete all partitions on the SSD before re-installing or would they just get created again?
I have two identical HP Elite desktop 800 PC's one has Windows 10 installed. I also have a recovery drive canI use that recovery drive to install Windows 10 on the other PC?
I originally purchased Windows 8 and upgraded to 8.1. I installed the Windows 10 upgrade via the downloadable Windows 10 Installation Tool and burning the ISO to a DVD. I understand that this will work to upgrade my system should I need to recover but will this still work after the 1 year free upgrade period? Also, how to confirm if the ISO downloaded via the Installation Tool will work as a repair disk to recover using a system image? If that's the case I would be content with that, as it's how I've always done backups since Windows 7.
I just bought an HP Envy laptop with Windows 10 preinstalled. There is a recovery partition, but I'd like to erase the data in this partition and use it for personal files. My question is: if I do ever need to re-install or recover Windows 10 on this laptop, can I do it with a DVD I burned using the media creation tool from Microsoft instead of the specific HP recovery app the laptop shipped with?
So I upgraded my Pc from Windows 7 to Windows 10 then i wanted to make a recovery because my Pc was full of Crap... It was loading and it went to about 30 % then it jumped back to 2 % and now it isnt loading any further.
I have just installed the free windows 10 upgrade from Windows 7 home premium. I have used the file history program to create a USB and a DVD recovery disk prior to creating a system image ( not done yet ) I tried to test the recovery but it does not boot the system. The system just continues to boot the Win 10 update. I have changed the boot order by using advanced options to get into the bios. I have put USB key in position 1 and USB cd/dvd in position 2. my System is a Samsung lap top RC530 with Legacy Bios. How can I check my recovery disks USB and DVD. The system just continues to boot as normal. The recovery disks completed ok with no error messages when creating.
when I press esc after pressing the power button all I see is the choice of the 2 internal devices CD/DVD and HDD.
I have set all my usb devices in boot order above these two but the USB is shown as NA.
I am using 64 GB USB 3.0 drive. Note though my computer only has USB 2 ports no USB 3.
I have also used Media Creation tool to create a Windows 10 installation media. It still failed to recognise the drive as a boot device. The Lap top can read the USB drive ok though just not boot from it.
My wife is thinking about upgrading to windows 10 BUT she gets this message to please be sure to update to the latest version of Dell back up and recovery before upgrading to windows 10..My question is how does she know if she even has this program and is it really necessary for her to do this?P.S. she is running windows 7 right now..
I really tried to like Win 10, but the mail not syncing, the virtual keyboard resetting all the time, not having Cortana or offline map in my region, oh and of course all the various BSODs made me give up after a month. It has promise, it may become a great OS, but right NOW, I simply can not work with it.
So anyway, I am on a Asus Vivo Note 8 tablet, I deleted windows.old after the install because of the lack of space.
I have a factory-made Recovery drive in the shape of a Micro SD card, which I plugged in, hit Reset system, just to end up with a clean install of Windows...10...
I read that you can download Win 8 to an USB and install it from there, but I DO HAVE a Recovery Drive so I'd like to use that, it has custom made drivers and MS Office and whatnot on it too. The problem is that I can not start the process. It will not auto-start if I plug the SD card in, it won't start by double clicking on it, and if I open it in explorer, there's only a folder called Sources with absolutely nothing on it.
Can I just randomly format the SSD and stick the SD card in and start the install or something?
My laptop has a partition with Windows 7 on it for recovery purposes. It was a long time ago, but I think I created it from an ISO. I can't even remember how it should be used!
After my Windows 10 upgrade was finished I created a "Recovery drive" on a 32 GB flash drive and it filled the drive to 26.8 GB. I just finished a clean install on my hard disk with all unallocated space and decided to make a new "recovery drive" on the old flash drive when I was finished. I did "check" to include system files and the process took quite a while but only 3.5 GB are now being used on the flash drive. Why such a difference in data this time than before? Is this drive okay?
I've tried using the "Create a Recovery Drive" and have tried making my own installation media using the "Media Creation Tool". Both seem to do nothing, just constantly search. The Media Creation Tool stays on the "getting a few things ready" screen for upwards of half an hour then I'll close it and it'll say "setup is cleaning up before it closes" and it'll stay on that screen forever. Even task manger won't close it - it will not show up as a process any longer, but still on the screen. EDIT: I have to shut down the computer to close the window.
Create a Recovery Drive, when choosing "Back up system files to the recovery drive", does pretty much the same thing, a screen with a green progress bar going left to right for hours. I'm trying to put it, either way, on a 32gb USB flash drive.
Its a new computer no software has been installed by me other than the MCT and a tool to find the windows product key. I'm very new to Windows 10 coming from XP.
So my sister's Windows 8.1 laptop's hard drive is broken... with her OS on it. I'm getting her a new hard drive (internal) which I will fit, but it seems pointless to buy windows all over again when she still owns it. I was thinking I could create a recovery drive from my pc (Win10) and install it on her new hard drive when it's fitted.
I updated to windows 10 on my Sony Vaio fit 13a SVF13N25CG (running Windows 8.1 when bought) yesterday. And I updated by following the instructions from sony.
After updated, I wanted to clear all data on my notebook, so I executed windows 10 factory reset (didn't use the factory reset provided by Vaio). So all the pre-installed programs, including Vaio care, are lost. I just want to reset the notebook to the situation when I bought it. However, when I executed Vaio recovery solutions and try to "started recovery wizard" -> "skip rescue", a error 393 appeared (An error occurred while executing an application).
What can I do to solve this problem? I just want to reset my notebook to its factory setting (same as when I bought it).
I made a recovery usb using vaio care before I carried out factory reset. But it didn't work under the rescue mode of Vaio (same as the error 393 mentioned above, to "started recovery wizard" -> "skip rescue", a error 393 appeared).
I created ISO disks for both my 32 bit and 64 bit systems at the MS download site. If I use the ISO disk instead of the Windows Update method, does the install still create the W7 image in case I want to go back to W7 after installing W10?
Also, do I boot from the disk or do I go into the ISO disk and click on Setup?
Yesterday I made an update from AVG, which needed the pc to be restarted. I did restarted it, and during the update it gave me an error page starting with " " and after it...my pc wouldn't work anymore. When I started it, it started with the black page showing pc components information and after that another black screen with a _ on the top left of the screen going on and off forever. Then I maneged to put Win10 driver in a Usb drive and I tried to boot from it, and it entered Recovery mode. Here I followed a guide which told me to select "Troubleshoot", then "advanced options" and finally "startup settings". The only problem is...there is no "startup settings".There's everything else but not startup settings, so I can't even try to make it work. How can i make my PC work again?