Greetings, my dear readers. The other day they brought me an interesting laptop: HP 255 G2 with pre-installed installed Windows 8.1 (as it should be now), however, its owner did not want to relearn and tearfully asked to put the usual seven. As they say: the master is the master, and it was decided to demolish Windows 8.1, which came with the kit, and install Windows 7. However, everything turned out to be not as simple as I thought at first glance!

How to install Windows 7 on an HP laptop in pictures

So how to install Windows 7 on an HP 255 G2 laptop, even if standard delete or f2 do not allow us to get into the usual Laptop BIOS? (which puzzled me a lot). It was then that I remembered a clever phrase: if all else fails, then finally read the instructions!

The instructions included were very sparse: it showed how to insert the battery and what to press to turn it on... and a couple of pages on how to use Windows 8.1. As you can imagine, such reading was of little use to me and I had to go to the official website for answers, and I found them!

Here is the information... to get into the BIOS! to set the boot device we need to press when starting the laptop first and then, after that you will be taken to the BIOS, where you can make settings.

How to install Windows 7 on an HP laptop

Since new HP laptops (almost all) have UEFI instead of the usual BIOS (A sort of modern alternative to BIOS) then there are some subtleties here (UEFI is a topic for a separate article, so we won’t consider it here, we’ll just figure out how to load seven on a laptop)... By the way, quality control was checked by my faithful cat, who never left his laptop for a minute :)

If it weren't for the cat, I don't even know if I would have figured it out or not.

So, if we briefly talk about UEFI innovations, then the main crutch in the installation of any other OS other than Eight - SECURE BOOT mode, which increases the security of the OS. The main problem is that no one except Windows 8 supports this feature. (from desktop OS of course), so to install Windows 7 on our HP 255 G2 or similar laptop, you just need turn off SECURE BOOT and instead of it activate Legacy Support , after these manipulations it may be easy to install any other operating system... at least 😉

As soon as you turn on the laptop, immediately press and then until you get to the BIOS. Here we go to the tab System Configuration and select the item Boot Options on the menu…

As you can see, there are very few settings here, so there shouldn’t be any difficulties here... in order for us to install Windows 7, we need to disable Secure Boot (Select ) and enable Legacy Support (Select ) . Unfortunately, in some HP laptops this may look a little different, but the meaning will always be the same: Secure Boot - Disabled, Legacy Support - Enabled.

However, that’s not all, since changing the loading method will not allow the eight to load, we need to enter the confirmation code and press. I warn you right away that the buttons on the number pad are not active in this case... dial the code (in my case 9993) and press Enter

Actually, that's all... now at startup we press + and we find ourselves in Boot Options - where we need to choose what to boot from, that’s all, the HP laptop is ready to install Windows 7.

Instead of an afterword: If you, like me, decided, then take a closer look at USB port in the laptop... there it is USB ports 3.0, which do not work quite correctly without installing drivers for them. For example, installing Windows 7 was impossible for me due to the lack of drivers for the optical drive, which sounds a little crazy - I installed it with USB storage... but keep this in mind, if you have the same error, just insert the flash drive into another USB port of the laptop and repeat the download. Now you definitely won’t have any questions left: How to install Windows 7 on an HP laptop! In my opinion, we have considered all possible options;)

In contact with

HP laptops usually come with Windows 8 pre-installed, which many users prefer to replace with the more familiar Windows 7 and turn to Windows 7 for help. service centers. We want to help you a little and tell you how to reinstall Windows on an HP laptop yourself.

You can’t do without theory: BIOS and UEFI, MBR and GPT

To reinstall the operating system, as a rule, you should start by going to the BIOS. But in the case of an HP laptop, we will have to deal not with a traditional BIOS, but with BIOS UEFI - a new, more modern interface between the system and equipment.

Among the many new functions of the “Extensible Firmware Interface”, this is how the abbreviation “Unified Extensible Firmware Interface” is translated, we want to note only one - the ability to work with disk space of 9,000,000,000 TB. This is achieved through the use of GPT - a partition table that replaced the usual MBR. For comparison: MBR provides access to disk space of no more than 2 TB.

Disable Secure Boot

One of the pitfalls of Windows 8 is the Secure Boot mode, which does not allow loading operating systems other than it.

Our goal is to provide the ability to boot Windows 7 onto an HP laptop.

1. As soon as the laptop starts to boot, press the Esc key and go to the boot menu.
2. Using the F10 key, go to the Bios Setup section.
3. Select Boot Options from the System Configuration tab.
4. Disable Windows Safe Boot Mode:
   Secure Boot = Disabled.
5. We enable support for compatibility with other operating systems:
   Legacy support = Enabled .
6. To save the settings, press the F10 key and confirm in the dialog box that it is impossible to load the current operating system
   "...the system unable to boot the OS...".
7. We re-confirm the change in the loading method by entering the suggested numbers using the main keyboard after the warning
   "... Secure Boot mode is pending ...".

