P500 Windows 7 Downgrade

[88fingerslukee]

Hey Everybody,

Please excuse me if my questions have been asked before but I sure as heck can't seem to find them.  I'm trying to downgrade a colleague's brand new Lenovo P500-59347559 laptop to Windows 7.  I do this all the time but this is my first time dealing with:

a) a Windows 8 machine

b) UEFI 

I'm not particularly interested in screwing anything up but I'd like to get rid of the Lenovo bloatware and ridiculous partitioning scheme. I'd like somebody to please explain to me what these all are so I know if I can safely wipe them or not. This drive has seven (7!!!!) partitions.  They are as follows:

1.) WINRE_DRV 1000MB OEM

2.) SYSTEM_DRV 260MB System 

3.) LRS_ESP 1000MB OEM

4.) (blank) 128MB MSR

5.) Windows8_OS 884.2GB Primary

6.) LENOVO 25GB Primary

7.) PBR_DRV 20GB OEM

Now I can figure out what 5 and 6 are and 2 looks a lot like the System partition that Win7 creates when you first install it on a blank unpartitioned drive.  Can somebody please tell me what the others are?

thanks so much!

88

[RMattoo Support Specialist]

Hi

Welcome To Lenovo Community

Please follow the below steps

How to install Microsoft Windows 7 on the Windows 8-based computer:

1. Turn on the computer to start Windows 8.
2. Hold down the Windows logo key and press C to open the Charm bar on   the screen.
3. Select Settings, then Power from the menu.
4. Select Reboot to restart the computer.
5. While the "To interrupt normal startup, press Enter" message is displayed at the lower-left area or

          lower-center of the screen, press the F1 key.  The ThinkPad Setup menu will be displayed.  If a   

          password prompt appears, type the correct password.

1. Select Restart, then make sure the operating system Optimized Defaults option is set to Disabled.
2. Press the F9 key to load default configuration.
3. Select Yes.
4. Insert the Windows 7 Installation DVD into the DVD drive, then press the F10 key to save configuration  

          and exit.

1. Select Yes.
2. Follow the instructions on the screen to restart the computer.

Follow the instructions of Windows 7 installation DVD to install Windows 7.

And regarding the partition table the   1 , 2 , 7   are recovery partion which contain the Recovery for 

Windows 8  

Do give this a try and let us know

Hope This Helps

Cheers!!!

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[88fingerslukee]

The partitions say that they cannot install Windows 7 on them because they are a GPT partition.

To be honest, I'd rather just erase the whole drive and do it from scratch. The most ideal way is to create a recovery image so that I can restore the OEM partitions and installation in the event the colleague wants to go back to Windows 8.

[TangoLover]

even if you install windows 7 from scratch, how to get the drivers in the Lenovo support download?

What is the equivalent of the P500 in Lenovo line?

[k0mpresd]

i wiped and installed a clean version of windows 7 32bit. i had my reasons for using 32bit.

a lot of drivers can be downloaded directly from the realtek site that will work for windows 7. usb card reader for example.

i have gotten every driver installed EXCEPT the intel chipset driver. i for the life of me cannot find a driver that will work and i really dont understand why. this only really matters because without this driver i cant adjust the screen brightness which is really annoying.

edit: well scratch that. there are a lot of win7 drivers under the p500 section now. still no chipset but i installed the intel video driver and that solved my screen brightness issue.

[TangoLover]

Thanks for the update. I will try too.

[oit_unlv]

We have a P500 that we downgraded from Windows 8 to Windows 7. I have tried to install all the drivers fromt he lenovo driver support page for Windows 7 64 bit however we cannot install the USB controller driver and there is one device that is unknown in the device manager. Before downgrading, I also copied the drivers folder and tried using that to manually install the drivers but still no cigar on those 2. Any help would be appreciated.

[TangoLover]

Could it be that the drivers in the support section are exe files.

It will be nice to have the drivers expanded.

I was trying to get expandable files, to create a CD like must MB comes with them.

I have not been able to do it.

[edvelal]

Hi, would you please help me to know how to install Windows 7 and get rid of the GPT partition? Thanks in advance.

[TangoLover]

To install w7 is simple (this will wipe the present system in your hard drive) make sure you have the drivers for your pc first in a cd or thumb drive.  If you downlad them from Lenovo, you will get install drivers. If you copy them from the 2nd partition or d drive  in your present drive, you will get the drivers.

1 Change in the cmos to boot from cd rom  first and save. while the computer is on incert the w7 cd in the rom drive.

2 Turn on and let it do its thing.

3 During installation, delete partition and ask for a new install of the size of the HD.

4 after is up and running start by adding the drives from your pc like chipset video, lan and the others that windows did not recognize.

5 load your programs.

Have fun.