GPT, Windows 8, and a headache
One of my clients purchased a new Dell 14" laptop with Win 8.1 pre-loaded. She works for the DoD and works from home. Her access is through a secure card reader on her end to access 2 work specific websites. Under Win 8, one of the websites doesn't work. Her I.T. support people said the site that that particular web pages attaches to is not optimized for use by Win 8 (is that even possible? I understand a browser, but not a page). So, they sent her a brand spanking new copy of Win 7 with instructions as to installing it. The client got to the partition screen on Win 7 setup, deleted the Win 8 partition, and tried to install Win 7. That didn't work so well. The HDD in the laptop is GPT, Win 7 x32 wants MBR, we no longer have a Win 8 partition, and now that I have it, I need to get this thing working with Win 7 forthwith. I need to wipe out the rest of the drive and convert to MBR to install Win 7. I haven't found a utility that I can put on a boot discs and do those things. Any ideas?
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PowerEdgeTech
Yes, if you have more than one disk, then do list disk to make sure disk 0 is indeed the one you want.
ASKER
OK,
Using the Installation media, When I go to repair the disk, I get an error "This version of System Recovery Options is not compatible with the version of the Windows you are using.
There is also a PBR partition that appears to be the Recovery partition than I cannot access (I'd love to get this back to original state and do the change correctly) or delete as it states that it's a GPT partition and I need and the version of Windows I am using is not compatible. I have tried Ctrl+F11 to access and F8 for the same with no success. I'm going to try to mine a solution at Dell's site, but your help is continuing to be appreciated.
Using the Installation media, When I go to repair the disk, I get an error "This version of System Recovery Options is not compatible with the version of the Windows you are using.
There is also a PBR partition that appears to be the Recovery partition than I cannot access (I'd love to get this back to original state and do the change correctly) or delete as it states that it's a GPT partition and I need and the version of Windows I am using is not compatible. I have tried Ctrl+F11 to access and F8 for the same with no success. I'm going to try to mine a solution at Dell's site, but your help is continuing to be appreciated.
If you boot to the Windows 7 DVD, do you get all the way to where you see the existing partitions?
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ASKER
Will do. Thanks.
ASKER
All the answers here were very helpful in a stressful afternoon. A combination of all your answers was what did the trick. Thanks to all of you who were able to help.