Reinstalling/winding back a G72 laptop to windows 7 from Windows 10

[Nana2018]

I'd like to reinstall Windows 7 back on my G72 laptop (64bit) from Windows 10. Windows 10 always re-starts as and when it likes always wanting to install updates......since I automatically allowed it to download about a year ago. It's a headache!

I've seen similar post here for another G72 but it not for my specific laptop. My laptop is a HP G72-b20SA Notebook PC.

Can anyone help please?

Also, will I need to backup the hardrive? I'm a novice!

Thanks,

Nana

[WAWood]

@Nana2018 

If, as you indicated, you Upgraded your PC to Win10, then you can not roll it back to Win7 -- because that Upgrade is known to corrupt the HP Recovery partition which is needed to be intact for a factory reset back to Win7.

You would not be able to reinstall Win7 in such a way that it will retain anything you have now; any reinstall will overwrite what is there.

You would have to use something known as HP Recovery Media and that starts out by reformatting the entire drive, effectively erasing everything on it.

Also, HP no longer stocks the HP Recovery Media for Win7 era PCs, so you won't be able to obtain it from HP.

Since HP no longer provides Recovery Media for your model, another site you should check is: http://www.computersurgeons.com/
But, do not be surprised if they no longer carry it, either.

You can try using Windows images downloaded using the tool from this site:

https://www.heidoc.net/joomla/technology-science/microsoft/67-microsoft-windows-iso-download-tool

Download the tool, run it, and do the following:
1) Select Windows 7 at the upper right
2) Under Select edition, if you were running Home Premium, select the Home Premium SP1 COEM
3) Click the Confirm button
4) This tool will then check the product code in your PC, and if it is OK it will put up another link allowing you to download the image file.
5) Select the product language, click confirm button
6) Select either the 64-bit or 32-bit download
7) Save the file

Once you have this, you have a choice of media to create:
1) If you can boot from CD, download and install ImgBurn and use the Write Image to Disk option to create a bootable DVD.
2) If you can boot from USB, download and install RUFUS and use the option to create a bootable USB stick from the ISO file.

You will most likely need to use the product key printed on the sticker (inside the battery compartment if not on the case) to activate the OS. If the product key is invalid, or if you need a different Win7 version, then you are out of luck as this tool is limited.

[Parkkuteemu]

The drivers that get installed during Windows 10 upgrade do not support, for example, Switchable Graphics feature (on older laptops like G72) . HDMI no longer works. As recommended on forums - to fix HDMI you can install AMD_UnifL/Catalyst_16.2.1_UnifL_v1.0.exe drivers like I did.