If Windows cannot be installed on this disk. Installing Windows on a GPT disk Gpt does not install windows 7

Sometimes when installing a new operating system, in particular Windows 7, the question arises of how to install Windows 7 on a GPT disk.

Often during installation an error appears that informs the user that it is impossible to complete this task.

Installing Windows on a GPT disk in the installer window - The easiest way

Below in the video you can see the entire process of formatting GPT described above into a system-readable format right during installation of the operating system.

Convert GPT to MBR directly during installation - Command line method

Despite the harsh review of this installation method in the video of the previous section, we will present below the algorithm for converting a file to MBR.

So, the error itself looks like it is shown in Figure 1. It occurs at the stage when the user selects the disk where the operating system will be installed.

And to solve this problem, you need to perform a number of these simple steps:

• Launch command line. Most often this is done by simultaneously pressing keys Shift And F10. In some computer models, you will also need to press Fn.
• On the command line, you first need to run the utility, intended for conversion and other similar operations with disks. It's called DiskPart. Actually, to run it, you need to write on the command line “ diskpart" and press Enter on keyboard . After this, the utility will be launched - this can be seen from the inscription DISKPART at the beginning of the input line.

• Next we need to select the disk with which we will work. To see the entire list of available drives, use the command " list disk". There you need to remember the number of the disk on which we are going to install the system. The disk is selected using the command “select disk [disk number]”. An example can be seen in Figure 3. In this example, there is only one disk in the list. Most likely, you will have the same situation.

• The selected disk should be cleaned. To do this, enter the command “ clean".
• Now, actually, we enter the command to convert the GPT disk to MBR. This is a simple command " convert mbr".
• Next, you need to re-create the partition, because we previously deleted it. To do this, enter the command “ create partition primary size [size in MB]". An example can also be seen in Figure 6.

Note: The size must be specified as real, that is, no more than what is physically on the selected disk. You can find out how much a disk can hold in the table shown after entering the command “ list disk". There is a column for this called “ Size ". In our example, Disk 0 has a size of 20 GB, so in the command “ create partition primary" we enter the size as 20000 MB.

Next selected and converted disk needed format. This is done to avoid problems associated with the fact that there may be some residual data on the disk in the future.

This is done with the command “ format fs [file system] label “[drive name]” quick ». In this case, you can come up with the name of the disc yourself.

Parameter " quick" is responsible for the quick formatting method.

That's all - the conversion process is completed, and Windows 7 can be safely installed on the selected disk.

Now all that remains is to go to our installation window and update the list of disks. To do this, there is usually a button “Update” below it.

Click on it and see the disk we created with the MBR format.

Then calmly click on this disk, then the “ Further"at the bottom of the open window and continue installing the new operating system.

Installation errors

In principle, the option described above is absolutely optimal for most users and it works in the vast majority of cases.

But it cannot be ruled out that something could still go wrong.

In addition, when installing Windows 10 and 8, the problem described above and the method with transformation it may not work there either right during installation.

It is also worth saying that the error with the inability to install something on a GPT disk may not appear during the installation of the operating system.

Although then you can also go to the command line and perform all the operations described above, there are other ways to solve this problem.

One of them is to set the BIOS to boot from UEFI mode.

The second is only suitable for users of 32-bit Windows: you need to install a 64-bit operating system.

Setting UEFI mode

To complete this task, you must enter the BIOS. In most cases, login is accomplished by pressing the F2 button on laptops and Del on personal computers during system boot.

After this you need to do the following:

• Find the “BIOS Features”, “BIOS Setup”, “BIOS Settings” or “Advanced” section. There you need to find the item that is responsible for the boot mode (most likely it’s “ boot mode"). In it you need to set the option in which the word “ UEFI" or simply " EFI". On older computers it will look like shown in Figure 10.

• Set the SATA controller configuration - we need AHCI (usually is installed IDE). Usually this parameter is located in the sections “Peripherals", “Advanced", “SATA Config” or simply “Main”. An example of the latter is shown in Figure 11. By clicking on this option, you can select AHCI.

If you currently have Windows 7 installed on your computer, you must disable Secure boot.

This parameter can be found in BIOS tabs such as “Authentication”, “System configuration”, “Main” or “Boot”.

You need to click on it and select “ Disabled". An example can be seen in Figure No. 12.

Actually, the three steps described above can help in solving installation problems.