Selecting a boot device

1. When restarting the laptop, press the Esc key and go to the boot menu.
2. Go to the Boot Device Options section using the F9 key and select the boot device (flash drive, laser disk drive).

Now our HP laptop is ready to install new Windows.

If GPT is not suitable

After you have reinstalled licensed Windows 7, all you have to do is deal with the drivers. But what to do if you do not have the ability to quickly activate the operating system? The boot partition created by GPT will be locked as soon as the period expires Windows activation 7, the system will become inoperative and you will have to reinstall it again. You can solve this problem by converting a GPT disk to MBR.

Convert to MBR with data deletion

Converting a GPT disk to MBR is performed using the DiskPart utility from the Windows 7 distribution and entails complete removal data on disk. This option is suitable for users who decide to reinstall the operating system immediately after purchasing an HP laptop. For everyone else, be sure to back up your drive before converting.

1. Booting from the installation Windows disk 7 and we reach the stage of selecting the OS installation partition.
2. In command line mode, launch the DiskPart utility using the keyboard shortcut +F10 :
   diskpart
3. We get the list hard drives installed on your computer and find the one you need:
   list disk
4. To select a disk we use select command disk N , where N is the disk serial number. Disk numbering starts from zero. Our laptop only has one hard drive, so the disk selection command looks like this:
   select dick 0
5. Deleting data:
   clean
6. Convert the disk:
   convert mbr
7. We finish working with the command line:
   exit
8. We continue installing Windows.

Convert to MBR without data loss

Converting a GPT disk to MBR without data loss is done using the Paragon Manager utility, which can be found on multiboot disks (Live CD). We will use the Lex Live CD (build from Lexa 2011).

1. Boot from Live CD.
2. We launch Paragon Manager and select our hard drive, which Paragon recognized as Basic GPT.
3. We start the conversion process by selecting the option Convert to basic MBR disk(team HDD top menu).

If you are a laptop owner HP Envy M6 running on a new operating system Windows 8, - You are definitely looking for an answer to the question: how can reinstall more familiar and stable Windows 7 instead of very raw and incomprehensible Windows 8? And, if you have reached a dead end in search of a decent answer to this question, then you have come to the site you need!

Let's look at the main points using my laptop as an example. HP Envy M6 1151sr .

First we must correctly install the Windows 7 operating system. Laptops latest models, as you may have noticed, are equipped with a fundamentally new intermediary interface between the equipment and the system called UEFI. You can read what it is on the Internet. I will only touch on a few points. New interface — overcomes limitations, imposed by the system BIOS on the amount of memory (both physical and RAM), processor power, etc. One of the new features is support for hard drives larger than 2 TB . This is achieved using a new format for placing partition tables on the disk: replacing the master boot record MBR comes the so-called GPT. GPT allows the system to create a protected, separate partition that will contain Windows boot loader .

Typically, during installation, the system creates local disk 100 MB volume specifically for the bootloader. In the case of GPT, two partitions will be created - a 100 MB bootloader and a kind of “limiting line” - a disk that separates the boot partition from other local disks. All this is supported by Windows 7, but problems may arise after installation. If you are the owner licensed Windows 7 , - there is nothing to worry about. Just install it on disk and activate it. Otherwise, activation currently existing methods , will be impossible due to the fact that boot partition locked. And as a result, after the 3-day activation period, you will receive non-working system .

The best way to avoid this problem is - convert disk to MBR using external bootable flash drive Windows 7. This operation WILL DELETE ALL FILES ON THE DISK! Don't forget to make a backup. Boot from the flash drive and click on the Start button. Enter in the search field "Computer Management" and open the appropriate program. Next, go to the “Disk Management” section. Right-click on the hard drive icon and select the menu item "Convert to MBR disk". Follow the steps as in the screenshot below, however, my disk is already in MBR and the menu item reads “Convert to GPT disk”.

After that delete all partitions from the disk - you will create them after installation.

The next important step is to boot correctly from installation disk without UEFI. The fact is that in UEFI, by default, GPT mode is enabled for the hard drive, but we need MBR. Therefore, when you turn on the computer, press F9 and select "Boot from internal CD/DVD-Rom" or something like that. Under no circumstances should we select “Boot from CD/DVD (UEFI)”, since the disk will be converted back to GPT when installing the system.

