Toshiba Satellite C875 (Cannot Install Windows)

[ibex333]

Bought my dad a birthday present but regretting it very much. It's this computer:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834214867

I want to install Win 7 for dad because Win 8 is unusable to him. He is not willing to spend even a second learning a new OS.

Laptop has Windows 8 preinstalled, and seems to be designed such that you cannot install any other OS on it. While this might sound ridiculous to any tech savvy person, it really does seem to be the case.

I entered BIOS, and set it to boot from DVD. Every time I reboot, it just says Checking media... [FAIL] and proceeds to boot Win 8. I tried booting from USB, but every time that option is selected, the laptop just boots Win 8 as if USB was never there.

Tried installing Win 7 from the disk inside Win 8 but then I just get an error where Win 7 complains that it cannot write temporary install files to hard disk.

I dont understand what the hell is going on.. What gives? Can anyone help please?

 

[rfeirstein]

Good luck. I had the same problem with a couple of new HP's. I had reformatted the HD's and tried to install a retail version of Windows 7 and I could not do it. I tried to add a SSD as the boot drive in both of these desktops and Windows 7 would not install. Just wait till people need a new hard drive or want to install Windows 8 on a reformatted HD. The industry has gone nuts.

There is a "cure" for your father's use of Windows 8. Download Classic Shell. It will give him back the start menu and prevent booting into the Metro interface.

 

[WTFBEES]

Sounds like you guys are running into a problem with secure boot. Try this on the Toshiba:

To switch UEFI native mode to legacy BIOS mode (and disable secure boot):

1. Restart the computer. In Windows 8, from the Start or Desktop screen move your pointer over the upper or lower right corner of the screen. When the Windows Charms appear, click the Settings ( ) charm, click Power, and then the Restart option.
   
2. Press and hold the F2 key when the screen goes black, and wait for the BIOS setup utility to launch. If your system cannot boot into Windows 8, shut down the computer completely, then press F2 while powering back on.
   
3. Select Security -> Secure Boot, and then Disabled.
   
4. Select Advanced -> System Configuration, and then Boot Mode.
   
5. Change UEFI Boot to CSM Boot.
   
6. To save the change and exit the BIOS setup, press F10.

I imagine the process is fairly similar for the HP.

 

[T_Yamamoto]

I heard that if a laptop ships with windows 8, its locked to it.

 

[VirtualLarry]

I heard that if a laptop ships with windows 8, its locked to it.

You heard correctly (in most cases secure boot cannot be disabled).

 

[kbp]

The best $4.99 you'll ever spend.

http://www.stardock.com/products/start8/

 

[ibex333]

You heard correctly (in most cases secure boot cannot be disabled).

I actually disabled secure boot, but the laptop STILL will not boot from ANY OS cd that I tried. I think this is ridiculous and everyone should gather up and open up a collective lawsuit or something like that. I never heard of such crap before.

 

[ibex333]

Sounds like you guys are running into a problem with secure boot. Try this on the Toshiba:

To switch UEFI native mode to legacy BIOS mode (and disable secure boot):

1. Restart the computer. In Windows 8, from the Start or Desktop screen move your pointer over the upper or lower right corner of the screen. When the Windows Charms appear, click the Settings ( ) charm, click Power, and then the Restart option.
   
2. Press and hold the F2 key when the screen goes black, and wait for the BIOS setup utility to launch. If your system cannot boot into Windows 8, shut down the computer completely, then press F2 while powering back on.
   
3. Select Security -> Secure Boot, and then Disabled.
   
4. Select Advanced -> System Configuration, and then Boot Mode.
   
5. Change UEFI Boot to CSM Boot.
   
6. To save the change and exit the BIOS setup, press F10.

I imagine the process is fairly similar for the HP.

