Windows 10 Downgrade - on new computer - how to get back to W10 from W7

[JeffW44]

Hi,

  Just bought a Z240 desktop.    For OS it states:  Windows 10 Pro 64 Downgrade to Window 7 Pro 64.  

My question is how do I get up to Windows 10 for free (my plan all along; who's buying a W7 system with only 4 months before EOS?).

  I've tried to read some forum posts.   I've seen (though not sure applies to my case):

- Run the Windows 10 upgrade (through the Create Media Tool process).  When it asks for Product Code, click Don't have it - the system will eventually get it from the BIOS

- Need to obtain (for free?) the HP Win10 recovery media

- Not possible anymore; the free W10 upgrade offer expired earlier this year (I know; I already did that for all my older systems that support it).

Thanks.

Jeff

[Paul_Tikkanen · Accepted solution]

Hi:

The PC should have come with a W10 Pro installation disk if it states...Windows 10 Pro 64 Downgrade to Windows 7 Pro 64.

If you don't have such a disk and you live in the USA/Canada, call HP at this number and order a set of W10 recovery disks for your PC.

Have the serial number of the PC handy to give to the customer services rep.

You may get the disks for free if the PC is still under warranty.

1-800-334-5144

[JeffW44]

I have it!  It was in a bag in the box with a mouse and power cord (which I didn't think I needed).    Thanks!

Jeff

[Paul_Tikkanen]

You're very welcome, Jeff.

[JeffW44]

Oh one more question - what's the process to convert to Windows 10:

- I ran Setup off the DVD while running under W7; it said it couldn't complete because it couldn't update the Recovery partion

- I booted off the DVD.   It got to the screen to select the partition.  I did the 4th (?) one, the large 900GB one (1TB drive).   It put a warning that an old Windows install would be renamed to Windows.old.  I say okay.   But then at the next prompt, it said there wasn't enough free space on the selected partition (it had ~850GB free).

Thanks.

Jeff

[JeffW44]

One more question.  I'm thinking about getting an SSD for the OS and apps.    If I can selection the drive/partition, would I be better to get that now, install it in the system, and do the W10 install/restore directly ot that?   Or, does the restore need to go onto the stock hard drive.

Thanks.

Jeff

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi, jeff:

Unfortunately, I wouldn't know the answers to either of those questions.

For the first one, I have no idea why you got that message when trying to install W10 on the C:\ Drive.

I get that message all the time, and it creates the windows.old folder and then installs with no problem.

Then I just delete the Windows.old folder.

I would think you could clean install W10 on a new SSD. 

I have also done that several times on my HP business desktop PC's.

But I just install Windows on one single large partition (the whole drive).

I'm just not familiar with how it may work on a business workstation. 

They are somethat different that the dc7xxx and 8xxx Elite PC's I have.

[mdklassen]

> - I ran Setup off the DVD while running under W7; it said it couldn't complete because it couldn't update the Recovery partion
> I booted off the DVD.   It got to the screen to select the partition.  I did the 4th (?) one,

That "Recovery Partition" is not your 900 GB partition.  It's a much-smaller partition.

What are the sizes of those other 3 partitions?
[Probably, one is "tiny".  All this one contains is the "initial-boot" partition, which redirects to the HP "Recovery Partition" or redirects to your 'C:' drive-letter partition.]

> It put a warning that an old Windows install would be renamed to Windows.old.  I say okay.  

Correct.

> But then at the next prompt, it said there wasn't enough free space on the selected partition (it had ~850GB free).

No, it was referrring to the "Recovery Partition", not your "install here" partition.

> One more question.  I'm thinking about getting an SSD for the OS and apps.   

Buy one of at least 240GB.  While it will work to install to a 120GB SSD, you probably will soon regret it -- the amount of "free" space after installing Windows, and running Windows Update, and installing your apps, may be "constricting".

> If I can select the drive/partition, would I be better to get that now, install it in the system,
> and do the W10 install/restore directly ot that?  
> Or, does the restore need to go onto the stock hard drive?

If you are booting from the "Recovery Parition" on the existing disk-drive, with the new SSD connected, you will get an option to select the SSD drive as the "installation" device. You will need to keep the existing disk-drive connected, forver, to allow you to choose between booting from "existing" or "SSD" drive.

If you are booting from the "System Recovery" DVD, you can disconnect the existing disk-drive, and install directly to the SSD drive.  After the install, you can reconnect the existing disk-drive, and copy all your files from "existing" to "new" disk-drive.

[mdklassen]

>  (my plan all along; who's buying a W7 system with only 4 months before EOS?)

Check your "dates".

The "sunset" for Windows Vista is 4 months away -- April 2017.

The "sunset" for Windows 7 is 3 years away -- January 2020.

After those dates, Microsoft will no longer issue security-updates for the Operating System.

Also, if they did on those dates what they did for the "sunset" for Windows XP (April 2014), then some of their software, e.g., Microsoft Security Essentials for Windows XP, will not be available for download from Microsoft.  People who tried to reinstall Windows XP after April 2014 discovered this.

Also, many documents on http://support.microsoft.com will not load properly when running Internet Explorer 8 under Windows XP, or when running Internet Explorer 9 under Windows Vista.

My recommendation: install Windows 10 "now", rather than "later".

[JeffW44]

Booting off the DVD, I get the following Partions:

Disk 0 Partition 1: Windows RE Tools  795MB  373MB avail    Recovery

Disk 0 Partition 2: SYSTEM                    100MB  9.0MB avail     System

Disk 0 Partition 3:                                    128MB 128MB avail     MSR Reserved

Disk 0 Partition 4: Windows                    916GB  848GB  avail   Primary

Disk 0 Partition 5: HP_RECOVERY         14.5GB 2.1GB avail       OEM (Reserved)

I thought I'd install into partition 4.  That's what came up with the "not enough space" error.   But if I can put W10 directly into the SSD, vs having to migrate it over, that's even better.  Saves trying to fix this error now, and migrate it later.

On my current W10 Pro system, my C: partition only has 50GB used.  [Will go to ~60GB with the 5GB larger hiberfile.sys file]  All of my other files are on a 2TB NAS, so I really don't use much local storage.    So I thought 128GB SSD should be sufficient.

Some questions (if you're able to answer):

- Assuming there's a way I can do it, should I try to replicate the above partitions on the SSD?   [Looks like I'd need ~15G-16G more for all of them]?   I don't think I'd be pulling out the existing 1TB drive, but there's something nice in knowing I'm not dependent on it.   If yes, what's the process to get those partition's data moved over?

- I saw some people saying they put their pagefile on a magnetic drive, since SSD's theoreticially have a maxiumum number of writes.   I had thought about trying that (though my system will have 12GB of RAM).   Thoughts on this?   My SSD states, "5 Years / 175 TBW Limited Warranty ", which I think is probably more than my paging would incur.  If I do this, it's even less SSD space I need. 

Moving up to a 240GB SSD is $45 more (not much), 349 TBW (better), but still 5 years, which I'm likely to hit before any TBW limit.   So for me I didn't think spending the money for the extra 120GB was worth it for me.

Comments appreciated.  Thanks in advance.

Jeff