win10 not free for oem machines

donetao said:

Hi will this work??Is the hidden partition still available???
http://acer.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/2631/
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/soft...nload/windows7

Disappointingly it seems to have been overwritten by the install, I did hope that a hidden partition would have been left alone, but sadly not.
MS won't let me download the ISO 'cos it verifies the key before downloading - and mine is rejected. I always thought have a genuine windows sticker + key on the pc meant you owned that windows....

I did find a win7 ISO and tried using USB (setup as bootable) and a DVD - but win10 somehow bypasses those - is there a way to install win7 that win10 won't bypass?

If you don't have any success trying to get your oem win 7 re-installed, you can buy a win 7 version on ebay, which would include most likely a site to download the version you bought, with a valid key. Prices are pretty cheap for win 7 now. Under 50.00 This is just a choice if you run out of ways to get your OS back. But this should be your last choice. Try everything else 1st. Even call the tech from the maker of your computer, and ask them for a replacement disk. If you still have your oem sticker, and you are the original buyer, they may help you out. These are just choices for you to consider, nothing more. Good luck ognik.

Ztruker said:

I don't see what Win 10 has to do with this. You boot the flash drive and do a Clean install of Windows 7. You must backup your data first or you will lose it. Restore data when Win 7 is installed.

Windows 10 shouldn't even come into it at all.

May be that I'm missing something though.

For one thing, he has no data to back up. it was all erased. Is strange about windows blocking the install, thou, I agree.

Ztruker said:

I don't see what Win 10 has to do with this. You boot the flash drive and do a Clean install of Windows 7. You must backup your data first or you will lose it. Restore data when Win 7 is installed.

Windows 10 shouldn't even come into it at all.

May be that I'm missing something though.

I would also have thought that Win10 couldn't interfere with the boot, but for example I could see the DVD drive operating with a win7 ISO disk - but, as with every other way I have tried to boot to win7, the win10 screen comes up after a while. When I run my win 7 recovery DVD for example, win10 returned an error that it couldn't run the program.....

I have a genuine win 7 on dvd that I bought ages ago - the laptop also won't boot into win 7 from that.

Can you format that drive??? Completely remove any traces of win 10. Grab MiniTool Partition wizard, ISO version, boot that up, remove all the partitions, THEN use your win 7 DVD. Might be worth a try.

You CAN win, just don't give up, their is always a way.....always. Lots of folks on here can help out tooo. I see you Word Man. :)
Speak up....lol

ognik said:

I would also have thought that Win10 couldn't interfere with the boot, but for example I could see the DVD drive operating with a win7 ISO disk - but, as with every other way I have tried to boot to win7, the win10 screen comes up after a while. When I run my win 7 recovery DVD for example, win10 returned an error that it couldn't run the program.....

I have a genuine win 7 on dvd that I bought ages ago - the laptop also won't boot into win 7 from that.

If you have fast startup enabled, turn that off and see if it makes a difference.