I am trying to downgrade from Windows 10 to Windows 7 because I hate 10. Windows 7 is loaded on a USB drive which the computer wasn't recognizing unless in legacy mode. I was having a problem partitioning my drives in legacy mode so I attempted to boot using the following instructions from a different thread:
1. Open a command line in administrator mode
2. run DISKPART
3. type LIST DISK
4. Look for the disk number that represents your USB drive
5. type SELECT DISK # where # represents the number of your USB drive. Get this right or you will wipe a different drive out.
6. type CLEAN
7. type CREATE PARTITION PRIMARY
8. type SELECT PARTITION 1
9. type ACTIVE
10. type FORMAT quick fs=fat32
11. type assign
12. The drive should now be formatted and marked as active and fat32. Do not format the drive as NTFS or you will only be able to boot into the installer in BIOS mode.
13. Now you will need to copy the contents of the windows 7 install dvd to the USB with a regular copy paste from windows explorer.
14. Once this is done you will need to get a copy of the EFI boot manager firmware file from a computer that has windows 64 bit installed on a UEFI system.
15. This file is located in C:\Windows\Boot\EFI\bootmgfw.efi
16. On your USB (Let’s assume it’s drive E:\) look in E:\efi\microsoft\boot and copy this boot folder up one level so it sits in E:\efi\boot
17. Now copy the bootmgfw.efi file from your computer which has windows installed to this new E:\efi\boot folder and rename it to bootx64.efi
It worked and recognized the USB but now it freezes at the starting windows screen. What can I do?
1. Open a command line in administrator mode
2. run DISKPART
3. type LIST DISK
4. Look for the disk number that represents your USB drive
5. type SELECT DISK # where # represents the number of your USB drive. Get this right or you will wipe a different drive out.
6. type CLEAN
7. type CREATE PARTITION PRIMARY
8. type SELECT PARTITION 1
9. type ACTIVE
10. type FORMAT quick fs=fat32
11. type assign
12. The drive should now be formatted and marked as active and fat32. Do not format the drive as NTFS or you will only be able to boot into the installer in BIOS mode.
13. Now you will need to copy the contents of the windows 7 install dvd to the USB with a regular copy paste from windows explorer.
14. Once this is done you will need to get a copy of the EFI boot manager firmware file from a computer that has windows 64 bit installed on a UEFI system.
15. This file is located in C:\Windows\Boot\EFI\bootmgfw.efi
16. On your USB (Let’s assume it’s drive E:\) look in E:\efi\microsoft\boot and copy this boot folder up one level so it sits in E:\efi\boot
17. Now copy the bootmgfw.efi file from your computer which has windows installed to this new E:\efi\boot folder and rename it to bootx64.efi
It worked and recognized the USB but now it freezes at the starting windows screen. What can I do?