Dude, you're a lifesaver. I didn't notice the part where you mentioned CSM boot. As soon as I changed to that from UEFI I was able to boot from disk and flash drive. but problems do not end there.. Now windows refuses to install because hard drive is formatted in GPT and Win 7 install is unable to format it any other way... So now I have to look for a boot utility which can format the damn hard drive..


It's amazing how many steps these people took to PREVENT me from using anything else other than Win 8.


Update


This is the ONLY thing that allowed me to install widows 7. This is the only way that works. Windows install keeps complaining that disk is formatted in GPT style no matter what, unless ALL partitions are deleted on disk and a new partition table is selected. I chose ms-dos.

Instructions:

1. Download and burn a Gparted ISO from here:

http://gparted.sourceforge.net/

2. Boot from the Gparted disk.

3. Use Gparted to delete all partitions on the hard drive.

4. Under “Device” choose Create Partition Table to make a new partition table.

5. Create a NTFS partition (or you could wait and create a partition when installing Windows).

6. Then boot from the Windows install disk and install Windows.


I hope this will help people who were unfortunate to purchase these laptops!


Now my dad can finally use his birthday present...

 

[TheELF]

They don't do it to get on your(our) nerves,its just the technology changing from mbr to uefi...try booting into your windows 8 and creating a proper boot disk or usb from there,try Windows 7 USB/DVD download tool,but do it on the win8 that's on the laptop,that way the installation media will be uefi and it will happily install(hopefully).

 

[ibex333]

They don't do it to get on your(our) nerves,its just the technology changing from mbr to uefi...try booting into your windows 8 and creating a proper boot disk or usb from there,try Windows 7 USB/DVD download tool,but do it on the win8 that's on the laptop,that way the installation media will be uefi and it will happily install(hopefully).

If they dont do it to get on my nerves, what is up with changing uefi to CSM, and disabling secured boot in BIOS just to be able to boot from a DVD?

I owned many different computers and laptops, but this is the 1st time I see such options in BIOS.

Also, I tried many different utilities, but only g-parted allowed me to delete whatever file system was there and format to NTFS. The hard disk was listed as NTFS right from the start, but Windows 7 install would keep saying that it's GPT and windows cannot be installed. Perhaps this may be self explanatory to some, but it drove me nuts for two weeks in the row trying to figure out why the heck I couldnt install Win 7.

Off course this is not the end of my problems by far. Now after the install, none of the special buttons or features work, and network is dead. Toshibas website is quite difficult to navigate for drivers. But I already found the network driver and I am slowly finding other drivers too. Hopefully I will get most of the functionality eventually.

 

[Zodiark1593]

So basically, OEMs are trying to (slowly) turn laptops into tablets + the keyboard.

Next, I suppose OEMs will charge a hefty premium for laptops with unlocked BIOS/UEFI...

 

[phddriver]

Sounds like you guys are running into a problem with secure boot. Try this on the Toshiba:

To switch UEFI native mode to legacy BIOS mode (and disable secure boot):

1. Restart the computer. In Windows 8, from the Start or Desktop screen move your pointer over the upper or lower right corner of the screen. When the Windows Charms appear, click the Settings ( ) charm, click Power, and then the Restart option.
   
2. Press and hold the F2 key when the screen goes black, and wait for the BIOS setup utility to launch. If your system cannot boot into Windows 8, shut down the computer completely, then press F2 while powering back on.
   
3. Select Security -> Secure Boot, and then Disabled.
   
4. Select Advanced -> System Configuration, and then Boot Mode.
   
5. Change UEFI Boot to CSM Boot.
   
6. To save the change and exit the BIOS setup, press F10.

I imagine the process is fairly similar for the HP.

THANK YOU SO MUCH!!! I was ready to blame "hardware failure" but then I saw your post from a google search.

Like the OP, My cousin bought a laptop with win8, and wanted win7. So I tried 2 different win7 discs, 1 ubuntu disc, and a win7 flashdrive. Nothing worked, was thinking there must be hardware failure so i googled and found this thread. tried your solution, worked, thanks so much!!!

