Hi! I created a Windows 7 installation media in UEFI mode using Rufus with the intent to install it on an Acer Aspire A315-21 from 2019, but when I booted up the disk, it did the "Starting Windows" animation, but then froze after the Windows logo was formed. This media did not have USB 3.0 drivers slipstreamed as this laptop also came with USB 2.0 ports in addition to 3.0 (and those 2.0 ports do work with 7's setup). The hardware is AMD Radeon R4 Graphics, AMD A6 Processor(?) and AMD USB 2.0 and 3.0,, all of which supports Windows 7. In the BIOS, I disabled Secure Boot (by setting a supervisor password from the BIOS. UEFI was still enabled obviously), but left everything else except for supervisor password untouched.

Does anyone have a fix for this freezing problem? I can boot from the USB using the 2.0 ports without any need for 3.0 drivers from what I can tell, but it freezes after the "Starting Windows" animation plays and the Windows logo is complete and shown. Any help is greatly appreciated here!

Solved: I solved the problem using the guide from this thread:

This guide was not made by me, but rather bloodhandsv over at Notebook Review. I am just sharing it for other people who may not have known this existed.

Edited March 26, 20215 yr by Jakob99

Sure it is an A6 CPU and not an A9?

Obviously, see if your installation works on another computer.

The easiest and safest way would be for you to enable CSM / legacy boot support on the BIOS setup.

Windows 7 doesn't work with pure UEFI systems without some modifications on the bootloader.

43 minutes ago, Tripredacus said:

Sure it is an A6 CPU and not an A9?

Obviously, see if your installation works on another computer.

It is! The pictures below show my specs. I will do so. I have a laptop from 2013 that has UEFI boot (and secure boot too I believe), but shipped with Windows 7 (UEFI was disabled though)

1 minute ago, TigTex said:

The easiest and safest way would be for you to enable CSM / legacy boot support on the BIOS setup.

Windows 7 doesn't work with pure UEFI systems without some modifications on the bootloader.

Interesting. This laptop does support both (how I got it working in the first place). You have a guide or know of one for how to modify the bootloader? Also, if it doesn't work with UEFI, why does Rufus select it automatically when I prepare it.

Windows 7 64bit works on UEFI with GPT spindle disks just fine. It is only some NAND or NVMe that can cause a problem.

IMO: unless you want to use Bitlocker, a boot disk larger than 2.2 TB or a UEFI-only video card, there is no reason to enable UEFI for Windows 7.

1 hour ago, Tripredacus said:

Windows 7 64bit works on UEFI with GPT spindle disks just fine. It is only some NAND or NVMe that can cause a problem.

IMO: unless you want to use Bitlocker, a boot disk larger than 2.2 TB or a UEFI-only video card, there is no reason to enable UEFI for Windows 7.

Ah. I was trying to get it to work with UEFI so I could then install 8.1 and 10 in that mode as well.

I have no clue how a multi-boot with Win7 on UEFI would work. I was never able to get a deployment with a recovery partition to boot, and while Microsoft supposedly did support that configuration, no one could tell me how to do it. They never did release documentation for that type of configuration, and only later did they (incorrectly) state that the Windows 8 deployment docs would work with Windows 7. In order to maintain license requirements, any Windows 7 on UEFI that was done had to ship with a recovery DVD, and of course DVD install had no problem installing to UEFI.

So for my Win7 on UEFI deployments, I used these parts:
260 MB EFI
128 MB MSR
"remainder" partition where the OS was deployed.

A recovery partition is the same basic concept of a dual boot, since you just have an additional partition with a WinPE in it instead of an OS install. BCDEdit had no issues and BCD was always correct, but with the other partition present, the OS would never boot. I had given up on it myself, since there is a difference between what is technically possible and what is allowed by license. The only guidance I can give is that you likely would want to remove Setup from doing anything, and to manually be building the BCD for any multiboot setup. Using a partition scheme like so:

Part 1: EFI
Part 2: MSR
Part 3: Windows 7
Part 4: Windows 8.1 or 10
Part 5: Windows 8.1 or 10

Perhaps look into using something else such as Grub4DOS for UEFI:

https://msfn.org/board/topic/182107-grub4dos-for-uefi/

 

Solved: I solved the problem using the guide from this thread:

This guide was not made by me, but rather bloodhandsv over at Notebook Review. I am just sharing it for other people who may not have known this existed.