Which system to install is up to you, but my advice is to use original Windows 7 disk images. Since laptops HP Envy M6 run on processors Intel Core i3, i5, i7 with 64-bit architecture, as well as the number random access memory exceeds 4 GB, - accordingly, we must install Windows 7 x64, I advise SP1- it is more stable. Another tip - when installing, do not allocate a lot of space for the system disk. Limit your volume 50-60 GB.

So, we successfully completed the installation. The second problem you will encounter is device drivers . The fact is that on the official website HP The manufacturer has provided the laptop with drivers only for Windows 8. And if you, like me, hate “burnt” drivers and “All in One” driver packages, then I will try to tell you how to find native drivers for Windows 7 on the Internet.

First of all, open Windows Device Manager: Computer (right click) -> Properties -> Device Manager . In the window that opens, some devices will be identified, some will have a yellow question mark. That's what we need.

There is only one unidentified device in the picture, but you will have more of them. The first thing we must do is create a text file with hardware identifiers. Perform the following action for all devices with a yellow question mark: right click -> Properties -> Details and select a property from the list - Equipment ID. Copy to the first line in the list that opens below and paste into a text file:

After the list is compiled, we pay attention to those lines that contain VEN_8086- this is the manufacturer identifier Intel. CPU, motherboard, controllers in laptops HP Envy M6- production of the company Intel.

The procedure is as follows:

1. In the search for the drp.su website, enter the equipment identifier line;

2. Copy the device name from the search results;

3. We are looking for a device driver in search engine Google.Com pointing search query in this format:

Device name Windows 7 x64 HP.com

4. Find the driver page on the official hp website in the search results and go to this page;

5. Download the driver.

Next we look for drivers for all other devices. I’ll say right away - drivers WiFi, Bluetooth, Audio Cards, Fingerprint Readers, Card Reader and TouchPad suitable from the driver package for Windows 8. Just go to the HP website in the Support -> Driver Downloads section, select your laptop from the list and download the specified drivers for Windows 8.

Switchable graphics adapter drivers can be found this way:

1. Go to the driver download page for your laptop on the official HP website;

2. In the “Graphics” section, copy the name of the driver, for example: “Graphics AMD driver High-Definition (HD)";

3. Search Google for the driver using the above method.

Here is a link to a driver that is suitable for a laptop HP Envy M6 1151sr: http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/softwareDownloadIndex?cc=ru&lc=ru&dlc=ru&softwareitem=ob-98292-1 .

Concerning other devices, - if searching for any driver on Google does not return any results from the official HP website, then you should use the site search driver.ru. In the search bar you need to specify not the name of the device, but its identifier, which we copied earlier.

I did all this work previously for a laptop. HP Envy M6 1151sr. You can download drivers for this model here. And before you perform all the above steps to search for drivers, check their availability among my drivers.

After all device drivers have been downloaded, install them one by one with MANDATORY REBOOT after installation, in the following order:

1. Chipset (motherboard drivers)

2.Intel MEI

3. Intel USB 3.0

4. Intel Rapid Storage

5. HP 3D Drive Guard

6. Graphics drivers (switchable graphics);

7.TouchPad

8. Network

9. All other drivers.

This is the only way you can get a fully functioning Windows 7 system. Thank you for your attention!

Good morning everyone!

I don’t know whether this happens on purpose or by accident, but Windows installed on laptops is often terribly slow (with unnecessary add-ons and programs). Plus, the disk is not very conveniently divided - there is only one partition with Windows OS (not counting another “small” one for a backup copy).

Actually, not so long ago I had to “figure it out” and reinstall Windows on an HP 15-ac686ur laptop (very simple budget laptop no frills. By the way, it was on it that the extremely “buggy” Windows was installed - because of this, they asked me to help. I photographed some moments, and that’s how this article was born:))…

Setting up the BIOS of an HP laptop to boot from a flash drive

Remark! Since this HP laptop does not have a CD/DVD drive, Windows was installed using USB flash drives(because this is the easiest and fastest option).

I do not consider the issue of creating a bootable flash drive in this article. If you do not have such a flash drive, I recommend reading the following articles:

1. Creating a bootable USB flash drive for Windows XP, 7, 8, 10 - (in the article I discuss installing Windows 10 from a flash drive, created based on this article :));
2. Creating a bootable UEFI flash drive -

Buttons to enter BIOS settings

Remark! I have an article on my blog with a lot of buttons for entering the BIOS on various devices -

This laptop (which I liked) has several buttons for entering various settings (and some of them duplicate each other). So, here they are (they will also be duplicated in photo 4):

1. F1 - system information about the laptop (not all laptops have this, but here they built it into this budget one :));
2. F2 - laptop diagnostics, viewing information about devices (by the way, the tab supports Russian, see photo 1);
3. F9 - select a boot device (i.e. our flash drive, but more on that below);
4. F10 - BIOS settings (the most important button :));
5. Enter - continue downloading;
6. ESC - see a menu with all these options for booting a laptop, select any of them (see photo 4).

