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I recently purchased a new brand new ASUS Vivobook from Newegg that came with a Windows 10 installation. I have been trying without much luck to install Windows 7 so that the computer is useable.
For reference here is the laptop EFI information. Aptio Setup Utility - Copyright 2016 American Megatrends, Inc. Version 2.17.1249 (It is also listed as "Version 301").
To create my bootable USB I have been using a Windows 7 x64 Ultimate iso along with Rufus v11.
I have tried multiple online guides and multiple setups in Rufus and have since become very confused. I had a long post with every setup I had used and each outcome but in the past 5 hours I've been doing this got lost in the details.
I just now found this SuperUser answer which I wish I had found months ago when I tried to install Windows 7 on my desktop PC. I had success installing it on my desktop PC but the details were lost in the process.
What I have learned from this answer is; what I see as important now,
Windows, though, does tie the two together for its boot disk: Windows will boot from MBR disks only on BIOS-based computers (or when using CSM/BIOS/legacy mode on an EFI-based computer) and from GPT disks only on EFI-based computers.
So my first question is, is there any reason you would want to use one of these installation "paths" over the other?
Something that I "had to do" when installing Windows 7 on my desktop was to move a file named something along the lines of bootx64.efi
and an entire directory within the USB once it was created. I cannot find the guide I used at the time but I have found a similar forum post.
Where does the moving of this file tie into the SuperUser answer linked above? What is the purpose of moving it?
So just to keep the ball rolling on my end I am going to start trying to install Windows 7 on my EFI based machine in EFI mode. Seeing as I do not know the answer to my first question above yet as to why I would want to use EFI mode versus CSM/BIOS/Legacy mode the reason I going forward with EFI mode is because "newer is better".
So from what I gather the proper way to do with is to create the bootable USB with the settings in Rufus as Partition Scheme: GPT partition for UEFI
and File System: FAT 32 (default)
.
Now that I have this USB setup I have tried the following EFI settings
Try 1
- Secure Boot: Disabled (Reason: Windows 7 does not support)
- Fast Boot: Disabled (Reason: Just seems like it should be)
- Launch CSM: Disabled
Result: Windows Boot Manager error screen with the message
Windows failed to start. A recent hardware or software change might be the cause. ... File:
\EFI\Microsoft\Boot\BCD
" ... Info: An error occoured while attempting to read the boot configuration data.
Try 2
- Secure Boot: Disabled (Reason: Windows 7 does not support)
- Fast Boot: Disabled (Reason: Just seems like it should be)
- Launch CSM: Enabled (Reason: No good justification)
- Launch PXE OpROM policy: Disabled (Reason: When Launch CSM is enabled this new option appears just keeping it default for another try.)
After I saved these settings and rebooted into the EFI there we now two boot options given for the USB. One is pre-pended with "UEFI" and post-pended with "Partition 1" the other is simply the name of the USB drive ("Lexar USB Flash Drive 1100"). I selected the first option.
Result: The Windows 7 installation started! Though when the setup starts I am met with the message
A required CD/DVD drive device driver is missing. If you have a driver floppy disk, CD, DVD, or USB flash drive, please insert it now. Note: If the Windows installation media is in the CD/DVD drive, you can safely remove it for this step.
An odd thing that I also noticed is that my laptop touch pad mouse does not work, I also do not see a mouse pointer on the screen. Though I can use keyboard to advance through the options and select options.
If I select Ok on the message box I am given another message saying that no drivers were found (I don't have any on my USB).
Seeing that I don't have the CD/DVD drive drivers for this laptop handy and I am not sure why they are required for the setup I decided I might try selecting the boot option that is not prepended with UEFI.
Result: A message is displayed
Reboot and Select proper Boot device or Insert Boot Media in selected Boot device and press key
So I have actually managed to make some progress and atleast boot into the USB drive, though I need to find the CD/DVD drive for my laptop... I am working on finding them now to see if I can advance with the current bootable USB setup any further. If I cannot find the driver quickly I might try the CSM/BIOS/Legacy mode installation path; again because I have no real reason currently to try it one way or the other and I have no idea what the "PXE OpROM policy" option is and I don't think it would yield any new results.
So in the meantime I am going to post the two initial questions and possibly more questions about the CSM/BIOS/Legacy mode installation path if I do go that route.
EDIT: I could not find the drivers easily so I decided to try to go with the CSM/BIOS/Legacy installation route and reformatted the bootable USB to Partition Scheme: MBR for UEFI
and File System: FAT32
. I used the same EFI settings as in my second try. I was given the same boot options also with the same results for both.
So from what I can tell I need to find the CD/DVD driver for my laptop to get any further in my installation. But I have thought of one final question.
Are any of my issues related to the current Windows 10 installation? Once I find the drivers, are there any foreseeable issues as a result of the Windows 10 installation?
So assuming I have done everything correctly and my process should not be changed the three bolded questions still remain for me.
"Are any of my issues related to the current Windows 10 installation?" No; Except the fact it's installed on a MBR/GPT determine which one and then boot to the Windows 7 disk in the correct mode. Your problem likely is connect to the fact your using a USB 3 storage device and Windows 7 doesn't support that unless the driver is provided. – Ramhound – 2016-10-31T00:07:36.077
"A required CD/DVD drive device driver is missing. " refers to missing USb3.0 driver: http://superuser.com/a/826191/174557 Set CSM to disabled and use UEFI, but you may run into this issue: http://superuser.com/a/1057484/174557 that your UEFI doesn't offer VGA option ROM for UEFI
– magicandre1981 – 2016-10-31T07:54:51.070