windows 7 OS and rufus HELP

hi, i have just installed a samsung 860 EVO SSD on my lenovo ideapad 100-15iby and im at the stage of putting my new OS onto it. this is the first time i have had to do this and i am not amazing with computers although i do know the basics.
i got the OS in the form of a disc image that i had to put onto a USB stick via RUFUS, then i put it in to boot the lenovo and it came up with "efi usb device blocked by security policy" does anyone know what ive done wrong?? im panicing a bit now haha. i set the partition scheme as GPT and the file system as NTFS which i think is where i went wrong :/? should i have gone with FAT32?
any help would be very much appreciated

 

Windows 7 doesnt support UEFI iirc

Likely need to enable legacy option rom or something akin to that in the BIOS

 

ok am i able to access the BIOS with a blank drive/no OS installed?

 

Yes BIOS operates at a lower level than an Operating system

 

do you know how i go about that? ive just had a read about BIOS keys and ive tried every method and it doesnt do anything

 

You will need to look it up for your model laptop

 

In rufus there's a setting when you are setting it up as a bootable usb to enable legacy bios mode I think if you don't do that you'll have problems with legacy OS installation.

 

i found it in the end there is a 'NOVO' button on the side you have to push with a paper clip :/ went into BIOS and disabled secure boot, then rebooted with usb stick in and it started was looking ok cam to the windows splash page then froze and a red strip popped up across the top of the screen :/

 

it now gets to the splash screen, freezes then blue screens saying that it was stopped to avoid damage to the computer, is it safe to say that the software is to blame now?

 

Without showing readers on here the error no one can guess what happened?
Also this:
"i got the OS in the form of a disc image that i had to put onto a USB stick via RUFUS"

Where did you get the OS from? If it wasn't from the original computer that also can be a issue because of settings.

 

well i have just tried it off an official windows 7 64bit disc now and i am having the same issues, it gets to the splash screen and the little dots are about to appear and go round in a circle (like they do lol) and then it stops and either goes to blue screen or just freezes and a red strip appears along the top of the screen :/

 

Screenshots/pictures will help. No way to tell if you are describing your actions accurately, without that cant really establish a baseline especially when you dont provide any error codes from the BSODs you have been getting...

 

sorry here are my bios/settings a pic of the blue screen, ive found that in legacy mode it goes to blue screen and in UEFI it goes to starting windows/red stripe :/

 

just realized ive cut off a 0 on the right hand side (after the 8,) haha

 

Have you read this?

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us...ndows-xp-6428e8f5-b7df-5883-1877-301cff8e25a0

 

ah no i hadnt seen that i will have a read cheers i did just find a guide that looks promising, it basicly said i have to update my BIOS, i have found and downloaded the updated version and put it on a USB stick but do you know the procedure for putting it onto my laptop? really dont wanna screw this one up lol :/

 

Windows 10 was the default OS for this, and is configured as such as your BIOS is set to a Pure UEFI environment.

Installing Windows 7 requires a bit of research as one of the main issues with it today is that it doesnt have USB 3.0 function built into the OS, this can be rectified but will require more time and effort. You will also need to enable legacy boot otherwise it will not work. Also you have USB booting disabled in your BIOS so of course the system is telling you that due a security feature that it couldnt boot an EFI device, in this case a flash drive that you were using to install with.

According to the manual of your machine, the default operating systems were Windows 8.1 and Windows 10. Likely doesnt mean much since your system has USB 2.0, just make sure you using that port when installing Windows 7.

Also there is no chipset drivers designated for Windows 7, you can try the available drivers on the lenovo site and see if it will work and chances are it might work just fine but that is a trial and error scenario. Otherwise you will have to figure out what chipset you are using and look to that specific vendor and see if they offer a driver specific to WIn7 (in the event that a Win10 driver doesnt work)

 

Piggybacking on what @Reciever pointed out, this laptop of yours is entirely designed around W10; is there a reason you're hard set at installing W7 on it? I'd recommend Linux over this hassle.

 

Some people prefer it, or legacy applications and such, or just better performance in particular workloads.

Main point is first to enable usb booting, its currently disabled.

 

My selection of OS is a cost vs. benefit comparison. I stick with W10 because it's supported and enough mitigations exist (thanks to this forum) to make it bearable. Linux is generally better from a privacy standpoint, but not as well supported by developers and hardware manufacturers to some extent. W7 is arguably the best iteration Microsoft created and a missed opportunity when they stopped supporting it. However, regardless of how much you love your old '70 VW Bug, computer-controlled fuel injection beats carburation, if you catch my drift. Worse still is trying to jam that 1600cc flat-four into a modern car and dealing with all the compatibility issues that are necessarily going to arise.

That's an extreme analogy, but you get what I mean.

 

Wish OP mentioned that his laptop originally came with Windows 10. Personally its not worth it installing Windows 7 even if it was possible, You'll end running into driver issues and you would have to install them all manually if they dont have Windows 7 drivers on your OEM website, and among other things as well plus support for Windows 7 expired in January 2020, Its really not worth the headache these days.

 

To each their own, as long as the user understands the merits and pitfalls then beyond that isnt much harm in my opinion.

Can it be done? Probably. Can it be done easily? Not sure, USB 2.0 is present on the system so thats an excellent first condition to clear if you dont wish to splice the driver in yourself.

Linux is nice but I lack understanding of its file system even if I like KDE Plasma but every now and then I go back and try it out just to be reminded that guides dont work because xyz and thus I cant get anything done lol

Windows 10 is probably the best choice from a simple is best standpoint, no idea what the user in question desires from this system...