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Reverting to Windows 7 from Windows 8

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us-northcarolina
So this probably isn't the best place to put this post, but I trust y'all know the correct answer... :)

I got a free Upgrade version of W8 Pro through my school. Installed it on my FSX/development rig and have been having so many issues. UAC is a B**** to work with compared to W7 and 50% of the time it doesn't shut down properly, to begin with. This being said, I'm tired of it, and just want the security and stability of good ol' W7. This rig being custom built, I have an OEM CD for W7. That being said:

1. Will my registration key work when I try to reinstall W7 or will I have to buy another license although it's the same machine?

2. (If available on the disc, haven't looked yet) Can I just "upgrade" or will I have to do a clean install?

3. If forced to do a clean install, will installing to my C: drive affect stuff on my D: drive?

Thanks!
 
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1. Will my registration key work when I try to reinstall W7 or will I have to buy another license although it's the same machine?

2. (If available on the disc, haven't looked yet) Can I just "upgrade" or will I have to do a clean install?

3. If forced to do a clean install, will installing to my C: drive affect stuff on my D: drive?

1 It should but not 100% sure about this one.

2 In a way you can, but not 100% sure about how a proper method is. Never legitimately reverted before and don't think it will be easy if it is possible.

3 If your C and D are part of the same hard drive, even when partitioned, you will lose it all when installing a complete fresh os. You can tell in device manager for hard drives. since its custom built you should see easily, just open the case.
 
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1 It should but not 100% sure about this one.

2 In a way you can, but not 100% sure about how a proper method is. Never legitimately reverted before and don't think it will be easy if it is possible.

3 If your C and D are part of the same hard drive, even when partitioned, you will lose it all when installing a complete fresh os. You can tell in device manager for hard drives. since its custom built you should see easily, just open the case.

1. Alrighty, will wait for a bit more confirmation on this.

2. I've decided to do a clean wipe.

3. You just saved my butt! Would've lost EVERYTHING, because that's where I was planning on backing up stuff. :eek:
 
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france
1. Will my registration key work when I try to reinstall W7 or will I have to buy another license although it's the same machine?

In case of problems with registration, phone to Microsoft support, I you have the original disk and are a bona fide customer, they will provide you with a new key.
 

scruffyduck

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I would expect the key to work. I think an assumption that installing Win 8 would invalidate a key to Win 7 should be wrong.

I seem to recall that in some circumstances it is possible to revert a version of an OS to the last one in the case of an upgrade. This is certainly true if the upgrade fails. However I suspect it would be much safer to do a clean Win 7 install.
 

n4gix

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I'm confused now...

I installed Win8 on my old development machine (who's HD had died) using an older HD from yet another previous incarnation of my dev machine, on which WinXP was the base OS.

Everybody still with me?

What I ended up with is a resurrected machine that now has Win8 as it's primary OS, but I have the option during a cold boot to choose either Win8 or the "Previous OS" (which happens to be WinXP).

Both OS's seem to be working just fine, and both are able to access both the files on the local HD as well as all of the machines on my local network...

I also note that Win8 also has a provision built in that would allow me to revert the entire machine back to its original OS (WinXP) automatically.

Actually I had thought the HD I'd chosen was empty, since the boot sector appeared to have been corrupted, and I had searched for and found a procedure that would allow me to use the Win8 Pro (upgrade), and force it to "Activate" by spoofing it into seeing itself as the 'previous qualifying OS'...

Imagine my total surprise at finding that installing Win8 repaired the boot sector, thus restoring the ancient WinXP into working condition! :eek:

Anyway, my confusion here is why the OP simply did not use the Win8 option to revert his disk to the original OS?
 

scruffyduck

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I seem to recall that in some circumstances it is possible to revert a version of an OS to the last one in the case of an upgrade.

As per my post above that should be possible. However you have it seems a dual boot (did you plan that or did it just happen?). Any machine that dual boots should be possible to revert to one or other of the OS.

If the upgrade is carried out in the same partition as the old OS then Win 8 should give an option to revert it. If it was installed into a separate partition then it is probably dual boot (see above) or the original OS is orphaned.

If however the original OS was replaced (I seem to recall that Vista did not allow an upgrade) then it may or may not be possible to revert.

If the partition for the original OS was wiped then there will be nothing to revert to.

All my testing with Win 8 has been either with it in a VM or in a separate partition allowing me to dual boot. I even had a machine at one time that had Win 98, XP and Vista on it - how sad is that :eek:
 
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Anyway, my confusion here is why the OP simply did not use the Win8 option to revert his disk to the original OS?

I didn't realize that this was possible. Whenever I boot up, it loads directly into W8, I don't get a choice to go back, or boot, to W7. Granted, I don't remember backing up the old OS (or for that matter, if the W8 installer even asked) :eek: However, I do have a Windows.old folder under my C: drive. How does one go about reverting the disk to the original using Win8 (if I haven't already screwed myself over :(...)?
 

scruffyduck

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Try running the Win8 installer again and see what if offers you.........
 

n4gix

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For those who might wonder, what this tweak does is set the time during boot to 30 seconds, during which interval you have the choice of choosing Win8 or "Earlier version" of Windows (could be you had WinXP, Vista, or Win7 as your earlier OS).
 
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