Setup Installation :: How To Install Windows 7 Along Side Factory Installed Windows 8
Jul 2, 2013
In a few days I will receive a Lenovo Thinkpad X1 Carbon with Windows 8 installed. And separately I will receive an OEM Win7. Win7 is certainly what I intend to use, and I had originally thought I would wipe out Windows 8 and install Win7. But now I am wondering if I can somehow preserve Windows 8 for occasional use. (I would have ordered the machine with Win7 but this is a refurbished machine.)
I would rather not have to understand UEFI. (I'm sure it would be interesting, I just have other things to do with my time.) And, although I do it sometimes, and will if I have to, I do not like diddling with BIOS settings.
I know that factory installed operating systems generally can't be moved to other machines. And I fear that the factory installed Windows 8 that I will receive may not even tolerate being installed, e.g., in a smaller partition or under something like VMware (another complication I'd like to avoid).
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Jan 13, 2013
How to hid all the partitions in the factory installed HDD for Lenovo Y580.
This is the scenario.
Firstly, i successfully migrated all of the following partitions:
OEM/Hidden partition,
C partition: boot drive/ program files and data drive &
D partition: containing drivers
from my Lenovo factory installed HDD to the SSD and to use the SSD as the primary boot drive . Now, i plan to use the factory installed HDD as my data drive. (I am using a caddy tray for this whereby i plan to swap out the optical drive and pluck in the Lenovo factory installed HDD). However, for "safety reasons" i do not plan to re-format the entire factory installed HDD but rather to keep those partitions just in case if my SSD fails.
Hence, how do i turn all the three partitions above (in the Lenovo factory installed HDD) to become dormant? I want the computer to boot up from the existing SSD but then to treat the factory installed HDD as the data drive and not to read from any of the three partitions in the factory installed HDD.
I am planning to use EASUS as my disk partition freeware.
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Jan 19, 2014
So I installed Windows 8 whenever it came out and then updated to 8.1 last fall. Since then my computer has become bogged down and running really bad. It's time just start fresh but when I go in to the PC settings to restore it, it says I don't have the necessary files and that I need to insert a disc. Since I installed 8.1 from the store I have no disc to restore it from.
I saw some tutorials on activating 8.1 from 8 but I don't even know if I'm following the right ones or not. This was much easier to do in Windows 7. But anyways, how I can restore my computer.
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Sep 15, 2014
Recently my computer has been encountering problems involving speed and whatnot, and I have found no method of fixing them. I have been looking to reset my PC, and went to do so through the built-in tool that is supplied on my ASUS laptop, by pressing F9 at startup. I chose to reset my PC, but it returned an error saying the recovery partition couldn't be found. So I went to do so through the PC settings, and it rebooted my computer and told me the reset failed. I checked and found the recovery partition using MiniTool Partition Wizard, so it still exists.
Apparently this is an error other ASUS users have found after updating to Windows 8.1. I don't know how to solve this problem, and figured I may as well reinstall a fresh copy of Windows 8 without all the ASUS bloatware and garbage. So I hunted for a Windows 8 ISO file, and failed. I've tried multiple methods. One involving using a product key to download Windows 8 to an ISO file through Microsoft's Windows 8 Setup, and that failed because the product key was OEM BIOS-based, and not retail.
I can either try and do a factory reset by somehow fixing the recovery partition through some miracle, or;With extreme luck find a Windows 8 Core ISO setup, and install that and refind the drivers for my PC.
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Jan 23, 2014
My mom purchased a Windows 8 Dell laptop that was a store display. I want to reset it to factory default settings but I don't have a CD or drive...is there any way to accomplish this without the CD?
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May 14, 2014
I have an Asus gaming laptop that I got off of Craigslist awhile back. It did not come with any factory disks. I'm trying to do a factory reset and it says "Some files are missing. Your Windows installation or recovery media will provide these files." But I don't have any recovery media.
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Mar 27, 2014
I just bought a used HP Pavilion p7-1423w from a computer store locally. It ran fine in the store and when I got it home. It did not come with any recovery disc. After poking around (first time Windows 8 user also), I noticed a bunch of porn pics and thumbnails that were obviously from the previous owner. I selected the "reset the pc, erase all his personal files, and re-install Windows" option. After clicking the final "reset" button to begin the process, I left the room. I came back 30 mins later and my display was off. I thought it went to sleep or screen saver. I moved the mouse, hit a few keys, and still no display at all, as if there was no cable attached. I decided to wait another hour, and still no display.
I changed to the other dvi port, still nothing. Finally, I hard booted and restarted. Still no display at all. No splash screens, no errors screens, nothing at all. Just my tv saying "no input". I removed the hard drive and hooked it up as an external to my laptop. It shows Recovery folder-> WindowsRE folder-> winre.wim (unknown file type).
