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

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi, Jeff:

I would have done the same as you...try to install W10 on the Windows partition.  I don't understand why you can't go beyond the windows.old step.  I've never had an issue with that.

I can only give you information on what I did.  I always delete all partitions and create one single partition (C:\).

I've never found any use for the other partitions.  I have recovery disks and plain Windows OS' to reinstall windows if need be.

I also use the free disk imaging utility Macrium Reflect to create system images if I want to reinstall from the latest image I made.

I bought 240 GB SSD's for all of desktop PC's, and I find the storage adequate.  You you can get a nice Sandisk or PNY  240 GB SSD for around $65 USD on sale.

Should you not find that to be enough space, you can use the drive you have now for storage.

Paul

[JeffW44]

I'm going with a MyDigitalSSD BPX 120GB for $70 at Am*zon.    I thought an M.2 interface would be good to use (since the Z240 has it).   Also from a post here, saw that it only supports SSD's with PCIe interfaces (many are SATA III), which limits what you can get.    Also has the newer NVMe interface.   All of this tends to mean ~$70 gets you 120 GB vs 240GB with some of the other models.

Wasn't expecting to get into an SSD so soon, but maybe better to do it (and the switch to W10) sooner than later.  

Jeff

[mdklassen]

> 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)

> Assuming there's a way I can do it, should I try to replicate the above partitions on the SSD?  

The Windows Installer is probably "complaining" about the lack of "free" space on #2 and #3.

You can try to use "disk-cloning" software to copy each of the partitions, and to "resize" the partitions (#1 & #2 & #3) to a larger size, e.g., to "double" their sizes would only take 2 or 3 GB away from your 916 GB.

If your current disk-drive is SEAGATE (or WESTERN DIGITAL), download free(!) "disk-cloning" software from the SEAGATE (or WESTERN DIGITAL) web-site. 

[mdklassen]

> 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?   

1. The more RAM that you have, the less usage of the "swap file" that there will be, since Windows prefers to use the "fast" RAM, rather than writing to a (spinning or SSD) drive.

2. If you're going to move your swap-file away from your 'C:' drive, consider swapping to an 16GB USB memory-stick, which should cost less than $16 USA.  If/when it fails, replace it, keeping your much-more-expensive  "primary" SSD.

3. The electronics on a SSD do their own "optimization" of writes to the disk, to "spread" the usage over all the available "cells" of memory.  So, if you try to "rewrite" some data, the SSD will write that data to a "less-used" cell.

[JeffW44]

I got the SSD module, installed it, and booted up the W10 recovery CD.    It showed Drive 1-Partition 0 as 118 GB, type unknown.   If I select it and try to install onto it, it says  Insufficient room.     When I hightlight it, "Format" remains grayed out.

I tried to boot up in W7, thinking maybe I needed to format it from there.   Booted no problems, let me log in, but then about 2min later it blue screens.

I do have the latest Z240 BIOS (think 1.34; 10/28/2016).  Any suggestions?  Thanks.

Jeff

[mdklassen]

> I'm going with a MyDigitalSSD BPX 120GB for $70 at Am*zon

> booted up the W10 recovery CD.   

> It showed Drive 1-Partition 0 as 118 GB, type unknown.  

> If I select it and try to install onto it, it says  "insufficient room". 

Is that the only partition on the disk-drive?

If not, delete all the partitions (assuming that there is no need to "backup" anything), to increase the amount of space available, and then select the partition.

OR .............................

If you are installing from the installation media supplied with the computer, that software may be configured to "demand" that the target disk-drive be larger than 118 GB.  The only work-around is to install to a larger-sized disk-drive, and then to "clone" the partitions from that "temporary" disk-drive onto your SSD drive.

OR .............................

See:  https://www.microsoft.com/en-ca/software-download/windows10

Since you were running Windows 10, you have a "digital entitlement" to reinstall Windows 10, even though the disk-drive has changed.

Download Windows 10, and create the Installation Media.

Install from it, since it won't have the "artificial" requirement about the size of the disk-drive.

Click "I do not have a product key" to activate your entitlement.

Then, use Windows Update to download and install any "missing" device-drivers.

OR .............................

Since you have the original disk-drive, with Windows 10 installed, run Disk Defragmenter, to move all the files on the 'C:' drive to one end of that partition, and then use "disk-cloning" software to copy all the partitions to your SSD.

The disk-cloning software should be able to "shrink" the 'C:' drive (chopping off all the "free" space at the end of the partition) as it copies the partition onto the SSD.

[JeffW44]

I got about 98% installed on the SSD, though I think I might need to redo it.

Here's what happend:

I had a 250GB SATA drive, already partitioned into 2 ~120GB partitions, that I hooked up.   The Windows 10 installer saw the partitions, but gave me an error when I tried to install into them.  [It didn't complain about them being too small, a good sign.]

I looked up the error, and in something I read, it make me think to unplug the factory 1TB drive.   After I did that, it allowed me to install without issues.  A couple of things:

1. It wasn't a disk image restore, but rather it seemed like a base W10 install, that is, without any specific HP drivers (most importantly, no network driver).   If that other W10 DVD is supposed to have HP drivers, I couldn't get it to work.   I ended up downloading the NIC driver on another computer, tranferring over via USB, and then installing.  Once I was able to get the network up, I could run Windows Update and HP Assistant, and get the rest of the drivers loaded.

2. I think prior to this step, I think I couldn't get the DVD to boot properly.   I went into the BIOS, and turned off UEFI boot mode.   That allowed everything to work fine.

3. Knowing that I could do the install in ~120GB, I reinstalled the SSD.   The W10 installer was able to see it, and the install went fine on it.  I repeated the driver load,  though on the SSD, it ran much faster!

The only step at this point was getting the SSD to run under "UEFI" mode vs "Legacy" mode.   I did a little reading, and I saw that Legacy supports MBR, while UEFI support GPT.    I switched back to booting off the HD, and ran MiniTool Partition Manager, which said it was able to convert the SSD from MBR to GPT.   But in the BIOS it still showed under Legacy, and would not boot.

So I converted it back to MBR.   Still wouldn't boot.   I'm not sure if there's anyway to fix it at this point.  ???

I'm okay if I have to reinstall.   I'm wondering if I should restore to UEFI mode enabled, and hope that the W10 DVD boots.  If so, and it lets me install onto the SSD, might that clear the MBR issue?   Would I need to reformat the SSD to clear MBR?  

I'm not sure I HAVE to run the SSD in GPT mode.   I do know that since this is the only system that it will ever run in (only system I have that has an M2 port), I don't need the legacy mode that MBR provides.   I'm also not sure if I'll be able to access the factory 1TB drive if UEFI isn't enabled.   [I'm assuming there's some advantage to it being enabled, even if I don't plan on running multiple OS's or 128+ partitions.]

I know this is more an SSD/GPT/UEFI issue.   However it seemed to make sense to keep my story in the same thread.

Thanks in advance for any assistance.

Jeff