Copying your documents (Documents, Music, Pictures, Videos) from your Windows 8 account to a set of related folders on your USB drive:
This is the second major step that must be performed prior to recovering your personal installation of Windows 7.
1) Create a new folder (Example: Jims Docs) on the USB hard drive and 4 subfolders:(Docs, MusicFiles, Photos and Vid).
Note: If you have files located in the ‘Downloads’ folder and email folders / files, they must also be copied to the USB drive.
2) Copy and paste the files located in the Windows 8 ‘Documents’ folder to the ‘\Jims Docs\Docs\’ Folder.
3) Copy and paste the files located in the Windows 8 ‘Music’ folder to the ‘\Jims Docs\MusicFiles\ Folder.
4) Copy and paste the files located in the Windows 8 ‘Pictures’ folder to the ‘\Jims Docs\Photos\ Folder.
5) Copy and paste the files located in the Windows 8 ‘Videos’ folder to the ‘\Jims Docs\Vid\Folder.
6) Copy and paste any files located in the Windows 8 ‘Downloads’ folder to a ‘Downloads’ folder on your USB drive. If you have Email folders and files copy those as well to their own folder.
Now that you have created a backup of Windows 8 and copied your documents to the USB drive, the next step is to install a fresh /clean version of Windows 7. This will serve as the foundation for recovering your personal version of Windows 7.
Note: Since I’m using a “Retail” version of Windows 7 which eventually will be replaced by the contents of the Windows.old folder (currently contained inside the image backup) a “Custom / Keyless Install” is all I need. A keyless install is where Windows 7 activation is not performed.
