Windows 7 Linux to Windows

abbey01

New Member
Joined
Mar 5, 2019
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9
Hi,
I have an HP Pavilion 23 that is currently running Linux and I want to convert it back to a windows 7 machine for my grandson.
So far, all of my attempts have failed as the drive is set up as a gpt partition and I can't seem to get it changed to ntfs to load
windows. Does anyone know of a way I can convert this machine to enable me to load win 7 ??

Thanks in advance for any and all replies,

Bruce
 
Solution
Right, in the install wizard you want to select the advanced install option. Select each partition and delete them. Then click New and it should create the appropriate partitions and allow the install.
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Your attempts have failed to set it up as a GPT partition. Asking... is your system a 64-bit system... if not... you need to be thinking 32-bit system. 32-bit system wants msdos/mbr partition table... NOT gpt. Only a Windows-7-64-bit will install on a GPT partition table hard-drive.
 
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GPT is the partition scheme whereas NTFS is the filesystem. Windows 7 should install just fine on a GPT disk and supports UEFI firmware booting. In the install screen select advanced, format the disk, select New and the partitions should be created. Then install Windows.
 
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You are talking about Windows 7 operating system programming limitations and not necessarily a real 32-bit vs. 64-bit processor issue. While there were limitations in booting Windows 7 on a GPT partition this was because support was not there for this type of booting. However it was still possible to do so even on 32-bit systems using a workaround. This was not fully supported but it was possible to boot the Windows 7 MBR bootloader from USB and point it to the GPT partition containing the operating system. Needless to say this was an extremely annoying process, but it was possible to do so. There were also EFI BIOS that supported Windows 32-bit. It is not apparent to me that the inability to use GPT has anything to do with a 32-bit hardware limitation. Drives over 2TB had to be converted to GPT even under 32-bit Windows.
 
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Reply to Neemobeer:

I tried to do as you suggested but unfortunately got the following message at attempted boot up:

"Secure Boot Violation"
Invalid signature detected. check boot policy in setup.

As I don't know what the "policy" is I didn't know what to enable/disable, etc.
Any ideas ??

Thanks again,
Bruce
 
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As Mike suggested you may just want to go back to MBR.

Boot into the firmware (these will differ by machine so exact instructions cant be given)

  • Locate the option to Enable/Disable Secure Boot and disable it (This typically will be in a menu called "Security" or "Boot")
  • Change the boot mode from UEFI to Legacy (it may also be called hybrid or CSM boot)
  • Save changes and reboot
Boot to your Windows install media and it should allow you to format the drive and install Windows
 
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Yes, but.......
A screen comes up with a 4 digit code that apparently I'm to enter but it's on the screen for a split second
and I am unable to properly see and manage it. Is that part of the problem ???

B
 
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Would have to see the screen. If you're still getting a secure boot violation then secure boot is still enabled.
 
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Good Morning,

I resolved the issue with the secure boot. By selecting the pause/break key on my keyboard I was able to see and enter the 4 digit code to save my settings.
Having done that I proceeded with the install and selected the advanced tab as recommended. I then selected the format tab but got this message:
"Windows cannot be installed to this disk. The selected disk of the GPT partition style.
Windows cannot be installed to this hard disk space. The partition is an EFI system partition (ESP).

Bruce
 
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Right, in the install wizard you want to select the advanced install option. Select each partition and delete them. Then click New and it should create the appropriate partitions and allow the install.
 
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Solution
Neemobeer said:
Right, in the install wizard you want to select the advanced install option. Select each partition and delete them. Then click New and it should create the appropriate partitions and allow the install.
Click to expand...

That's how I do it each time. Windows doesn't like if I make the partitions before the install with Gparted or other software.

I have a 120-gig ssd drive for my Windows-10-pro. It wants a blank hard-drive to start with. Later I can shrink the Windows space if I desire.
 
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I finally got Win 7 installed, but now I've run into another problem. (does it ever end).
For some reason it didn't load any of my device drivers !?!?
I feel like if I could at least install the wifi driver I would then be able to address the other driver issues.
So, I went to my other machine (always good to have a backup, right) and downloaded what I hope are
the correct drivers then loaded them onto a flash drive............ only to find that my other machine won't
recognize it's USB ports. (I have 6 of them) I've formatted the drive to Fat32 and NTFS but it won't recognize either one.
I've checked the system setup and all the USB drive ports are enabled.
Any suggestions as to what I can do now to resolve the driver issue ??

Thanks again, folks,
Bruce
 
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Wow, when it rains it pours! Never heard of usb-ports not responding.

I have a self-built tower plus a laptop for that same reason. A second one in a crunch. Windows 10 is more friendly with available hardware drivers than Windows 7. Even though Win7 is nice, but Win10 just makes more sense.

You are a determined individual, to install Windows 7... considering ALL the updates that you'll be doing. I keep drivers and software for both my computers on extra hard-drives, and on Dropbox.

Windows will look at FAT32, NTFS, XFAT formats. Maybe try to a different format on the usb-stick..?
 
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Well, XFAT is the only one I haven't tried, so why not.
I'll give it a go and see what happens.
Thanks for the reply.
 
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abbey01 said:
Well, XFAT is the only one I haven't tried, so why not.
I'll give it a go and see what happens.
Thanks for the reply.
Click to expand...
If a drive is not showing up, and has no errors, reformatting it will not help. The only real advantage of using exFAT over FAT32 on a USB stick is that it supports larger file sizes. You should check device manager (Start->Run->devmgmt.msc) and see if drivers are missing for one or more USB controllers. Or if you have unknown devices. Do you have the full model number? If this the HP Pavilion 23-1027c its a Texas Instruments USB controller that has drivers downloadable from HP. Although interestingly enough, the official HP support/driver site is currently down at the time of this writing.

Also go to Link Removed and run that please. You likely need several important chipset drivers as well.
 
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The USB controller is one of the many drivers I'm missing and I don't know, quite frankly, how to install one.
Would it make sense to re-install the OS to see if the drivers magically appear ?

B
 
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abbey01 said:
The USB controller is one of the many drivers I'm missing and I don't know, quite frankly, how to install one.
Would it make sense to re-install the OS to see if the drivers magically appear ?

B
Click to expand...
No that won't happen. If the drivers are not provided by Windows Update on 7 they never will be at this point. Go to HP Technical Support, Help, and Troubleshooting | HP® Customer Support and this will likely be the drivers needed for your device to function properly.
 
Last edited:
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Happy to report that I converted the machine back to Linux and everything is working great. (As I would expect from a Linux OS) no more driver issues. Linux, as usual, just works without all the drama associated with Windows 7, at least.
Now I have a working computer I can pass along to my grandson and hopefully he'll learn to appreciate Linux as much as I do.
Thanks for all the feedback, folks, appreciated it.

Bruce
 
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