Hi all, was looking for a little help as i'm at wits end. I'm trying to downgrade my parents laptop from Windows 8 to Windows 7 Ultimate. I ran into the issue with the whole locked OEM partition, i tried using killdisk but not sure i used it correctly (this may solve my problem) The laptop is an HP pavillion. I tried erasing just about i could see on the list, am i supposed to wipe the C drive and reinstall windows clean? Any help would be greatly appreciated! And more infos if needed!
Shouldn't bother with downgrading, instead you should just fresh install Windows 7. Just boot the DVD/USB and install.
A clean install resolves many issues. Before you do so, you might want to check the HP website for appropriate Windows 7 drivers for your model. Windows 7 does a good job with it's generic drivers, but sometimes you need ones supplied by the OEM. There is a chance HP might not supply Windows 7 drivers for your model.
There's a lot of truth here. Given that Microsoft appears to be bringing back the start menu to Windows 8/8.1 with the next round of updates, waiting might be a good idea. Of course you have to get the update when it's available to determine if it gets you what you want.
Hmm..thought i did a fresh install, i'll try again to double check, i have a disc...thought i did and it left a locked partition behind from windows 8. Roger that, made discs of the drivers i needed. Seems with this particular laptop only the network needed a driver. This i did not know, but in all honesty this is my Dad's laptop and i'd rather just get him back to 7 its something he knows and is comfortable with, he doesn't need 8.
My next course of action will to try the fresh install via a disc. Hoping that this removes the locked partition blocking the keylogger. If not i'll make a bootable thumbdrive and run killdisk on the C drive...then try to reinstall. Sound good?
If you want to get rid of everything on the hard drive, use a partition editor such a GPartEd. There are others just as good. A partition editor (burn to CD and boot from optical drive) can delete all partitions and completely wipe the drive.
Ok to wrap this up since i finally got to it work. I downloaded and booted from Gparted and used it to remove the locked partition. I also downloaded and booted from Partition wizard and reformated the drive and changed from GPT to MBR. Reloaded windows and wah-lah all is well! Thanks for the help folks, appreciated!