The Notebook Review forums were hosted by TechTarget, who shut down them down on January 31, 2022. This static read-only archive was pulled by NBR forum users between January 20 and January 31, 2022, in an effort to make sure that the valuable technical information that had been posted on the forums is preserved. For current discussions, many NBR forum users moved over to NotebookTalk.net after the shutdown.
Problems? See this thread at archive.org.

    Lenovo Y500, formatting and downgrading to windows 7.

    Discussion in 'Lenovo' started by stephansaikaly, Aug 16, 2013.

  1. stephansaikaly

    stephansaikaly Newbie

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    2
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    5
    Hello community,

    I bought myself a Lenovo Ideapad Y500 not long ago, and after some time i got sick of the windows 8 on it, it's disturbing, useless and buggy, even affected my wireless connection.

    So i wanna get rid of it once and for all, does anyone have any idea on how to format and downgrade to windows 7 ? and where do i find the drivers to install them?

    Tank you :)
     
    stephansaikaly, Aug 16, 2013
    #1
  2. Jobine

    Jobine Notebook Prophet

    Reputations:
    934
    Messages:
    6,582
    Likes Received:
    677
    Trophy Points:
    281
    1. Back up data and use Belarc Advisor to backup the Windows 8 serial, just in case.
    2. Power down laptop. Open lid, hit the side button. Enter bios, disable Secure Boot and set the UEFI mode to Legacy. Save and exit.
    3. Press the side button, enter boot menu, boot off your Windows 7 install media
    4. Install Windows 7 to HDD, erasing windows 8.
    5. Download your drivers here: Drivers and software - IdeaPad Y500 Notebook. Do not install the Wifi drivers, use the provided Microsoft 14.8 drivers that come with the OS.
    6. Go to Nvidia.com and grab the latest drivers for the graphics card.
    7. If your laptop came with an SSD, open disk management and erase it's content, but don't format it, leave it instead as free space. Then install this: ExpressCache Software for Windows 7 64bit, Windows 8 64bit - ThinkCentre, ThinkPad
    8. Enjoy Windows 7 :p
     
    Jobine, Aug 16, 2013
    #2
  3. stephansaikaly

    stephansaikaly Newbie

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    2
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    5
    Thank you so much :)
     
    stephansaikaly, Aug 16, 2013
    #3