Important! Those. if you don’t remember the button to enter the BIOS (or something else...), then on something like this model range laptops - you can safely press the ESC button after turning on the laptop! Moreover, it is better to press several times until the menu appears.

Photo 1. F2 - HP laptop diagnostics.

Note! You can install Windows, for example, in UEFI mode (to do this, you need to burn the USB flash drive accordingly and configure the BIOS. More details about this here:). In my example below I will consider the “universal” method (since it is also suitable for Windows installations 7).

So, to enter the BIOS on an HP laptop ( approx. Laptop HP15-ac686) you need to press the F10 button several times - after you have turned on the device. Next, in the BIOS settings, you need to open the System Configuration section and go to the Boot Options tab (see photo 2).

Photo 2. F10 button - Bios Boot Options

1. Make sure that USB Boot is enabled (must be in Enabled mode);
2. Enable Legacy Support (must be Enabled);
3. In the Legacy Boot Order list, move the lines from USB to the first places (using the F5, F6 buttons).

Photo 3. Boot Option - Legacy Enabled

Actually, now you can start installing Windows. To do this, insert a pre-prepared bootable USB flash drive into the USB port and reboot (turn on) the laptop.

Photo 4. Boot Device Option (selecting an option to boot an HP laptop)

A window should appear in which you can select a boot device. Because We install Windows from a flash drive - then you need to select the line with “USB Hard Drive...” (see photo 5). If everything is done correctly, then after a while you should see the Windows installation welcome window (as in photo 6).

Photo 5. Selecting a flash drive to start installing Windows (Boot Manager).

On this BIOS setup OS installation complete...

Reinstalling Windows 10

In the example below, Windows will be reinstalled on the same disk (albeit on a completely formatted and partitioned slightly differently).

If you have configured the BIOS correctly and burned the USB flash drive, then after selecting the boot device (F9 button (photo 5))- you should see a welcome window and offers to install Windows (as in photo 6).

We agree with the installation - click the “Install” button.

Photo 6. Welcome window for installing Windows 10.

Next, having reached the installation type, you need to select “ Custom: Windows installation only (advanced users)". In this case, you can format the disk as needed and completely remove all old files and OS.

Photo 7. Custom: Windows installation only (for advanced users)

The next window will open a (sort of) disk manager. If the laptop is new (and no one has “commanded” it yet), then most likely you will have several partitions (including backup ones, for backups that will be needed to restore the OS).

My personal opinion is that in most cases, these sections are not needed (and even the OS that comes with the laptop is not the best, I would say “stripped down”). It is not always possible to restore Windows OS with their help; it is impossible to remove some types of viruses, etc. And a backup on the same disk as your documents is also not the best option.

In my case, I simply selected them and deleted them (every single one. How to delete - see photo 8).

Important! In some cases, removing the software that comes with the device is a reason to refuse warranty service. Although, as a rule, software is never covered by a warranty, and yet, if in doubt, check this point (before deleting everything)…

Photo 8. Deleting old partitions on the disk (which were on it when the device was purchased).

Photo 9. Everything was deleted - there was only one unallocated disk left.

Then all that remains is to select this partition (97.2GB), click the “Next” button and install Windows into it.

Remark! By the way, the rest of the space on your hard drive doesn’t need to be formatted at all for now. After Windows is installed, go to “disk management” (via the panel Windows management, for example) and format the remaining disk space. Usually, they just make another partition (with all the free space) for media files.

Photo 10. One ~100GB partition was created to install Windows on it.

Photo 11. Installation process (you just need to wait :)).

Hello admin! How to install on new laptop HP ENVY, with pre-installed Windows 8.1 and UEFI BIOS, a second Windows 7 operating system on GPT disk ?

I bought a new HP laptop, the hard drive has one drive (C:) with Windows 8.1 preinstalled from the store. I separated 100 GB from the C: drive, unallocated space appeared and now I want to install Windows 7 on it.

I connect the Windows 7 installation flash drive to the laptop, turn it on, enter the boot menu of the laptop, and my flash drive is simply not there. The same thing applies when using the installation disk.

Knowledgeable people advised to disable the Secure Boot option in the BIOS. Disabled it, then booted into the Windows 7 installer, selected a partition for installation, and an error appeared: The order of partitions on the disk selected for installation is different from the recommended one. For getting additional information To install on GPT disks, go to the Microsoft Web site (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=154898) and search for "GPT" . Continue installation? OK or Cancel.

