Recovering win7 that was written over

I bought a laptop with windows 7
I later installed windows8 preveiw with the intention of dualbooting, however it installed directly over windows 8.
Is there any way to reinstall my original legit win7 from the recovery partition?
(windows 8 preveiw is unstable and also doesnt allow me to place files on my external usb hard drive – any solutions to this usb hd problem?)
Answer #1
did you completely formatted the C drive ?
Answer #2
if you formatted the c drive you will lose the windows 7 and the boot disk itself now they put the boot disk on the harddrive so if you did a complete format then you lost that boot disk but if the recovery partition still on the harddrive then you can get win7 back
Answer #3
the recovery part is still there (it “upgraded” from 7 to 8)
the problem is that the recovery disc I created, or system recovery in win8 just cause a win8 recovery.
How can I recover win7?
(alt f10 does win8 recovery by the way)
Answer #4
when you start you pc press f12 to reboot your pc if it not there then press f8
there should be option to recover windows
Answer #5
Dx-Generation-Dx replied: when you start you pc press f12 to reboot your pc if it not there then press f8
there should be option to recover windows
this way he can only recover windows 8.
I doubt you can recover windows 7. Need to get a Fresh install (I GUESS IT, wait for some more replies)
Answer #6
Thanks, hm are there any ways to get it back perhaps through Acer or MS support?
Answer #7
justdodgeme replied: Thanks, hm are there any ways to get it back perhaps through Acer or MS support?
If it’s an Acer, can’t you just use the Acer Recovery Management console ?
Answer #8
If your laptop manufacturer provided you with recovery discs, you could try those
Answer #9
Windows 8 preview is a PREVIEW, not a fully functional OS, or even a partially working OS. Next time, Don’t install something that isn’t 100% (or even close to 90%) done. This is made for developers.
If Windows 8 was installed over Windows 7, there is a good chance that the partition was formatted. If not, it might be stored in Windows.old for your old Windows 7. If the Windows.old isn’t there (C:\Windows.old) then chances are that you will not be able to recover anything.
If Windows 8 simply was installed on a different partition, and the bootloader was auto-loading to Windows 8 then that would of been an easy fix with the Windows 7 (Or 8) OS CD.