downgrade to windows 7 on toshiba with windows 10

drgto1960

Great
Feb 18, 2018
10
0
60
Have a toshiba satellite (L55t C5290) with i7 processor and came with windows 10. I need to down-grade it to windows 7. Have original window 7 DVD's (32 and 64 bit) with product keys and also a true image clone and backup from another machine (Win 7 32 bit).

However, I tried everything I know to install, restore or clone back. But in the end...nothing. It just will not boot. No OS or when I view the Acronis report it states MRB sector is incorrect.

I rebuilt the MRB via windows 7 repair, command prompt diskpart (and convert mbr) and via Acronis True Image...but all seem to fail since I get the same on a boot...No OS or MRB sector is incorrect.

I even set the bios Boot Mode from UEFI Boot to CSM Boot and vice a versa. Disabled Secure Boot.

So what the secret to down-grading or is this something that just can not be done on the toshiba?

 
Solution


OK, they may have Win 7 drivers for it.
So then you need to purchase your own Win 7 install and license, and boot from that and install it.
Wipe the entire drive while you do this, and proceed on.

You can't use an Acronis Image from some other system.

USAFRet

Illustrious
Moderator
1. Moving a clone or an image from one system to this Tosh laptop is unlikely to work. Win 7, 10, whatever.

2. Installing Win 7 by itself may not work. Does this laptop have Win 7 drivers available?

3. What is the desire for Win 7 on this new laptop?
 

drgto1960

Great
Feb 18, 2018
10
0
60
1. Ok

2. So I have to go look for Win 7 drivers for this laptop. Where at toshiba or Microsoft?

3. Two fold....do not like windows 8 or 10 and have software that will only run on Windows 7.

 

drgto1960

Great
Feb 18, 2018
10
0
60
So on toshiba's web site for my laptop (Satellite L55t-C5290) it allows me to select Windows 7 32-bit or 64-bit and both have various drivers but none of the drivers say System Drivers. Yet why would they have any drivers listed at all for Windows 7? So the answer is it can not be done because toshiba does not provide the Windows 7 drivers. That's totally stinks.
 

drgto1960

Great
Feb 18, 2018
10
0
60
Corwin65 - The only driver that looks close is the Toshiba HW Setup Utility listed under Windows 7 64-bit...but the bios 3.60 and my system bios version is 5.00.
 

USAFRet

Illustrious
Moderator


OK, they may have Win 7 drivers for it.
So then you need to purchase your own Win 7 install and license, and boot from that and install it.
Wipe the entire drive while you do this, and proceed on.

You can't use an Acronis Image from some other system.
 
Solution

drgto1960

Great
Feb 18, 2018
10
0
60
USAFRet...that's for the answer. I already had a windows 7 install dvd and license so I went that way with a clean install. Before I was using the windows 7 dvd just to try to repair. So windows 7 is now installed but no network drivers. So back I go to toshiba's web site.

BTW...I just like the windows 7 interface much better then windows 8 or 10...even when in desktop mode. Plus windows 10 keeps wanting to take over my system and I do not like that. The one program I have that does not like windows 8 or 10 is Quark. It's an older version since the new version does not recognize my older files.
 

drgto1960

Great
Feb 18, 2018
10
0
60
typo...THANKS for the answer.

Went to toshiba's site and for my laptop and windows 7 32-bit did not see any LAN drivers for the internal LAN port...only wireless. Any suggestions?. Need the 32-bit windows 7 because Quark (the version I use) will not run in 64-bit and in 32-bit mode it gets quarky.
 

USAFRet

Illustrious
Moderator


Discover the actual LAN hardware, instead of just Toshiba.
A Win 7 driver may be available.

How much RAM do you have in this laptop?
32bit OS limits you to a little under 4GB.
 

drgto1960

Great
Feb 18, 2018
10
0
60
8GB.

No windows LAN drivers found...had it search the Windows 7 install DVD.


So is there a way now that I have the laptop running windows 7 (without LAN for now) to True Image my other Windows 7 machine or something to get all the software off...there is just so much and it's all been updated on the other machine.
 

USAFRet

Illustrious
Moderator


8GB RAM + 32bit OS = ~3.5 actual RAM...:(

For the applications that live on the other system? No, you can't copy the installed applications and apply them to the new system with its own OS.
Doesn't work like that.

Anything would need to be reinstalled fresh with the Win 7 OS on this laptop.


Question: What is this application that is causing so much issue?
 

drgto1960

Great
Feb 18, 2018
10
0
60
True Image states OS, files, software, etc can be backed up and restored from one machine to another but the version of True Image I have is old...2012. Any idea is 2018 True Image could work now that I know the laptop is not the issue for running Windows 7
 

USAFRet

Illustrious
Moderator


While it may work from one machine to another (I have my doubts about this), a backup from one OS to another OS will not work.
You can't apply applications from the old Win 10 64bit OS to the new Win 7 32bit OS.
Does not work that way.

Or even applications between 2 different Win 7 systems.

When an application is installed, it makes dozens, sometimes thousands of Registry entries. Acronis cannot replicate those for every possible application.