I've been cussing this toshiba laptop all day, and wasted soooo much time on something that shouldnt of took longer than 30 minutes. but thanks to you it didnt take longer than 1 day or cost 100s of dollars in repair. i'm sure if i would of called toshiba support they would of prob charged me for new hardware even though I didnt need it

THANKS SO MUCH WTFBEES

..also thanks to the OP for starting this thread when you did!! you helped me out too by having this problem+getting solution before it happened to me... ive once had to wait days on a solution cos there was no solutions on google so i had to post my own thread but thankfully that wasnt the case this time!!!

 

[ibex333]

you're welcome. glad this thread helps people.

 

[frans2424]

Thanks this is the silution.

 

[bliksimpie]

Sounds like you guys are running into a problem with secure boot. Try this on the Toshiba:

To switch UEFI native mode to legacy BIOS mode (and disable secure boot):

1. Restart the computer. In Windows 8, from the Start or Desktop screen move your pointer over the upper or lower right corner of the screen. When the Windows Charms appear, click the Settings ( ) charm, click Power, and then the Restart option.
2. Press and hold the F2 key when the screen goes black, and wait for the BIOS setup utility to launch. If your system cannot boot into Windows 8, shut down the computer completely, then press F2 while powering back on.
3. Select Security -> Secure Boot, and then Disabled.
4. Select Advanced -> System Configuration, and then Boot Mode.
5. Change UEFI Boot to CSM Boot.
6. To save the change and exit the BIOS setup, press F10.

I imagine the process is fairly similar for the HP.

Man I owe you...!!
thanks so much..!

 

[Kongen af jylla]

Thanks to you all. i also have usede a lot of time downgrading win8 to 7 and now it´s Work. Thank´s very much.

 

[sikh85]

Sounds like you guys are running into a problem with secure boot. Try this on the Toshiba:

To switch UEFI native mode to legacy BIOS mode (and disable secure boot):

1. Restart the computer. In Windows 8, from the Start or Desktop screen move your pointer over the upper or lower right corner of the screen. When the Windows Charms appear, click the Settings ( ) charm, click Power, and then the Restart option.
2. Press and hold the F2 key when the screen goes black, and wait for the BIOS setup utility to launch. If your system cannot boot into Windows 8, shut down the computer completely, then press F2 while powering back on.
3. Select Security -> Secure Boot, and then Disabled.
4. Select Advanced -> System Configuration, and then Boot Mode.
5. Change UEFI Boot to CSM Boot.
6. To save the change and exit the BIOS setup, press F10.

I imagine the process is fairly similar for the HP.

I could kiss you.

 

[gramm]

Sounds like you guys are running into a problem with secure boot. Try this on the Toshiba:

To switch UEFI native mode to legacy BIOS mode (and disable secure boot):

1. Restart the computer. In Windows 8, from the Start or Desktop screen move your pointer over the upper or lower right corner of the screen. When the Windows Charms appear, click the Settings ( ) charm, click Power, and then the Restart option.
2. Press and hold the F2 key when the screen goes black, and wait for the BIOS setup utility to launch. If your system cannot boot into Windows 8, shut down the computer completely, then press F2 while powering back on.
3. Select Security -> Secure Boot, and then Disabled.
4. Select Advanced -> System Configuration, and then Boot Mode.
5. Change UEFI Boot to CSM Boot.
6. To save the change and exit the BIOS setup, press F10.

I imagine the process is fairly similar for the HP.

This guy right there. I couldn't install Windows 7 because it was freezing at installation, but now it's working.Thnkas!

 

[sm625]

There were seriously this many people going through the trouble to install windows 7 in place of windows 8, because of a start menu that can easily be replaced with a start menu that works exactly like 7? lol. What else about win 8 is there that people are seeing that makes them go through such pains to avoid? You dont have to use the store at all.