Downgrade Win8 laptop to Win7

[olc]

I have a Win8 laptop on which I want to install Win7 Pro (for which a have a DVD and key). I know simply trying to boot the Win7 disk does not do it. Is the problem the Win8 drive is a GPT disk? If so can I use Partiton to change it to MBR and just go from there? If not, what else do I have to do?

The methods I see on line are quite confusing.

Why MS chose to mess with things that have worked for a decade is beyond me.

 

[TrainableMan]

If the problem is GPT then you should get some sort of error saying so.

Booting from GPT is only supported for 64 bit editions of Windows 7 (and Vista) on UEFI based systems

source: Microsoft Forum.

 

[olc]

If the problem is GPT then you should get some sort of error saying so.

source: Microsoft Forum.

Thanks. I haven't actually tried this for fear of breaking something. If the issue is GPT vs NTFS, Partition Wizard claims to be compatible with Win8 and also to be able to convert GPT to NTFS.

Has anyone tried just converting the Win 8 partitions from GPT to NTFS and installed Win8? Or would that be asking for it to be easy? The link provided seems to suggest that may work.

 

[TrainableMan]

I've never done it but from what I read it should be as simple as dropping all the partitions and then reallocating.

The main reason for GPT is so you can have more than 4 partitions which becomes more desirable as hard drives go beyond 2TB.

If you do go NTFS and need 4 partitions then be sure to format the main partition before installing W7; if you don't then W7 formats and it also sets itself up a little 100mb partition for I don't know what but that instantly takes 2 of the 4 partitions for your OS and that 100mb system reserved. If you format first then it only installs the OS and you will still have up to 3 partitions to allocate yourself.

 

[olc]

I've never done it but from what I read it should be as simple as dropping all the partitions and then reallocating.

The main reason for GPT is so you can have more than 4 partitions which becomes more desirable as hard drives go beyond 2TB.

If you do go NTFS and need 4 partitions then be sure to format the main partition before installing W7; if you don't then W7 formats and it also sets itself up a little 100mb partition for I don't know what but that instantly takes 2 of the 4 partitions for your OS and that 100mb system reserved. If you format first then it only installs the OS and you will still have up to 3 partitions to allocate yourself.

I don't understand. My Win7 drive has 6 partitions on it. When I have installed Win7 before, it puts the whole thing on a C: partition. I can then use one of the partition managers to create all the rest.

 

[TrainableMan]

If you are talking about an NTFS formatted drive then you must have several logical partitions inside an extended partition but technically you only have two physical partitions and only the non-extended partition can hold an OS. Some people need multiple partitions for multiple OSes.