Windows 8 how to repair win 8 instillation?

[tallguyy808]

i have a dell that has recovery partitions on it. it came with windows 8. i deleted the os partition....i was trying to install win 7 32bit on it and i get the error about different partitioning.
at this point i am maily trying to get back on win8. if i do a dell system restore...factory reset it gives me an error. i assume this is because the partition data is lost. is there an easy fix for this?

worst case is i continue trying to put win7 on it...sounds like i must delete the drive but it also sounds like i still might have a hard time getting it on there unless i use a bootable disk to ntfs the drive?

 

[kemical]

If telephone Dell they should send you a disk either free or for a small fee.

 

[Saltgrass]

You sound like another thread, but I would have replaced the hard drive with another one and kept the original just in case.

If you install Windows 7, you need a partition already set if you don't want to remove the EFI and Recovery partitions. If you don't want Windows 8 at all, remove the Recovery and EFI partitions or even clean the drive with Diskpart and install Windows 7 in that unallocated space.

A Windows 7 DVD may not be usable if the system is set so the CSM (compatibility support module) and/or Secure Boot is not set to use "Other OS".