Windows operating systems have come a long way during their existence. They improved every year, and now the latest version of Windows 8 was released, it froze right at the first Microsoft presentation, and then was considered a failure by the development company. And here the user is faced with a very serious problem. On the one hand, all the latest models of computers and laptops are produced with G8. On the other hand, modern hard drives used in them have gpt partitioning. As a result, an error occurs when installing Windows 7. What could be the reasons? Why does my laptop display the message “Windows cannot be installed on this disk”? The GPT partition is to blame.

"An old man" or a reliable friend?

Until the creation of Windows 8, operating systems used hard drive partitioning called mbr. Accordingly, support for sections in them is carried out exclusively up to the latest version. Thus, if you are going to remove the installed "eight" and install an older version of the operating system, then they will not be able to recognize the latest GPT interface, as a result of which during installation the message "Windows cannot be installed on this disk" may appear. GPT will not be recognized, so the user will not even be able to determine what the problem is. Let's understand its essence.

Older operating systems work with the MBR. What it is? The MBR (Master Boot Record) is the program code and information needed to pre-start the system. They are located in the first designated sector of the hard drive. The MBR launches after an initial check of all devices by the BIOS. Its main function is to determine the location of the files necessary to boot the operating system. As you understand, an error when installing Windows 7 may be caused by the fact that the new EFI standard, which uses GPT, is not able to detect the OS and write it to its startup partition.

What is GPT?

GPT is a standard format for placing partition tables on a hard disk. The fact is that Intel has proposed a new interface to replace the familiar BIOS. It's called EFI (Extensible Firmware Interface), and part of it is the new format - GPT.

One of the features of the EFI standard is that it has both possible boot methods. Since GPT uses a logical block addressing system, the starting blocks have the following structure:

1. LBA 0- the very first sector containing MBR information. This is how the creators ensured that they could always convert the disc to the required format.
2. LBA 1- here is the table of contents of the GPT partition table.
3. LBA 2- this sector is intended to store the partition table itself.

Based on the above, you should understand that these two disk partitioning standards are so different that installing Windows on new hard drives is impossible. GPT will simply prevent an operating system using mbr from erasing hard disk partitions and thereby possibly damaging its structure.

On your marks!

So, if you decide to reinstall the operating system, do not forget to prepare everything you need:

Are you ready? Then let's begin.

Reinstallation

The first series of steps to follow when installing an operating system are:

1. Start rebooting your computer. At this moment, hold down the F2 key in order to get into the BIOS management. Remember that the buttons required to run this routine may differ for different laptop models, and due to the very short period of time in which you need to press the button, it is better to simply hold it down for the entire reboot.
2. Once in the BIOS, you can complete the last stage of preparation for the reinstallation - insert the installation disk into the computer.
3. In the settings, specify the device from which you want to boot the laptop. You need to install your drive on the first line.
4. In the additional options, in the security settings, instead of the UEFI standard used, set the parameter “Legacy” or “Legacy and UEFI”. This will remove protection from reinstallation.
5. Save and exit BIOS. After this, restart the computer.
6. When the message “To boot from disk, press any key...” appears, we comply with the computer’s request.
7. The operating system installer startup window appears. We go through the dialog boxes and get to the hard drive management manager. We delete all existing partitions (except for the very first). We try to specify it to install the OS.
8. It is at this stage that the system may warn you that installing Windows on this disk is impossible. The GPT format will not allow you to install the system.
9. If you do not encounter any difficulties or messages, proceed calmly with the installation according to these instructions. If you are unable to complete the installation, see the next chapter of this article.
10. So, having eliminated all obstacles, we proceed to installation. It can take up to two hours of your free time, so, leaving the computer, you can safely go have tea.
11. The last step will be the initial PC setup. Set the time and language. Enter your activation key. Your OS is ready to go.

Conversion

If you encounter a problem at the stage of selecting a hard drive for installation, and you receive a message that installing Windows on this disk is impossible, you need to convert the gpt format to mbr. To do this you will have to perform the following steps. Press "Shift + F10". And then enter several commands in sequence:

diskpart - sel dis 0 - clean - convert mbr - exit - exit.

This will allow you to convert partitions to the mbr format. Now you can safely continue installing the operating system according to the previous chapter.