How to install a second Windows 7 operating system on a GPT disk on a new HP ENVY laptop with pre-installed Windows 8.1 and UEFI BIOS

Of course, our reader’s data will not be deleted and after clicking OK, Windows 7 will be installed by the second system on the specified partition hard drive, but in today's article I want to offer you something different.

If you purchased a new laptop with pre-installed Windows 8.1 and UEFI BIOS, but want to install a second Windows 7 operating system on a pre-created partition, then this is quite feasible for some laptop models (unfortunately not for everyone), interestingly, you don’t even need to create a bootable UEFI USB flash drive for Win 7. In this article, I will show you the easiest way to install Windows 7 as a second system on your laptop.

• Note: Friends, this method is tested and works for everyone simple computers and older laptops without UEFI BIOS. You can also apply it to new ones ASUS laptops, HP Pavilion and HP ENVY, with UEFI BIOS, but there is one thing! With new laptops it's not so simple. Due to the fact that computer equipment manufacturers can change at any time functionality UEFI BIOS on a laptop, I advise you to make a backup copy of the BCD boot store before starting. If you cannot install Windows 7 as a second system on your laptop, then you can deploy a backup of the BCD boot storage and return the laptop to the state it was before our experiments. In my article I will tell you everything step by step, so don’t worry, you will succeed.

For this article, let’s take the same HP ENVY laptop. Before starting work, let's make some preparations. First, let's create a backup of the BCD boot storage, since after installing Windows 7, the boot menu of the laptop will be changed and a choice will appear in it operating systems: Windows 7 or Windows 8.1, if after a while you want to get rid of Windows 7 and format the partition with its files, then the system selection menu when booting the laptop will still remain, you can remove it simple restoration BCD from backup.

Creating a BCD Backup

Create a folder on disk (C:) bacup,

then open command line as administrator and enter the command:

bcdedit /export C:\bacup\bcd

and appears in the bacup folder backup copy repository download file bcd. Do not delete the bacup folder on the drive (C:), at the end of the article I will show how to restore the bcd boot storage from a backup.

Disk Management

We create a partition for installing Windows 7. We enter Disk Management and see three service partitions and a 680 GB drive (C:) with Windows 8.1 installed, right-click on it and select Shrink Volume...

50 GB will be enough for me, if you intend to work seriously in Windows 7, choose a larger volume.

From the unallocated area that appears, we create a simple volume (F:), onto which we will deploy Win 7.

ISO Windows image 7

To install the system we need , you can according to our article. I will download it directly to the desktop and double-click on it with the left mouse and attach it to the virtual drive (J:).

WinNTSetup

This program (familiar to you from) will help you deploy Windows 7 from ISO image to the partition we created (F:) without a bootable USB flash drive or system installation disk.

Download WinNTSetup You can use it on my Yandex.Diskhttps://yadi.sk/d/xLGkpAOzhXCPcor on the official website

http://www.winntsetup.com/?page_id=5

Extract the utility from the archive and run it executable file WinNTSetup_x64.exe

Click on the Select button

and indicate the path to the installation Windows files 7. We only need the install.wim file from the sources folder of the distribution. Go to the virtual disk (J: ) to the sources folder, select the install.wim file with the left mouse and click Open.

The path to the Windows 7 installation files is indicated.

The disk on which the Windows 7 bootloader will be installed is selected automatically - Z: (section Reserved by the system, volume 350 MB).

Select the disk on which Windows 7 will be installed. Click Select

Specify New Volume (F:) and click Select Folder.

Installation

The Windows 7 installation process begins

We reboot and enter the BIOS, set the Legacy support option to Enabled, and the Secure Boot option to Disabled (sometimes this is not enough), save the settings and reboot.

The operating system selection menu opens: Windows 7 or Windows 8.1, select the first

and immediately enter the final phase of installing Windows 7.

Enter the username and computer name

We accept the license terms

Your choice

Windows 7 is loading.

If you want to boot into Windows 8.1 and it doesn’t work, then enable the UEFI interface in the BIOS and be sure to boot into Win 8.1.

In Disk Management you can see that the system drive letter (C:).

The hard disk properties indicate the GUID (GPT) partition style.

Computer window

How to remove Windows 7 without a trace

We used the “seven” and decided to delete it. To do this, boot into Windows 8.1.

Open a command prompt as administrator and enter the command:

bcdedit /import C:\bacup\bcd ,

With this command we restore the storage Windows boot 8.1 to its original state, that is, when you turn on the laptop, the menu with a choice of operating systems will not appear.