Thank you for being a valued part of the CNET community. As of December 1, 2020, the forums are in read-only format. In early 2021, CNET Forums will no longer be available. We are grateful for the participation and advice you have provided to one another over the years.

Thanks,

CNET Support

Question

Problem trying to add Windows 7 Pro on a 256GB SSD with Win8

Jan 18, 2014 1:49PM PST

I shrunk the SSD down leaving about 100 GB for Win 8.1 and formatted the remaining space creating an NTFS partition for the Windows 7 (DVD) install. I disabled quick boot and changed the boot order so the optical drive is first. When I attempt to boot from the disk, it freezes before i get to the screen to choose which partition to install to.

So i then changed the bios from UEFI to CSM, and now i make it as far as the screen to choose the partition, but it won't let me install on the newly created SSD partition, with the message: "windows cannot be installed to this disk. The selected disk is of the GPT partition style", greying out the install button when trying to select this partition. However, when I select one of the 1.5 TB HD's, the install button becomes active. But I really want to install Windows 7 on the SSD.

My machine is a Toshiba Qosmio X70 with 32GB ram, two 1.5 TB HD's and a 256 GB SSD

Discussion is locked

- Collapse -
Answer
(NT) turned off Secure Boot too?
Jan 18, 2014 6:50PM PST
- Collapse -
turned off Secure Boot too?
Jan 18, 2014 9:06PM PST

Yes

- Collapse -
you claim to create another partition on GPT disc
Jan 19, 2014 11:20AM PST

How did you do this? With windows disk manager, or some other disk managing software? Did you try to install windows 7 32bit or the 64 bit?

- Collapse -
Answer
Seems to be rather complex ...
Jan 18, 2014 10:19PM PST
- Collapse -
Answer
As we've seen.
Jan 19, 2014 12:30AM PST

Unsupported. Microsoft set it up to install from old to newer Windows. Going backwards lands you in a no support zone to try what you find on the net.

I can't see a reason to go back to 7 after we installed Classic Shell at the office.
Bob