Exception

So, after reading, you can proceed to reinstall the operating system yourself. Despite what was said in this article, installing Windows on gpt (partition without "witchcraft") is possible in two cases. Firstly, if you are installing an operating system or assembly that supports GPT disk partitions. Secondly, in the case when a build of an operating system “younger” than Windows 8 is independently capable of converting hard drive partitions into the required format. In other cases, installation is impossible, gpt here The creators of the laptop could have initially taken care that users themselves did not reinstall the OS and did not produce pirated copies.

If, when installing Windows 7, 8 or Windows 10 on your computer, you see a message that Windows cannot be installed on this drive because the selected drive has a GPT partition style, below you will find detailed information about why this is happening and what to do. to install the system on this disk. Also at the end of the instructions there is a video on converting GPT partition style to MBR.

The instructions will discuss two options for solving the problem of the inability to install Windows on a GPT disk - in the first case, we will still install the system on such a disk, and in the second, we will convert it to MBR (in this case, the error will not appear). Well, at the same time, in the final part of the article I will try to tell you which is better of these two options and what we are talking about in general. Similar errors: , .

Users installing Windows 7 often encounter problems when installing on a disk with a GPT partition style, but in version 8 you can receive the same error with the text that installation on this disk is impossible.

In order to install Windows on a GPT disk, we will need to meet the following conditions (some of them are not currently met, since the error appears):

• Install 64-bit system
• Boot in EFI mode.

It is most likely that the second condition is not met, and therefore let’s immediately talk about how to solve this. Perhaps one step will be enough for this (changing BIOS parameters), perhaps two (add preparation of a bootable UEFI drive).

First, you should look into the BIOS (UEFI software) of your computer. As a rule, in order to enter the BIOS you need to press a certain key immediately after turning on the computer (when information about the manufacturer of the motherboard, laptop, etc. appears) - usually Del for desktop PCs and F2 for laptops (but may differ, usually on the desired screen it says Press key_name to enter setup or something similar).

The following two important options must be enabled in the BIOS:

1. Enable UEFI boot instead of CSM (Compatibility Support Mode), usually found in BIOS Features or BIOS Setup.
2. Set the SATA operating mode to AHCI instead of IDE (usually configured in the Peripherals section)
3. For Windows 7 and earlier only -

In different versions of the interface and language, items may be located differently and have slightly different symbols, but usually they are not difficult to identify. The screenshot shows my version.

After saving the settings, your computer is generally ready to install Windows on a GPT disk. If you are installing the system from a disk, then most likely this time you will not be informed that Windows cannot be installed on this disk.

If you are using a bootable USB flash drive and the error appears again, I recommend that you write down the installation USB again so that it supports UEFI boot. There are various methods for this, but I would recommend, which will work in almost any situation (if there are no errors in the BIOS settings).

Additional information for experienced users: if the distribution supports both boot options, you can prevent booting in BIOS mode by deleting the bootmgr file in the root of the drive (similarly, by deleting the efi folder you can prevent booting in UEFI mode).

That’s all, because I believe that you already know how to boot from a flash drive into the BIOS and install Windows on your computer (if you don’t, then my website has this information in the appropriate section).

Convert GPT to MBR during OS installation

If you prefer to convert a GPT disk to MBR on a computer with a “regular” BIOS (or UEFI with CSM boot mode), and, apparently, you plan to install Windows 7, then the best opportunity to do this is at the OS installation stage.

Note: The steps below will erase all data on the disk (from all disk partitions).

To convert GPT to MBR, in Windows Setup, press Shift + F10 (or Shift + Fn + F10 for some laptops) to open the Command Prompt. Then enter the following commands in order:

• diskpart
• list disk (after running this command you will need to note the number of the disk that needs to be converted)
• select disk N (where N is the disk number from the previous command)
• clean (disk cleanup)
• convert mbr
• create partition primary
• active
• format fs=ntfs quick
• assign

May also be useful: . Additionally, from another instruction describing a similar error, you can use the second method to convert to MBR without losing data: (only you will need to convert not to GPT, as in the instructions, but to MBR).

If, when you ran these commands, you were at the disk configuration stage during installation, then click “Update” to update the disk configuration. Further installation occurs in normal mode; the message that the disk has a GPT partition style does not appear.

What to do if the disk has GPT partition style - video

The video below shows only one solution to the problem, namely, converting a disk from GPT to MBR, both with and without data loss.

