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Question

Replacing 8 with 7 issues

Jan 14, 2015 7:00AM PST

I JUST bought an MSI gaming laptop with Win8 on it. I fought with it for a bit, and hated it. I just happened to have Win7 pro, and went with "kinder" install attempts, all of which 8 squashed, so I went into command prompt and formatted it out.

After error codes that I've managed to get through all of, I am now faced with Win7 demanding I set my hard drives up in...FAT32. ??? I thought FAT32 went out with Windows 98?

Anyway, with no windows in the machine, how do I get the hard drives to set-up to FAT32 so 7 will install?

Discussion is locked

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Answer
Grrr
Jan 14, 2015 7:01AM PST

Sorry for the double--just started using cnet, and internet is being lethargic today.

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Posts take a couple of minutes to come through.
Jan 14, 2015 7:06AM PST

Dafydd.

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Answer
Something odd going on.
Jan 14, 2015 8:00AM PST

There are some machines that will never run 7 due to no drivers and apps. REMEMBER that times have changed from when you installed the OS then drivers. Now you get to install the OS, the drivers and apps to control the laptop. Not much new going on but had to note it.

As to the FAT32, I have yet to format a drive prior to installing a clean windows. I leave the drive unpartitioned and that's it.

-> HOWEVER Windows 7 doesn't work well with UEFI BIOS's so you must tackle this by looking around for CSM. This is well discussed so I'll pause here.

In closing, if you go back to 8, install Classic Shell and for me, it's all good.
Bob

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Answer
win 7 drivers from msi
Jan 14, 2015 6:44PM PST

you will have to go to msi, download and install their win7 drivers for your specific laptop model. If they do not have them, then I strongly urge you to go back to win 8.1

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Answer
try this
Jan 15, 2015 5:18AM PST

HI, try re installing the OS windows 7 and format all the drive in your computer. If you have any important data, backup it up and start the process. After you have formatted the partitions, you will be getting option to choose the partition type, there you can change it and install as Windows 7 itself.

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Tried
Jan 16, 2015 8:53AM PST

Win7 is refusing to format them (1TB HDD & 3 128GB SSDs)--I have the feeling I'm gonna have to break into it and individually remove each drive, hook it to a different machine, and format each of them that way.

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I've NEVER had to format ahead of a Windows install.
Jan 16, 2015 9:30AM PST

However I do like to start with BLANK non-partitioned drives.

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Answer
You've only just begun a very bad journey
Jan 16, 2015 9:06AM PST

Going from 8.1 backward to 7 is fraught with all kinds of peril that you're only scratching the surface of the problems you're going to have if you continue pursuing this. Restore that laptop to factory settings and install the free Classic Shell. Classic Shell will give Windows 8.1 the look and feel of Windows 7 without all the pain and suffering you'll encounter on your current pursuit.

Good luck.

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Answer
boot to linux LIVE DVD
Jan 16, 2015 9:31AM PST