How to remove Windows 8 and install Windows 7 on a Sony VAIO SVF15N17CXB laptop

If you want to remove the preinstalled Windows 8 from a new Sony VAIO laptop you need an external USB DVD drive and a Windows 7 DVD. You can buy the LG external USB DVD drive for $40 at Best Buy, and the Windows 7 at Amazon.

The first step is to turn off UEFI in the BIOS and enable the legacy boot. This will allow the computer to boot from the Windows 7 DVD.

To enter the BIOS

  • Turn off the Sony VAIO laptop
  • Press the small “Assist” button between the Delete button and the display to turn on the computer and display the VAIO Care Menu
  • In the VAIO Care Menu select Start BIOS Setup


Turn off the UEFI boot mode in the BIOS

  • In the BIOS setup select Boot on the top of the screen
  • Press Enter on the Boot Mode option and select Legacy


Save the BIOS settings

  • Select Exit on the top of the screen
  • Select Exit Saving Changes and press Enter
  • Press Enter on Yes to save the changes

The computer will automatically try to restart into Windows 8

  • Keep the power button pressed to force it to shut down


Boot from the Windows 7 DVD

  • Start the computer with the “Assist” button
  • Insert the Windows 7 DVD into the DVD drive
  • In the VAIO Care Menu Menu select Start from Media (USB device/optical disc)


Install Windows 7

  • The computer will boot from the Windows 7 DVD
  • Select Install, Advanced installation
  • Delete all partitions on the hard drive
  • Create one partition (Windows will create another 100MB system partition for itself)
  • Select the large partition as the destination of Windows 7


Enjoy the last usable Windows version.

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14 Comments

  1. I start my laptop by presing asist but nothing apear on the screan only black screan so how to do a new window 7?

  2. 7 is a good OS. Only one of two pf them. 8 and 8.1 is a disaster and eveyone is having the same issues but they blame it on hardware every time. When actually it was one up date of theirs out of the 273 i istalled one at a time on a hunch and found the one that ruins it. Linux, always has an will br better. Gates is.just a marketing genius..

  3. Hi my name is srinivas i have Sony VAIO Fit 15E SVF15413SNB Laptop (APU Quad Core A8/ 2GB/ 500GB/ Win8) iam facing more problems with windows 8 sytem is starting very slow process is also slow and windows 8 ocupying 1.5GB space from RAM so i tried to install windows 7 using above process but it is showing BOOTMGR failed error please tell me how to install windows 7 on this Laptos

  4. hi my name is shakti singh iinstall win 7. but icant install win 7 so please help me.

  5. My system is not working properly. I have been using Windows 8 . when I start the laptop after showing the symbol of vaio it starts again and again and the page for entering the password do not come on screen . So I am tryng to install Windows 7 as in Windows 8.1 it was runnig similary. Now again after a certain point “starting windows setup” the similar process is repeating in installing windows 7.

  6. An operating system wasn’t found. Try disconting any drives that don’t contain an operating system….how to solve it

    1. Please follow this step
      start computer press Assist+f2
      select bios(f2)
      check Harddisk : none
      if Hard disk is none
      so may be your hard disk corrupted
      but u have one solution remove harddisk on your computer
      and clean hard hard disk port again attach hard disk on your computer
      after that check hard disk is showing or not
      and boot mode lagacy
      click and save
      again restart your computer

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