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using macrium reflect to downgrade from windows 8 to Win 7

stringmanstringman Posts: 252
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in PC & Mac Hardware and Software #1
Hi all,

I have a dell xps 14 which is running windows 7 prof 64.
I have a macrium reflect image of this machine.

Due to some issues I am being given a new xps 14 from Dell.
It will have windows 8 loaded on it.

With the the exception of the wifi card, and the processor which is different there is no change.
Could I simply load macrium on the machine and reload the Win 7 image or would it be better to start from scratch and format the drive and do a clean install of Windows 7?

Thanks in advance

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    chrisjrchrisjr Posts: 33,282
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    #2
    The image will have drivers etc for the old machine. It might work and then go off hunting for the correct drivers. Or it may just run away into a corner and sulk :D

    Might be better to do a clean install. The downside to that is you'll need to re-install all your programs, but the image might still be usable to restore your data if you don't have that backed up separately.

    I've got the paid for version of Reflect and pretty sure that can do selective restores (ie individual files/folders) rather than a full image restore. If you have the free version I'm not 100% certain it can as well. Been a while since I upgraded from free to paid versions and the old braincell struggles to keep up at times :D
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    stringmanstringman Posts: 252
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    #3
    Thanks for the reply,

    Yes I was thinking that a couple of the drivers would be wrong and id just load the new ones on, but now you've triggered my hard drive ocd and I will probably start from scratch.
    Best book out a few days!!
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    chrisjrchrisjr Posts: 33,282
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    #4
    stringman wrote: »
    Thanks for the reply,

    Yes I was thinking that a couple of the drivers would be wrong and id just load the new ones on, but now you've triggered my hard drive ocd and I will probably start from scratch.
    Best book out a few days!!
    If you've got a Win 7 install disk to fall back on then give Reflect a go. You could strike lucky and it all restore and work reasonably OK and all you need do is track down some updated drivers.

    And if it all goes Pete Tong you've still got the option of zapping it into oblivion and starting again from scratch.

    And if you really want to get paranoid. Use Reflect to image the Win 8 installation before you do anything else so you have that as a back-up option as well. :)
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    stringmanstringman Posts: 252
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    #5
    chrisjr wrote: »
    If you've got a Win 7 install disk to fall back on then give Reflect a go. You could strike lucky and it all restore and work reasonably OK and all you need do is track down some updated drivers.

    And if it all goes Pete Tong you've still got the option of zapping it into oblivion and starting again from scratch.

    And if you really want to get paranoid. Use Reflect to image the Win 8 installation before you do anything else so you have that as a back-up option as well. :)

    Me paranoid? have you been watching me???
    well I did think that I would image the pc when I got it.
    Yes I got the full installation discs for 7 and have said I need the win 8 install disc and drivers disc with the laptop.

    Pretty sure the drivers should be easy to find as dell do all the drivers from the service tag and then let you choose your o/s so that should be fine

    But you've sown the seeds of a clean install in my mind....
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