Thread: Need Win 7- 64 Back !!

Victour:
Hello and welcome to the forums.
Sorry, but there is no short easy answer to your question.
Depending on how you went about installing Windows 8 Developers Preview, dictates how or if you can "get my Win 7 Back.."
If you installed it as part of a dual boot configuration to its' own dedicated hard drive or partition, things should be relatively easy and I'm pretty sure we can help you with that. However;
if you installed Windows 8 over top of your Windows 7 installation (look for the presence of a Windows.OLD folder on your drive and make sure you back it up and keep it safe as that is where all your old data is located) then getting back to Windows 7 will almost certainly require a clean custom install.
If you can explain in more detail as to how you went about installing Windows 8 on your computer, perhaps someone will have some additional information regarding their own experience they can share with you.
Regards
Randy

You're most likely going to have to reinstall Windows 7 from scratch. Like Trouble said, if you didn't install Windows 8 on a separate partition, there isn't a way to roll back. Most who test these preview releases and beta's, usually create a separate partition on their hard drive and dual boot or use a virtual machine to run it inside Windows 7 or whatever OS you have. Like Trouble said, look for a windows.old file and save it to a cd, or a flash drive. At least you'll have some of your data.

Is there any chance you made an Image of your Win 7 OS just before installing Win 8. If so your restoration will take about 10 minutes. If not, as already mentioned, save the windows.old folder to preserve your data, then prepare to reinstall Win 7 and all your apps and updates. If it would help you can download the Win 7 iso including SP1 to save a little time. Use your original key during the installation.

This is a great reason to look into Imaging. An up to date Image with the Imaging app of your choice would allow restoration in about 10 minutes.

I'd rather stand in the middle of the town square, at high noon, naked and take a beating with a willow switch than experiment with a new OS without first backing up my entire C: drive. That's as inadvisable as entering a Nascar race driving a VW Bug.

Free, or reasonable backup software has been around as long as there have been PC's. Even in the DOS days, pre-Windows 95, there was backup software. PC Tools was a good example. And, since 1997 we've had Ghost. It was even free for a while on driver disks that came with new motherboards. That's where I got my first personal copy.

There's not even enough room on this page to list all the available Backup Software.
Personally I'm still using Ghost 2003 for XP and Ghost 11.5 for Vista, Win-7 and Win-8.

Never, never, never....muck about with your OS and data files without backing them up first. That's suicide!
If you don't have a backup of your C: drive, , , , well, Good Luck.
If I had your PC here, I could attempt a recovery, but not till I'd done a complete backup of your C: drive.
If your HD was slaved off of another computer, at least your data files could be saved.

I really do wish you good luck,

The Doctor

Thanks so Much Trouble , Bigfoot and Ted that is what I knew but did not do.. I can just install Fresh always a good Idea anyway.. Thanks Again..! Live and Learn..lol
DR Who ! I didn't come here to be Chewed out ! but for some Help ! A Demo doesn't sound like something that would take over my computer. I play Demo Games all the time.. and I don't back up the OS everytime I download a game .. Because I use Microsoft... I also installed the Demo while saving my Files and personal files.. I am not Hurt that Bad.. My Computer possibly needed Cleaning anyway..

Unfortunately a demo OS is much different than a demo game. I demo apps all the time and am constantly "playing" with my OS. I have lost count on the number of times I have restored from an Image. I create new Images whenever I change my OS, updates, new apps that I intend to keep, etc. This way when I demo something that does not work, and hoses something, I can easily get back to where I was by restoring and up to date Image.

OS demos are another matter altogether. The demo replaces what's there unless it's installed in a separate partition. My first attempt at installing Win 8 DP into a dual boot situation was screwed up because I did start from within my Win 7 OS and the installation process replaced Win 7. Fortunately I did make an Image just before attempting this. Took 10 minutes to restore Win 7 (I was trying to install Win 8 DP from the iso image without burning to a DVD). As soon as I burned the DVD and booted to it, the installation asked me where to place the new OS.

DrWHo, since I "play" with these new things on my Laptop, I have little choice but to put the second OS onto the same HD in a second partition. I do not have a USB HD enclosure, nor do I want one. I also do not have a second HD I can swap into my Laptop (I could do this but choose not to). This is why I Image things as often as I do. My Imaging now includes both Win 7 (C) and Win 8 DP (W). This works very well for me. As you probably know I use Acronis True Image Home 2011 for my Imaging needs, but any number of very good Imaging apps would work equally as well.

Ok Ted, I went ahead and installed a second 1 teri Hd and moved everything to it. so Tomorrow I will re-install WIN 7 - 64 I am unable to get win 8 to recognize a USB Drive I don't know why.. one of my 80 gig is ok but a couple WD.s won't I also download Acronis when I downloaded Seagate Wizard.. So I promise not to do that any more.. It took several hours to move 600 Gig of files.. without using Acronis.. Glad I still have Time to Live and Learn.. lol

600 GB's, WOW. That's a lot of files. Glad it was you and not me! Whew! My needs are much lower than that in data storage/file storage.

I have not tried to plug into USB with Win 8, will have to try that next. (Am presently using Win 7 because haven't had time to switch over this am, to work in a while) I have tried many of my various apps, and all seem to work. Whenever I try new apps I will up date this list.

I have Imaged both Win 7 and Win 8 DP in one Image file. This way if my "playing" with Win 8 DP screws something up I can get back to where I was with minimal effort.

Good luck with your own "playing"!

edit: Today I tried my USB ports. All seem to work appropriately. Not sure what your problem may be.