If, when converting using the demonstrated method without losing data, the program reports that it cannot convert the system disk, you can use it to remove the first hidden partition with the bootloader, after which conversion will become possible.

UEFI, GPT, BIOS and MBR - what is it?

On “old” (actually, not so old) computers, BIOS software was installed on the motherboard, which carried out initial diagnostics and analysis of the computer, after which it loaded the operating system, focusing on the MBR boot record of the hard drive.

UEFI software is replacing the BIOS on currently produced computers (more precisely, motherboards) and most manufacturers have switched to this option.

Benefits of UEFI include faster boot speeds, security features such as secure boot and support for hardware-encrypted hard drives, UEFI drivers. And also, what was discussed in the manual - working with the GPT partition style, which makes it easier to support large drives and with a large number of partitions. (In addition to the above, on most systems the UEFI software has BIOS and MBR compatibility functions.)

What's better? As a user, at the moment I do not feel the advantages of one option over the other. On the other hand, I am sure that in the near future there will be no alternative - only UEFI and GPT, and hard drives larger than 4 TB.

Most users do not even try to turn to specialists for help, since they have already gained practical experience in installing Windows.

In principle, they are right; indeed, installing a new operating system with a boot disk available is not at all difficult. Especially considering that many bootable disks come with other additional features. In particular, they are focused not only on installing Windows, but also on installing drivers, as well as other necessary software.

Installing earlier versions of Windows on a GPT disk produces an error. How to solve it - in our article below

Unfortunately, sometimes the confidence that everything will go smoothly can collapse like a house of cards. During the Windows installation process, suddenly, after you have already managed to format the disk, a message appears, announcing the impossibility of continuing the process. Of course, if a user encounters such a problem for the first time, he may not understand what caused this failure. The only hint is the phrase that is in the message. It is this phrase that says that it is impossible to install Windows because the disk has a GPT partition style.

Previously, all hard drives were accompanied by an MBR scheme, on which it was so easy to install the OS. Many inexperienced users are amazed why it was necessary to invent something new, to create this incomprehensible and “problematic” GPT style.

It is not difficult to explain; technological progress persistently “dictates” its new requirements. Nowadays, hard drives whose sizes exceed several terabytes are no longer surprising. Unfortunately, a disk with an MBR scheme cannot exceed 2 TB. Also, such disks cannot be divided into more than four partitions.

Of course, with the purchase of large-capacity hard drives, users may encounter unexpected problems. To eliminate them, manufacturers created a new disk system - GPT.

If you want to install Windows 10 on a GPT disk, problems may not arise, but when you try to install Windows 7, problems will appear on their own, as if by insidious “magic”. If you are a supporter of this particular operating system, and therefore do not want to give it up, no matter what, then you need to read our instructions.

BIOS preparation

We recommend that you first check which BIOS version is installed on your computer. It is important that it is not the old format, but UEFI. This is quite easy to determine. Restart your computer, enter the BIOS, try moving the mouse. If the cursor obeys you, the mouse functions perfectly, it means that UEFI BIOS is installed on your PC, which is what you need. You can also find confirmation of the new BIOS format by examining its interface.

Once you are sure that you have a UEFI BIOS installed, we suggest that you proceed to making changes to its settings. When you have entered the Bios, press the F7 key, after which you will be automatically redirected to the “Advanced” section.

In this section you will find five tabs, we need the last tab “Download”, click on it. In the next window that opens, you will find several suggestions, we recommend that you find the “USB Support” line, click on it, and then next to the “Next boot after power failure” option, select Full Initialization.

Now we suggest you go to the GPT section, then find the “Boot Options” option, in which it is reasonable to select the UEFI option. In the next option “Boot from devices” you also need to select the UEFI first option. Find another option “Secure Boot”, set it to UEFI Mode.

It remains to make changes to the priority of the boot process, which determines from which device it is important to initially start the system. Due to the fact that you plan to install Windows 10 or 7 on your hard drive using a bootable flash drive, you, of course, need to prioritize the option of booting from a flash drive.

Specify the flash drive as the first source, the hard drive as the second

This completes the changes; all that remains is to restart the computer for all changes to take effect. They only reboot the PC after working with the BIOS in a special way. To do this, press the F10 key, and then confirm the need to save the changes made.

