# Help me say goodbye to Windows 8. Win7 installation issue. **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 9, 2014, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-say-goodbye-to-windows-8-win7-installation-issue/678396 "2014-01-09T22:17:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![duffer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duffer/32/1026_2.png) [@duffer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/duffer)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2014, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-say-goodbye-to-windows-8-win7-installation-issue/678396/1 "2014-01-09T22:17:59Z")
So we’ve finally decided to abandon Win8. Nobody likes it. So I bought a copy of Win 7 Pro through school and need a bit of tech support. There is nothing on the HDD that isn’t backed up elsewhere. How do I completely wipe out 8 so I can start fresh? Thanks ---
**Author:** ![Valgard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/7feea3/32.png) [@Valgard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Valgard)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2014, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-say-goodbye-to-windows-8-win7-installation-issue/678396/2 "2014-01-09T22:51:54Z")
The installation should ask how you want to allocate the drive space; unless you’ve got a specific reason to do otherwise, tell it to use 100% of the disk as the C-drive, do a Quick Format and that will totally wipe the drive prior to installing Win7. ---
**Author:** ![duffer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duffer/32/1026_2.png) [@duffer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/duffer)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2014, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-say-goodbye-to-windows-8-win7-installation-issue/678396/3 "2014-01-09T22:54:29Z")
It gets to the opening sequence, then fails at creating temp folder(s) or something like that. The specific error is 0x80070490. I looked that up but it seems to be a fairly common error. I was thinking it would be easiest to just format the entire HDD and start fresh, but not sure how to do it in 8. ---
**Author:** ![yoyodyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/a9a28c/32.png) [@yoyodyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yoyodyne)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2014, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-say-goodbye-to-windows-8-win7-installation-issue/678396/4 "2014-01-09T23:39:49Z")
You should boot to the Windows 7 DVD to install, not run setup from 8. Which did you do? ---
**Author:** ![duffer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duffer/32/1026_2.png) [@duffer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/duffer)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2014, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-say-goodbye-to-windows-8-win7-installation-issue/678396/5 "2014-01-09T23:42:25Z")
I set the BIOS to boot from DVD then HDD, but it still went to 8. I called MS support and they said to just install it and call back for an alt product key to get it going. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2014, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-say-goodbye-to-windows-8-win7-installation-issue/678396/6 "2014-01-09T23:47:18Z")
You probably need to turn off UEFI on your computer before trying to boot from the install DVD. > **[The Latest News in Technology](https://www.pcmag.com/news)** > > Get the latest technology news and in-depth analysis from the expert analysts at PCMag. ---
**Author:** ![duffer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duffer/32/1026_2.png) [@duffer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/duffer)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2014, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-say-goodbye-to-windows-8-win7-installation-issue/678396/7 "2014-01-09T23:57:30Z")
I’ll give it a shot **Mangetout** ---
**Author:** ![FinsToTheLeft](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/finstotheleft/32/2930_2.png) [@FinsToTheLeft](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FinsToTheLeft)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2014, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-say-goodbye-to-windows-8-win7-installation-issue/678396/8 "2014-01-10T00:39:26Z")
Mash the F12 key repeatedly after you start from a cold boot (from power off) and select the DVD drive once the boot menu appears. Select a custom install, delete all the partitions on the drive, then tell it to install with the empty drive selected.