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Oct 29, 2013
I purchased a Samsung ATIV One 7 27" Windows 8 All-In-One Computer (DP700A7D-X01US) | Samsung PCs from best buy.it was a demo on the shelf I did a copy with paragon to a ssd. it runs great but it seems to missing something's about it. how can I do a factory reset. If I do a recovery will it just put back like it is now.
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May 17, 2013
I want to reformat the hard drive in Windows 8 - Factory Image - in an HP Notebook computer.
HP sent me 3 disks.
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Sep 9, 2013
Factory reset on windows 8.
My son decided to reset his windows 8 laptop to original factory settings, during the reset process his mom decided it was taking to long and turned off the laptop.
Now when its turned on it shows the message "restoring your computer", this message will then change to "diagnosing your computer", the screen will then go blank and it start all over again.
I can boot it from a USB drive, but when I click on "repair" i get an error message that it cant repair the computer. When i try to run restore from the USB I get a similar message.
is there anyway to run the system restore from the DOS prompt?
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Feb 27, 2014
trying to reset to factory settings my Dell Inspiron 660s that uses Windows 8. Some how my ex had downloaded a interface to make Windows 8 look like windows 7. It has virus on it that I just want to reset it. I have tried to reset thru going thru change pc settings-to general-to recovery. It gives me an error code of 800....???. So I restart it, hit F12 brings up a boot window where my options are Boot Manger (clicking on this takes me back to my desktop) Boot Setup is the 2nd options, then Diagnostics (which I have run and says nothing is wrong then takes me to my desktop) then I forget what the last option is.
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Jun 10, 2013
My friend's sister installed Windows 8 twice, and it installed successfully both times. When I start the Netbook it gives me an option to choose between one of the two installs. I'd like to delete one of the installations but I'm not sure how to do so.
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Feb 25, 2014
I was trying to install windows 8.1 on my new SSD for my laptop. However during the installation process, I accidentally unplugged the USB drive that had the Windows 8.1 install on it and the process was interrupted.
Now whenever I plug in that SSD into my laptop it gets stuck in this "boot loop" kind of deal where I hear it start up and turn off all in a matter of 10 seconds or so and all I get is a black screen.
Without the second hard drive my laptop runs almost flawlessly. Only issue is upon booting up it asks which operating system to use and gives me two options: Boot from Windows 8.1 or Boot from Windows 8.1 volume 4.
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Feb 27, 2014
Earlier today, I decided to do a fresh install from my retail CD of Windows 8. Windows 8 was my existing OS. (I just wanted to start fresh). For some reason, it did not create the usual two additional small partitions (system reserved and one called recovery). Everything seemed to work alright, but was wondering why this happened (only the C: partition was created).
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Apr 27, 2014
my laptop came with a pre installed windows 8 having gpt format but i downgraded to windows 7 and reformatted it to ntfs,.. now I want to go back to windows 8 and format the drive to gpt again, but the external hard drive that contains the backup image was corrupted. What should I do?
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Nov 10, 2012
I am gonna buy a laptop that comes with windows 8. I want to replace that HDD with an SSD . So how do I go about this.
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Nov 6, 2013
I bought a Razer Blade 14" laptop last week and it comes pre-installed with windows 8.1 core
Im looking for a way to download the windows 8.1 core x64 iso so that i can format the laptop and reset the partitions of the ssd (14GB is allocated to the system restore)
after much googling i saw that people have been getting an iso through using their windows 8 key, but mine is straight up 8.1 so after trying the method it did not work.
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Feb 5, 2013
This seems to be happening more and more, I am using my PC (with Windows 8 Pro) as an HTPC and its connected via HDMI to a plasma TV so the PC is always on. Sometimes, when I go to use the pc I turn the TV on and then move the mouse around to turn the display on and I see the attached image, it looks as though the screen has shifted to the right and wrapped around to the other side.
I ran windows 7 with the same hardware on this setup for years without an issue.
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Nov 9, 2013
I have 2 HDs that have the Windows 8 System Reserve partition. Can't use them as a system disk because no matter what I try it wants to repair the Windows 8 OS.
All I want is to re-format a HD to factory specs.
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Jan 17, 2013
I upped from 7 to 8 via OTA download. Set up, set up passord(admin), etc. and decided I didn't like and want to do a Factory reset so I can sell.
Can I factory reset, and how?
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Sep 15, 2014
I have recently attempted to reset my laptop to factory and i get this issue
Computer specs:
Asus VivoBook S550CM 8gb Ram
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Jun 14, 2013
I recently installed linux on my Surface Pro, but decided to go back to Windows 8 since wifi doesn't work properly yet. I thought, restoring shouldn't be a big deal, just insert the recovery USB you made and factory reset it. Boy, was I wrong. Any time I try a factory reset, it fails around 97%-99%. Windows won't even start booting. I kept trying it until I decided to try installing Ubuntu on it then trying to reset it again, hoping that would fix something.