Preparing a flash drive

It’s good if you took care in advance and prepared a bootable USB flash drive that will allow you to install Windows 10 or 7 on a GPT disk. Don’t worry, if you haven’t done this before, you can do this at this moment.

By the way, you can prepare a bootable USB flash drive on any PC, so if your computer is not yet “capable” for some reason, use the “help of a friend” by borrowing a PC from him for a while. We recommend that you choose a flash drive with a capacity of at least 8 GB to load the operating system.

Download a Windows image from the Internet, then, using suitable programs, initially format the removable drive, give the flash drive the boot disk parameters, and then copy the image of the desired Windows to the prepared flash drive.

And you can also take a different route to creating a bootable USB flash drive by resorting to the command line. It is this method that is most welcomed by experienced users, although it requires increased vigilance, since it is accompanied by the introduction of service commands.

Call the command line, to do this, hold down two keys at the same time: Shift and F10. Now you have to enter several commands sequentially. First, enter diskpart, then press the Enter key, and then immediately enter the following command list disk. Now the window will display information about which drives were detected on your computer. You need to determine for yourself where your flash drive is and what number it is accompanied by. This is not difficult, since next to each disk its capacity will be indicated.

Now enter the following command select disk 2, in which another numeric value may be specified instead of “two”. It depends on what number you just discovered your drive from which you plan to install the operating system on your computer.

Enter the following commands in the strict order specified by us:

• clean, focusing on actions related to cleaning;
• create partition primary;
• select partition 1, confirming your choice of this particular partition;
• active, indicating that you want to make this section active;
• “format quick fs=fat32 label=”Win7UEFI””, performing formatting;
• assign;
• exit, which allows you to successfully exit the command line.

Use any program that allows you to mount a boot disk image. A good option for performing such tasks is DAEMON Tools.

All that remains is to enter one more command “xcopy I:*.* F: /e /f /h”, after which all the necessary boot files will be written to our flash drive. Only capital letters can be changed in this command, since the letter I indicates the disk on which the Windows 10 or 7 image is recorded. But the letter F indicates your flash drive.

Operating system installation

After the preparatory work is completed, you have everything in order to correctly install Windows 10 or the desired “seven”, we invite you to familiarize yourself with the algorithm of actions, following which strictly you will not encounter any difficulties.

Algorithm of actions

Insert the bootable USB flash drive into the USB connector and restart the computer. After the subsequent launch, you will immediately be redirected to the operating system installation menu. First, do not forget to indicate the language you are comfortable with. Do not ignore this rule, since the download process, although performed automatically, will occasionally require your participation, which is why it is so important that the message appears in a language that you understand perfectly.

First step - specify your language and region

During the installation process, your disk will be converted to GPT. We warn you that after completing all procedures, your hard drive will be completely clean. For this reason, if you have some important documents, photos, videos saved on your PC, first transfer them to other drives, and only then start loading your new Windows.

By the way, you can reformat a disk from MBR to GPT not only when you are trying to install a new OS. If Windows 10 is already installed on your computer at this moment, you can carry out the reformatting process without even having to reinstall the operating system.

Windows 10 comes with such a successful tool as Disk Management. You can call it if you click on the “Start” button, then click on “Run”, then enter “diskmgmt.msc” in the line.

A window will appear on the screen, it will display all the disks into which your hard drive is divided. You will have to remove each of them in turn. This is not difficult to do, just click on the disk so that it is highlighted, and then right-click and select the “Delete volume” option in the context menu.

After you delete all disks in this way, the “Convert to GPT disk” option will still be available in the context menu, which we suggest you use. This formatting process is fast, but only if there are no bad sectors.

Once the process is completed, you can re-partition the disk into several partitions, one of which will be active. It is on it that you can reinstall Windows 10 or your beloved “seven” if necessary.

Installation problems

Unfortunately, occasionally you have to deal with various problematic situations. If you were unable to install the OS so easily, delete all partitions and format the disk in GPT, then you are missing something, so you need to take some other steps to eliminate the mistakes you made.

So, restart your computer, after launching the boot disk welcome window, select the “System Restore” option. Next, you will have the opportunity to work with the command line again.

We have already worked with the first four commands, so it will not be difficult for you to enter them:

• diskpart;
• list disk;
• select disk X;
• clean.

Next, write the convert mbr command, which instructs the system to reformat the disk space. The following command "create partition primary size xxxxxxx" allows you to specify the size of the future disk. It is thanks to this command that you split the hard drive into several sections with the desired size.

