Restoring windows 7 from Windows 10

[Ambico]

My question is pertaining to the ability to recover Windows 7 and all touchsmart drivers that were removed when I upgraded to Windows 10. The opportunity to recover Windows 7 via the reset option given by windows 10 is now gone. However i have a set of recovery disks, plus I just noticed that the upgrade to Window 10 did not remove the recovery partition that was rebuilt by the recovery disks. I was suprised(shocked actually) to see that it was still there.

I am courious if I will have the ability to restore this touchsmart to its orginal settings via the recovery partition/recovery disks or does Windows 10 have a way of stopping that process. I am not unhappy with the new OS however if I end up selling this computer I would like to have that information if needed.

I assume I have everything I need to restore to factory settings, but Windows 10 has dealt me a few suprises in the past. A word from the HP Experts will either confirm or deny that assumption.

Thank you for your advice,

Ambico

[old_geekster · Accepted solution]

I have seen this go either way.  Some members report that they were successful in returning to Win 7 and others had many problems.  If the Recovery partition is working properly, you should be able to do the Recovery.  I would appreciate knowing the outcome if you try it.

[Ambico]

Thank you for the quick response.  I will let you know the outcome.  It sounds like an interesting project just to see what happens. There are no files or apps on it yet, so no big deal there.  If it works, I can always get 10 back.  I will let you know.

Thank you again

Ambico

[old_geekster]

You are welcome, @Ambico.  I would appreciate hearing the outcome.  I hope that it works for you.

[Ambico]

Just finished restoring the TouchSmart back to its original state from Windows 10. Started out using the recovery manager but was blocked by a screen that wanted to know the keyboard layout. I was not able to check the appropriate box as the keyboard was unresponsive as was the mouse and touch capability. But the recovery CDs did the trick. Took about 5 hours putting everything back to normal but it worked out very well. I think it best to leave it in its original state. After all, it is a touchSmart and if I end up selling it, probably better to sell it with TouchSmart capabilities.

My main desktop is a Toshiba all in one. Good computer but HP outshines the Toshiba by far. If I could be lucky enough to come across a 23-inch touchSmart, I would sell the Toshiba and keep the TS.

Enough rambling. Don't know what the problem was with that keyboard layout screen. Would you have any input on that? It only appeared when I tried to reset with recovery manager. 

So thank you for the help. You were right when you suggested getting the recovery CDs. 

[WAWood]

Ambico

The problem you ran across is that while Microsoft tells you that there is no risk in the Win10 Upgrade, because they let you believe that you can always revert back to your original OS and setup within 30 days, the ugly fact of the matter is that the Win10 GoBack function has proven to be unreliable -- and when it fails, it can leave machines in a corrupted state -- which doesn't always happen, but it does happen often enough to be a problem and you won't get any warning in advance that it is going to trash your PC!

If that is not bad enough, the Win10 Upgrade is know, in some cases, to corrupt the Recovery partition stored there by the OEM that built the original machine.  This pretty much guarantees that no HP Recovery is going to work.

Fortunately, you had HP recovery media handy -- and used that to restore your PC.

But, many folks are not so fortunate.

[Ambico]

I suspected that the recovery partition might be corrupted. I was surprised that Windows 10 did not remove it all together. The only other factor is that the keyboard is not the original that came with the TouchSmart. I thought that might have something to do with it but when I went to the CDs, everything went well. Microsoft couldn't stop that procedure.

Thank you for your reply.  Do you have any idea how long support for Windows 7 will continue?

[WAWood]

From what I've heard, support extends through 2020.