Computers & Electronics

downgraded from Windows 10 back to 7 and now can't boot Windows

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  • Sep 7th, 2015 10:05 pm
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Deal Addict
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Jan 7, 2005
1753 posts
50 upvotes

downgraded from Windows 10 back to 7 and now can't boot Windows

hi guys,

I upgraded from win 7 to 10 recently and got really annoyed by how slow/buggy it is and decided to revert back to win 7.

BUT

an error occurred during that process ( can't remember what error it was) and now I can't boot into windows at all (including safe mode).

After hitting f8 and get into system recovery, it wouldn't automatically fix the issue.

1) what is wrong? What can I do now?

2) if the only option left is to reinstall win7, how can I back up the existing files on the existing drive? would a fresh install format my current hard drive or at least C:/?

thanks guys :)
3 replies
Deal Addict
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Jul 27, 2009
2392 posts
461 upvotes
Remove your HDD and access it through external USB or internal Sata and hopefully the Windows.old is still intact. Or boot up with a Linux Distro on a USB and access your HDD. Backup your stuff. How big is your HDD and how many partition are there and how large is your C drive partition?

You can try this method to recover/reinstall your Windows 7/old but best is to backup your stuff from the Windows.old and reinstall Windows 7 fresh:

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/16 ... ation.html
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/971760
Banned
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Jan 20, 2013
685 posts
63 upvotes
Toronto
Always backup your data. Unless you don't care about it.
Bill
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Sep 4, 2009
6575 posts
726 upvotes
CJJ25 wrote: hi guys,

I upgraded from win 7 to 10 recently and got really annoyed by how slow/buggy it is and decided to revert back to win 7.

BUT

an error occurred during that process ( can't remember what error it was) and now I can't boot into windows at all (including safe mode).

After hitting f8 and get into system recovery, it wouldn't automatically fix the issue.

1) what is wrong? What can I do now?

2) if the only option left is to reinstall win7, how can I back up the existing files on the existing drive? would a fresh install format my current hard drive or at least C:/?

thanks guys :)
For windows 7, you can tell windows to not format the hdd and it'll put all windows folders like programs, windows, etc into windows.old folder. All data will be intact this way. For you to mess this up would mean you told the windows 7 installer to format the frigging drive, and I don't think you would be doing that by accident.

You can then after windows 7 is reinstalled grab whatever data u like from windows.old

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