It is important to make one of the disks active, since the operating system is supposed to be installed on it later. To do this, use the active command. Format this partition using the following command “format fs=ntfs quick”. All that remains is to assign a letter to your drive using the assign command. Of course, to exit the command line, you need to type the last exit command.

Now click the “Update” button and continue installing Windows. Unfortunately, if this time you are faced with another technical glitch, then the problem most likely lies somewhere else.

Often, users do not pay attention to the bitness of their system, so they start the installation with a 32-bit system, which leads to unsuccessful results. It is important to have a 64-bit operating system; only in this case can you take steps to format the disk in GPT and install a new operating system.

So, this process cannot be called radically easy. Since several actions are expected to be performed, accompanied by the introduction of commands. However, if desired, each user will be able to figure out how to achieve what they want if they follow the proposed algorithm.

Most modern laptops come with Windows 10 (8) pre-installed. But from experience I can say that many users (still) like and feel comfortable working in Windows 7 (some don’t run the old software in Windows 10, others don’t like the design of the new OS, others have problems with fonts, drivers, etc. ).

But in order to run Windows 7 on a laptop, it is not necessary to format the disk, delete everything on it, etc. You can do it differently - install Windows 7 as a second OS to the existing Windows 10 (for example). This is done quite simply, although many have difficulties. In this article I will show with an example how to install a second Windows 7 OS to Windows 10 on a laptop with a GPT disk (under UEFI). So, let's start to figure it out in order...

How to make two from one disk partition (we make a partition for installing a second Windows)

In most cases (I don’t know why), all new laptops (and computers) come with one partition - on which Windows is installed. Firstly, this partitioning method is not very convenient (especially in emergency cases when you need to change the OS); secondly, if you want to install a second OS, there will be nowhere to do it...

The task in this subsection of the article is simple: without deleting data on the partition with pre-installed Windows 10 (8), make another partition of 40-50GB (for example) from the free space for installing Windows 7 on it.

In principle, there is nothing complicated here, especially since you can get by with the utilities built into Windows. Let's consider all the actions in order.

1) Open the Disk Management utility - it is available in any version of Windows: 7, 8, 10. The easiest way to do this is to press the buttons Win+R and enter the command diskmgmt.msc, press ENTER.

2) Select your disk partition that has free space (in the screenshot below I have 2 partitions, on a new laptop there will most likely be 1). So, select this partition, right-click on it and in the context menu click “Shrink volume” (i.e. we will reduce it due to the free space on it).

3) Next, enter the size of the compressed space in MB (for Windows 7 I recommend a partition of 30-50GB minimum, i.e. at least 30,000 MB, see screenshot below). Those. In essence, we are now entering the size of the disk on which we will subsequently install Windows.

4) Actually, after a couple of minutes you will see that the free space (the size of which we indicated) was separated from the disk and became unmarked (in disk management - such areas are marked in black).

Now right-click on this unallocated area and create a simple volume there.

5) Next, you will need to specify the file system (select NTFS) and specify the drive letter (you can specify any one that is not already in the system). I think it’s not worth illustrating all these steps here; just click the “next” button a couple of times.

Then your disk will be ready and you can write other files to it, including installing another OS.

Important! You can also use special utilities to split one hard drive partition into 2-3 parts. Be careful, not all of them crash your hard drive without damaging your files! I talked about one of the programs (which does not format the disk and does not delete your data on it during such an operation) in this article: /i>

Creating a bootable UEFI USB flash drive with Windows 7

Since the pre-installed Windows 8 (10) on the laptop runs under UEFI (in most cases) on a GPT disk, it is unlikely to be possible to use a regular bootable USB flash drive. To do this you need to create a special one. flash drive for UEFI. This is what we will do now... (by the way, you can read more about this here: .

By the way, you can find out what layout is on your disk (MBR or GPT) in this article: The settings that need to be specified when creating bootable media depend on the layout of your disk!

To do this, I suggest using one of the most convenient and simple utilities for writing bootable flash drives. We are talking about the Rufus utility.

A very small (by the way, free) utility for creating bootable media. Using it is extremely simple: just download, run, specify the image and set the settings. Then she will do everything herself! Just an ideal and a good example for utilities of this kind...

