When trying to install windows 7, I get to the install page and get to choose which drive, however, there is no drives to choose from. I've tried using support videos for this but none can help fix my solution. My specifications will be listed below.

Aspire ES1-531

Windows 8.1

Processor

- Intel® Pentium® Processor N3700
- Quad-core
- 1.6 GHz / 2.4 GHz with Turbo Boost
- 2 MB cache

Memory (RAM)

4 GB (8 GB maximum installable RAM)

Storage

1 TB HDD, 5400 rpm

 

Please help

 

thanks

 

Is the disk selection window empty, or are the disks visible but you can't install on them?

1 hour ago, ED_Sln said:

Is the disk selection window empty, or are the disks visible but you can't install on them?

ED_Sln its empty

Did you try the diskpart command in Command Prompt?

2 minutes ago, mina7601 said:

Did you try the diskpart command in Command Prompt?

No, how do i do that?

11 minutes ago, jonasdk said:

No, how do i do that?

Press Shift + F10, type diskpart, then press Enter, then type list disk, then press Enter. Does a disk appear in the list?

Edited April 9, 20242 yr by mina7601

1 hour ago, mina7601 said:

Press Shift + F10, type diskpart, then press Enter, then type list disk, then press Enter. Does a disk appear in the list?

Yes

8 hours ago, jonasdk said:

When trying to install windows 7

 

8 hours ago, jonasdk said:

Aspire ES1-531

Windows 8.1

Some of those Acers I came across were locked to Win8 only in their BIOS.

15 minutes ago, Dixel said:

 

Some of those Acers I came across were locked to Win8 only in their BIOS.

Oh damn, if thats the case then that sucks 

You can try unpacking the image in UEFI mode, but it is not sure that even so the system will be able to boot.

 

A good advice would be to search on the dedicated Acer forums or laptop BIOS modding communities. Probably they already know how to remove that hard lock. Probably it's not there at al (very rare)l, but the chances are extrenmely high it's locked since Acer is known to do that.

From what I've seen, when there are no drives to choose from during Setup it could mean you need to load the ACHI drivers. If you load them, the hard drive should appear. Or you can check if your laptop supports IDE mode for hard drives. Usually when a laptop doesn't support other older OS it won't boot the setup disk at all. Giving you acpi errors or something. If the setup does launch, it's most probably that you need to load the achi driver.

Edited May 9, 20242 yr by tekkaman

Seven can be installed on the newest PC and at most some USB ports or touchpad on the laptop may not work.

I patched the installation image with this patch

Intel(R)_USB_3.0_eXtensible_Host_Controller_Driver_5.0.3.42

I don’t even remember everything I did, but my 7 was easily installed on a PC made in 2023, in which the BIOS was made only for Windows 10, and the 7 works perfectly

Edited July 2, 20242 yr by lll888