I know I didn't formulate my first post specifically to your situation so I will try again
Hi everyone.
I have made a serious error that i cannot fix. i have a Acer Aspire E1 laptop running windows 8.1, i do not like windows 8 and when my laptop started playing up ( running slow and might have picked up a virus) i decided i would install windows 7 which i like,
Not sure why you don't like Windows 8, but that is another issue. I for myself actually like it ..... better than Windows 7 since it has a lot better search and indexing and almost decided to switch over but just haven't yet. I guess I can't yet give up on 7 yet on my main rig and seams like when you finally get very used to one OS after 18 months, another come out to switch to. I wish MS had a 3-4 yer plan much like Linux does.
i got the message windows 7 cannot install on this partition as it is a GPT partition, after reading various forums i deleted the partitions so windows 7 could do its work, that was a huge mistake as it still will not install and i have lost everything to do with windows 8,
Out of curiosity, Did your laptop have a 'backup' or 'Recover' partition originally installed by Asus? If so why did you totally delete that? I think in doing so you totally eliminated any possibility of installing Windows 8 on this machine. At least without purchasing a new license unless you can get a backup disk from Asus.
You mentioned 'So Windows 7 could do its work' I am unaware of any work that Widows 7 does that totally removes or reverses a factory installed Windows on an EFI based system other than doing the disk formatting with diskpart wich is only one step that would need to be done.
i backed up my own files but have no tools for windows 8, is there something out there i can use on a usb to reformat the drive so i can install windows 7.
Please help me.
:huh:
I think you would have to (and this is what I have read and have not tried it)
1. Boot into BIOS and remove any EFI boot disk and switch BIOS from EFI to Legacy and change the boot order to DVD, or USB if you have Widows disk on USB
2. Boot to the DVD and choose command prompt to and type diskpart (you will see a load confirmation)
3. Type 'list disk' then 'select disk 0' if there is only one disk.
4. Type 'clean'
5. type 'clean all'
Next you can format for Widows 7 install
6. type 'FORMAT FS=NTFS LABEL="WINDOWS 7"
7. Type 'ACTIVE'
8. Type 'Exit'
You then should be able to load Windows from an install disk but many different hardware manufactures EFI systems seam to have their own set of challenges at times from what I have been reading.