Let's move on to the recording settings (in order):

1. device: enter the flash drive here. on which the ISO image file with Windows 7 will be written (a flash drive will need a minimum of 4 GB, preferably 8 GB);
2. Partition scheme: GPT for computers with a UEFI interface (this is an important setting, otherwise the installation will not start!);
3. File system: FAT32;
4. then specify the boot image file with Windows 7 OS (check the settings so that they are not reset. Some parameters may change after specifying the ISO image);
5. Press the start button and wait for the recording process to finish.

Setting up the laptop BIOS (disabling Secure Boot)

The fact is that if you plan to install Windows 7 on a second system, this cannot be done unless you disable Secure boot in the laptop BIOS.

Secure boot is a UEFI feature that prevents unauthorized OSes and software from launching when you turn on and start your computer. Those. roughly speaking, it protects against everything unfamiliar, for example, viruses...

Secure Boot is disabled differently on different laptops (there are laptops where it cannot be disabled at all!). Let's consider the issue in more detail.

1) First you need to enter the BIOS. For this, the following keys are most often used: F2, F10, Delete. Each laptop manufacturer (and even laptops of the same model range) has different buttons! The login button must be pressed several times immediately after turning on the device.

Remark! Buttons to enter BIOS for different PCs, laptops: /i>

2) When you enter the BIOS, look for the BOOT section. In it you need to do the following (using the example of a Dell laptop):

• Boot List Option - UEFI;
• Secure Boot - Disabled (disabled! Without this, you won’t be able to install Windows 7);
• Load Legacy Option Rom - Enabled (support for loading older OS);
• The rest can be left as is, by default;
• Pressing the F10 button (Save and Exit) means saving and exiting (at the bottom of the screen you will see the buttons you need to press).

Remark! You can read more about disabling Secure Boot in this article (several different laptops are discussed there): /i>

Starting the Windows 7 installation

If the flash drive is recorded and inserted into a USB 2.0 port (the USB 3.0 port is marked in blue, be careful), the BIOS is configured, then you can start installing Windows 7...

1) Reboot (turn on) the laptop and press the boot media selection button (Call Boot Menu). These buttons are different on different laptops. For example, on HP laptops you can press ESC (or F10), on Dell laptops - F12. In general, there is nothing complicated here, you can even experimentally find the most common buttons: ESC, F2, F10, F12...

Remark! Hot keys for calling the Boot Menu in laptops from different manufacturers: /i>

By the way, you can also select bootable media in the BIOS (see the previous part of the article) by correctly setting the queue.

The screenshot below shows what such a menu looks like. When it appears, select the created bootable USB flash drive (see screenshot below).

2) Next, the normal installation of Windows 7 will start: a welcome window, a window with a license (you need to confirm), selecting the installation type (choose for advanced users) and, finally, a window will appear asking you to select the disk on which to install the OS. In principle, there should be no errors at this step - you need to select the disk partition that we prepared in advance and click “next”.

Remark! If there are errors like “This partition cannot be installed because... it’s MBR...” - I recommend reading this article: /i>

3) Then you just have to wait until the files are copied to the laptop’s hard drive, prepared, updated, etc.

4) By the way, if after the files are copied (screenshot above) and the laptop is rebooted, you will see the error “File: WindowsSystem32Winload.efi”, etc. (screenshot below) - it means you haven’t turned off Secure Boot and Windows cannot continue the installation...

After disabling Secure Boot (see how this is done, see above in the article) there will be no such error and Windows will continue installation as normal.

Selecting the default system, setting the timeout

After installing the second Windows system - when you turn on the computer, you will see a boot manager that will display all the available OSes on the computer to let you choose what to boot (screenshot below).

In principle, this could be the end of the article - but the default parameters are too inconvenient. Firstly, this screen appears for 30 seconds each time. (5 are enough to choose!), secondly, as a rule, each user wants to designate which system to boot by default. Actually, that’s what we’ll do now...

To set the time and select the default system, go to the Windows Control Panel at: Control Panel/System and Security/System (I set these settings in Windows 7, but in Windows 8/10 it’s done the same way!).

When the “System” window opens, on the left side there will be a link “Advanced system settings” - you need to open it (screenshot below).

Next, you can select the operating system that boots by default, as well as whether to display the list of OSes, and how long to display it. (screenshot below). In general, you set the parameters for yourself, save them and restart the laptop.