I have a machine that I am wanting to revert back to Win7 from Win 8.1 I have formatted and switched between the 2 twice each time going back two 8.1 for several reasons. One of which has been the slower HDD performance I am experiencing in Win 7. I have run DiskMark on both OS(s) and have experienced the following: Win 7 Avg(4 runs) seq read 149 / seq write 143 Win 8.1 Avg(4 runs) seq read 198 / seq write 183 In both cases I have started with clean installs, formatting the volume(s) each time. For Win7 I have to install the Intel Chipset drivers to gain USB3 support, so I also go ahead and install the whole chipset package. (On Dell's website the files are separated out). I am using [murphy78 presents Windows 7 AIO 24in1 SP1 x64]. From this I am using Win7 Ultimate (OEM activated) For the Win8 install I do not have to install any additional drivers. I use the Dell OS disc that came with the machine. This OS disc installs Win 8 Home Premium. Once it is patched, I upgrade to 8.1 Any assistance would be appreciated. I really want to move back to Win 7 permanently. PC Specs: Dell XPS 8500 Intel Core i7 3770 16 GB RAM 1(2 TB) HD - [ST2000DM001] - Accelerated using Intel RST and 32GB mSata drive.
1) after installing the Intel Chipset Software, you also need to install the Intel USB Extensible Host Driver now that won't affect your internal HDD speeds but you might want to make sure you are using the IRST Driver (even if you're not doing RAID) as it is a better controller driver overall. Don't install the latest one as from my testing, that's not always the best one, get the one listed under the Dell Driver download page of your service tag for Windows 7