Removing Windows 8 and installing Windows 7: Help!

[ShooterDK]

How do I do?

[Iknownot]

Back up any important files, photos, documents, music you have to separate memory source (external Hard drive, DVD-r, memory stick, etc).

Reboot PC and change boot settings to boot from DVD drive first.

Put in Win 7 disc. Reboot PC. When Win 7 install menu comes up, Full format hard drive. Clean install win 7. Change boot settings to boot from HDD first. Let pc do full update of win 7. (This will take a while, with multiple downloads and restarts).

There are multiple, multiple write ups and FAQs and DIY blogs on how to do a clean install of windows up on the net with a simple google search. I suggest you read a couple before you start.

[Artema]

Iknownot knows more than he thinks. He gave good advice. I did this a couple months ago, gave up on 8. I always keep my desktop/documents/pictures on a separate drive letter so I lose next to nothing if I wipe C: at any point in time. Just takes a bit of learning to find out how to change locations.

[bombadillo]

I have both formats. I like windows 7 a lot, but I will keep windows 8 on my laptop and just run classic shell. If you haven't done that already, give it a try before you change things. You get your start menu back, your goodies you are probably missing, and it is SUPER stable for me thus far. I am running mine for web browsing, photos and music, recording music and mixing music tracks that my wife and I are playing, and just fiddling around on the computer for random stuff.


Hope this helps some!

[ShooterDK]

Back up any important files, photos, documents, music you have to separate memory source (external Hard drive, DVD-r, memory stick, etc).

Reboot PC and change boot settings to boot from DVD drive first.

Put in Win 7 disc. Reboot PC. When Win 7 install menu comes up, Full format hard drive. Clean install win 7. Change boot settings to boot from HDD first. Let pc do full update of win 7. (This will take a while, with multiple downloads and restarts).

There are multiple, multiple write ups and FAQs and DIY blogs on how to do a clean install of windows up on the net with a simple google search. I suggest you read a couple before you start.

Thank you for input. I guess I didn't ask the right question when I googled my query.

[Iknownot]

I just wanted to point out one other thing if you don't have a physical copy of your win 8 disc. Depending on where you got your PC from, your win 8 disc image may actually be on your PC hard drive (this is how Dell does it now).

So, make sure you check your PC documentation to make a set of OS discs so you can reinstall win 8 and any original software that may have come with your computer if you ever want to go back to the way your PC came from the factory.

If you format your harddrive, you may erase all this information and be unable in the future to go back to win 8 if you want to.

[ShooterDK]

I just wanted to point out one other thing if you don't have a physical copy of your win 8 disc. Depending on where you got your PC from, your win 8 disc image may actually be on your PC hard drive (this is how Dell does it now).

So, make sure you check your PC documentation to make a set of OS discs so you can reinstall win 8 and any original software that may have come with your computer if you ever want to go back to the way your PC came from the factory.

If you format your harddrive, you may erase all this information and be unable in the future to go back to win 8 if you want to.

Thanks but I never want t go back... Windows 8 can go to OS hell as far as I'm concerned.

Take care.

[Iknownot]

You know there's going to be an 8.1 update with some revisions to what people are complaining about in 2 days right?

[ShooterDK]

^ Windows is becoming sinister... I'll pass.

[Iknownot]

I had a computer with ME on it that blue screen of death'd on start up, fresh out of the box with no programs on it.... That's sinister. People may not like the changes 8 brought, but MS has certainly had much worse versions of windows in the past. I am still on 7 myself (and XP on an older PC) but from what I've seen, I don't think 8 is horrible. I just think it's too touch screen oriented for regular users. But you can run the classic mode if you want. I'd take 8 over Vista, of I had to pick between the 2. It's certainly more stable.

[Artema]

Back in the mid 90s through mid 00s computers were in a boom stage, and most of the crashes people attributed to Windows (95, 98, ME) were often bad RAM. It was being thrown off the assembly lines as fast as possible, and used the future owners as quality testers.

[Iknownot]

ME was a pile of steaming dog doo. I later put XP on the same machine and it ran like a top after that point, all other hardware being the same.

[Artema]

ME was a pile of steaming dog doo. I later put XP on the same machine and it ran like a top after that point, all other hardware and software being the same.

ME was by far the worst OS they made, but XP was almost as bad for the first year it existed. All the people who were crying about Vista sucking at first either forgot or never saw XP in that first year or two. I had to revert back to Windows 2000 until Service Pack 1.

[the86d]

Since running Linux as the native OS for like 4+ months at work, I am going to drop Windows 7 back on it, however since I do not support Windows users at home, Linux is going on my Server 2008, and Windows 7 box as soon as a reinstall is in order for either.

Win8 is a POS and the most inefficient design for getting anything done quickly.
i.e. I always enable Run on the start Menu and hit Start => Run => dfrgui.exe/cmd/cleanmgr/"."/"/"/Etc <Enter> and such as it is quicker than the menu, and you can see more.
Batch files started failing in Windows XP (and every subsequent version) that have worked in EVERY prior versions of Windows and using variables for partial commands in the CLI because M$ failed to continue to support the basic function of them in batch files is just plain stupid, and I am not learning the scripting host or whatever the new .bat/.cmd equivalent is, as *IX scripts work for every version of *IX.

[blazeaglory]

I ran win 98 for 12 years until I finally gave in (well technically Microsoft stopped updating) and built a new system almost 2 years ago with Windows 7.

No complaints for a casual gamer/internet user.