Need help, fresh setup Windows7 on UEFI device

[Obladee]

HI guys!

 

I have a few questions before I start reinstalling my laptop with Windows7 (pre-SP1)

1. If I use diskpart to partition my ssd-drive. Then continue the setup of windows7. Will WIndows7 still create the necessary UEFI partition for my device?
Reason: I want to avoid that useless MSR partition.

2. What if my ssd reports 512-bytes physical/512-bytes logical for its sector-width. Will alignment of the primary partition at 1024kb be correct?

3. What does the UEFI partition do anyway?

4. I need a tool that can slipstream Microsoft updates/hotfix/drivers (not just whole service packs) into my Windows7.ISO on a USB. What to use. Can Windows updater mini toolkit do it?

5. Are drivers/hotfixes slipstreamed into the setup files used directly during setup of Windows?

 

[Rohime]

37 minutes ago, Obladee said:

HI guys!

 

I have a few questions before I start reinstalling my laptop with Windows7 (pre-SP1)

1. If I use diskpart to partition my ssd-drive. Then continue the setup of windows7. Will WIndows7 still create the necessary UEFI partition for my device?
Reason: I want to avoid that useless MSR partition.

2. What if my ssd reports 512-bytes physical/512-bytes logical for its sector-width. Will alignment of the primary partition at 1024kb be correct?

3. What does the UEFI partition do anyway?

4. I need a tool that can slipstream Microsoft updates/hotfix/drivers (not just whole service packs) into my Windows7.ISO on a USB. What to use. Can Windows updater mini toolkit do it?

5. Are drivers/hotfixes slipstreamed into the setup files used directly during setup of Windows?

 

Not sure why you are wanting to go to Win7, and not sure whats driving you to partition your SSD, but I've found the much better (in my opinion) way to get a Windows 7 build these days (especially if you want multi-boot) is to install Windows 10 at hardware / disk level, and then use a VHD File as the boot disk for Windows 7.

 

This configuration allows you to have a hardware Win10 (with all disk resources and no partitions) and a HARDWARE (not VM) boot on Windows 7 with what ever boot disk size you want, and no mucking about with partitions.

 

There are guides about ... most of them data back to when WIn7 was used to host Win10 VHD's though.    search   boot from vhd windows 7   to find those.  should provide enough guidance.     Only caution i'd add is be careful you dont end-up with Win7 bootloader instead of the Win10 boot manager.

 

You can of course run the whole thing in reverse ... Win7 owns all the hardware and Win10 installed in a VHD for occasional use.

[APasz]

38 minutes ago, Obladee said:

HI guys!

 

I have a few questions before I start reinstalling my laptop with Windows7 (pre-SP1)

1. If I use diskpart to partition my ssd-drive. Then continue the setup of windows7. Will WIndows7 still create the necessary UEFI partition for my device?
Reason: I want to avoid that useless MSR partition.

2. What if my ssd reports 512-bytes physical/512-bytes logical for its sector-width. Will alignment of the primary partition at 1024kb be correct?

3. What does the UEFI partition do anyway?

4. I need a tool that can slipstream Microsoft updates/hotfix/drivers (not just whole service packs) into my Windows7.ISO on a USB. What to use. Can Windows updater mini toolkit do it?

5. Are drivers/hotfixes slipstreamed into the setup files used directly during setup of Windows?

 

1. The MSR partition is required by the OS.

2. This is only really necessary on gen 1 SSDs. Also windows 7 supports TRIM which renders this problem almost mute in the majority of cases.

3. The UEFI stores information in this partition to be used by the OS for various functions.

4. I assume you already have your ISO. AIK can inject into the ISO https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=5753.

5. I believe so. At least most of the little ones. They'd have to be designed to be compatible with slipstreaming though.

 

Also any particular reason for not updating to post SP1?

[Obladee]

HI APasz

 

1. Here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Reserved_Partition it says the MSR is only needed for multiple OS or hidden sectors for OS-software on a drive. And I do not need that. So now I am even more confused. Information is scarce. Can or can't I discard it from being created during setup?

 

And whats considered the 100MB partition at the beginning of a ssd, which everyone tried to delete back at the beginning of ssds, is that actually the EFI/ESP partition or seomething else?

 

2. I don't think it isn't necessary. I really need to align.

 

My laptop needs specific drivers only available for windows7. Plus I have a legit WIndows7 license. And I want to control what to install in terms of updates. Integrating SP1 does not allow me to control what gets installed or not (I think).

 

[Obladee]

OK I think I found it at sevenforums. The bootfiles will be set on the system partition, and the creation of the stupid MSR will be avoided. If you partition the drive first before running Windows setup.

 

So now my final question, if I partition my ssd. and create 1 partition for installing windows on it. Will setup still create the ESP/EFI partition needed for my machine (not talking about the MSR partition)?

[APasz]

I know what the wiki says. It's just a bit more complicated because your working with w7. w8+ and you could delete it without any issues. There are cases where the MSR partition is used in single OS configurations on w7 or lower.

That 100mb partition is a recovery partition made by windows. It is absolutely required and you will have issues if it's missing and windows can't find another place.

I wasn't suggesting you didn't have a legit key but installing specific updates is a tedious process even for those who love dealing with the windows update system.

You don't get any control over non-optional updates with the service pack. It will install all important updates up to the time of release.

It should create the UEFI partition and resize other partitions accordingly. If it doesn't create it, then the installer determined that it wasn't required or supported.