The reset still fails at the same point, but now instead of not booting, it says "Recovery: Your PC needs to be repaired." At first it was because an EFI file was missing, so I booted into the recovery drive again and tried an auto-recovery. It fixed the EFI issue, but it's still at the same screen with WindowsSystem32configsystem missing. How to get my Surface Pro working again?
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Mar 1, 2013
I want to know if it's possible to create a clean install DVD.
with pre-installed Windows 8without product key (when I buyed the notebook Windows 8 was already installed - the personal product key is "inside" the notebook).
By the way, can I include the Windows Updates in the install DVD somehow - (and programs which should be pre-installed)?
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Jun 30, 2014
My roommate did a thorough wipe of his c drive, then installed 7 then 8.1.1. for some reason he cannot boot in to the win 7 partition. after building up and getting 8.1.1 setup just the way he wants it he doesn't care about the 7 partition any more. i know i can go in delete the 7 partition, stretch 8.1.1 to fill the entire drive, but what i'm not sure of is if the boot info is on 7 or 8.1.1. i do know that once 8.1.1 is the only os i can go into msconfig and delete the win 7 entry. note since both partitions were created using partition wizard there is not 100mb reserved partition, so the boot information is either on 7 or 8.1.1. i also have a copy of Acronis True Image 2014 Premium.
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Nov 19, 2013
And if so, will it perform slower? Or only boot time will be affected? Any other disadvantage of doing so?
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Apr 19, 2014
Setting up a dual boot with Win 7x64 on a 120GB SSD. The partition for Win 8 has 48 GB, but the install is failing: "Windows cannot be installed to this disk. The selected disk has an MBR partition table. On EFI systems, Windows can only be installed to GPT disks." The first time I tried with the partition formatted, the second with it unallocated, both getting the same result. What am I missing?
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Jan 22, 2014
Bought new pc with windows 8.0 installed. Can't download windows 8.1 from store
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Nov 8, 2013
I am trying to do a clean install of windows 8 on my laptop (Elitebook 8770W) from a USB stick with original MS Windows OEM iso. Once I boot from usb stick, at the setup screen I enter the product key and then choose advanced to do a clean install. I then choose my hard disk partition to install windows but I get stuck here with this error:
"Windows cannot be installed to disk 0 partition 1"
I deleted the partition and choose to install on the unallocated space (150GIG) But still get the same error and when I click on the error this is what I get:
"Windows cannot be installed to this disk. This computer's hardware may not support booting to this disk. Ensure that the disk's controller is enabled in the computer's Bios"
In bios I have my disk set as Raid and I also have a m-sata Flash cache. If I change raid to AHCI I will be able then to install windows. But if I turn it back to raid after install I will no longer be able to boot I have to be in raid mode to use my m-sat as cache drive.
So here I am stuck not being able to install windows I even downloaded latest intel rapid storage technology drivers and put them on the usb stick with windows setup files. When i got the error I choose to load driver. But even after that I was getting same error and windows would not install on my HDD.
What's the right way to install in this condition (raid)?
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Jul 25, 2013
My daughter brought her Gateway NE71B laptop to me because it was running like a snail. She had NO anti-virus software so I plugged in an external HDD and created what I thought was a Recovery Partition. When I had the computer boot to the external drive I tried the auto repair twice and failed both times.
When I tried to recover from the external drive I got an error message that said I/O error that could be caused by the fact that a portable device needed to be plugged in to continue.
Didn't know what to do so I unplugged the drive and tried again. No bootable devices found. Plugged the external drive back in and got the same I/O error. So I thought I'd just order the recovery media from Gateway. The day it arrived, I put the System Recovery disk in, It booted to the recovery screen with 3 options; Full recovery (original factory setup), Full recovery after removing data and Exit. I've tried both the first 2 options and up pops a window that says; Recovery must be done in Legacy Mode.
So I changed the bios from UEFI to legacy, restarted the computer with the Sys. Disk still in DVD tray, It start to load the recovery screen and up pops a window that says; Recovery Can Only Be Done In UEFI Mode.
If I were to guess, I would say I have an MBR virus and it's playing tricks with me. I've ordered a new identical hard drive to install when it arrives and hope to be able to get the recovery media to get back to normal.
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Sep 29, 2013
Is it possible to create restore discs that return the PC back to factory state (just out of box, never turned on)?
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Mar 9, 2014
I have a HP Envy x2, with Windows 8 pre-installed. After I upgraded to Windows 8.1, I started to notice many problems such as; the tablet wouldn't start all the time, the secure boot was disabled (but I fixed that), the app store doesn't work all the time, and Windows Update can't check for updates. The HP did not come with a recovery thumb drive or DVD. And I need "recovery media" to be able to refresh/reset my PC. I have tried multiple times to create a recovery drive, but my "Key" for Windows 8.1 is not valid and I do not know where my Windows 8 "Key" is.
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