Thanks guys. I appreciate the help. I usually don't use the installers for drivers unless it's a rare occasion where Windows doesn't pick up the driver from the driver's install folder. I've had that happen. I'll be trying to revert back to W7 tonight after work. I did find Win8 drivers for the few devices who I couldn't locate pre-W10 drivers for before so it's looking hopeful. I'll let you know how it goes. Thanks.
I realize this thread is quite old, but I have a similar challenge. I have a "new" laptop, which is nominally the same ( Lenovo Thinkpad R500 ) as my "old" laptop that currently has a dead fan. I'm running Win10 at the moment but would like to also be able to run the Win7 drive from the out-of-commission laptop on the "new" one. It boots up and runs fine, except it doesn't see the wireless network device.
The two laptops are not exactly the same build from Lenovo, so I'm theorizing that the network chip is different and needs a different driver.
Should I expect to be able to just locate the driver file(s) on the Win10 drive and install them on the Win7 drive and all will be hunky-dory?
I've seen some drivers included that say Microsoft and as old as 2006, mostly are basic drivers but appear to work okay. An issue can occur if one set of drivers is for x86/32-bit and the other set is for x64/64-bit. It may work but usually trial and error. If both machines are ThinkPads it may work but I wouldn't count on it if one is an IdeaPad. A possibility may be to pull the wireless adapter while getting the drive out. A solution I use is a USB Dongle for Wireless/Wi-Fi, Win10 may not even need additional drivers. I just got such a dongle for a 2010 Notebook that doesn't support 5G Wireless.
I guess I needed to be more clear in my original message that both laptops are not just Thinkpads but both are R500s. There are a couple of obvious build differences (one has a camera and fingerprint reader, while the other does not), and that is clear when browsing the Device Manager on the Win7 drive. Those devices (and others, such as the wireless network adapter, are not present in the Manager and when told to scan for new hardware a failure message results saying that the drivers couldn't be found/installed.
Maybe the dongle wifi is a good idea to bootstrap the process. Then I might simply be able to get Windows Update to handle it.
Thanks for your reply.
I've not seen/worked on the R500, did junk a ThinkPad G510 I was given for parts and rehabbed an IdeaPad 329. I didn't like the keyboard on the ThinkPad, specifically the arrangement of the arrow keys and Shift key, so I didn't put any time into it. Same issue for the lady that runs the Bread of Life Food Pantry for the community.
I'm sorry. It is late, so maybe my brain already went to sleep, but I don't understand the relevance. Does it matter what kind of Thinkpads I have?
99% it will work and you would have to install only the missing drivers. If Lenovo doesn't provide Windows 7 drivers, use a utility such as Aida64 to find out which device model you have, so you can find drivers for it. You can also go at Device Manager, highlight the device, right-click, select Properties and see the Hardware IDs. Google that to find drivers. An easy way is to use a driver tool such as Snappy Driver Installer, but install only the missing drivers (green text), avoid updating other drivers (blue text).
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