How to restore Windows 7 after installing the Windows 8 Developer Preview
(Text only version - for printing a hard copy)
This recovery procedure is only valid if you “Upgraded” from Windows 7 to Windows 8, it has not been verified to work if you performed a “Custom/Clean” install of Windows 8.
Upgrading to Windows 8 – You have two methods:
1) Upgrade by booting from the Windows 8 Preview Build installation disc (Screen Shots).
2) Booting to Windows 7 and inserting the Windows 8 Preview Build disc and when prompted run the setup.exe file (Screen Shots). Method 2 is not a supported path for "Upgrading"!
You have two recovery documentation choices:
1) Text only version, use this link to print a hard copy of the instructions.
2) Text with supporting screenshots link, provides the additional visual aid needed to make the recovery process as easy as possible.
The steps used to restore Windows 7 are in part partially based on Microsoft’s Knowledge Base article kb971760. “How to restore a Windows 7-based computer to a previous Windows installation by using the Windows.old folder”.
Concept:
The basic concept is relatively simple.
1) Copy the Windows.old from the Windows 8 partition to an external USB drive (or second internal hard drive). Copy the files located in the documents folder to the USB drive.
Note: If the Windows.old folder does not exist, you cannot follow the steps in this article to restore Windows 7 to your computer.
2) Reinstall Windows 7 using a technique know as a “Keyless Install”.
3) Copy the Windows.old folder back to the root (C:\) of your freshly installed version of Windows 7.
Note: The amount of free space on the Windows 7 partition (after installing Windows 7) must be large enough to hold the “Windows.old” folder when you copy it from the USB drive back to the Windows partition.
4) Using your Windows 7 installation DVD, boot and open a command prompt to replace the current Windows 7 folders with the equivalent folders contained inside the Windows.old folder.
5) Create a new user account and copy your documents from the USB drive to the new account.
What you will need:
1) The Windows.old folder located in your Windows 8 partition.
2) An external USB drive (preferred) or a second internal hard drive.
3) Your original Windows 7 installation DVD or your System Repair Disc (if you created one).
4) EASEUS Todo Backup 3 - A free Image and file backup utility that is able to copy the Windows.old folder from your Windows 8 partition to your USB drive (in the form of an image file) without choking on file and folder permissions. Retains original file permissions within the Windows.old folder. http://www.todo-backup.com/products/home/free-backup-software.htm
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