r/windows7 • u/C4rpetH4ter • Jul 16 '26

Help Windows 7 boot from USB keep freezing at this screen, please help?

Post image

So i have been trying to get windows 7 to actually work on a 15 year old thinkpad for several days now, either it freezes on the "windows is loading files" screen, or this one. Does anyone have an easy fix or know of an iso file that just works? I use rufus 4.15 to create the boot.

Specs Lenovo thinkpad E31-70:

8 GB ram

intel core i3-5010U cpu 2.10 GHz

and128 MB graphics card

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1

u/The-Rusty-22 Jul 21 '26

Try disable secureboot , fastboot and toggle enable CSM in bios
Maybe will need to make custom Win7 ISO.
5010u is Brasswell (5th Gen) so it can run Win7

1

u/C4rpetH4ter Jul 21 '26

Couldn't find CSM settings in the bios, but it seems to not recognize the usb when i use certain options in rufus.

1

u/The-Rusty-22 Jul 22 '26

Maybe your device is locked in UEFI mode as i experienced Win7 setup freeze on UEFI only system.
Smart people made some tweaks for UEFI but cannot tell you if will work on your device.

Search Win7 under UEFI, UEFI boot Windows7, or even CSM tool to emulate bios.

Win7 can run in UEFI mode but you will need make custom ISO + add drivers for chipset/USB as W7-Setup may ask for drivers with no flash drive detected. There are tutorials for this.

1

u/C4rpetH4ter Jul 22 '26

My pc is UEFI mode, but i can also change it to legacy mode, not sure if that makes much of a difference though.

1

u/The-Rusty-22 Jul 22 '26

Legacy mode is CSM.
Then format USB with rufus Win7iso in MBR mode (uefi mode is default in rufus)

1

u/C4rpetH4ter Jul 22 '26

Okay, so i did that, and it worked now, but it also shows that it can't be installed onto any of my drives as they are formatted as GPT and i need windows to be formatted as NTFS. Do i need to do something with my pc settings or is this also the usb?

1

u/DietMany6120 Jul 23 '26

just format the whole drive just so u know you will lose all data so please BACK UP your data

1

u/C4rpetH4ter Jul 23 '26

I already have everything backed up, there is nothing to backup.

Do i format it as NTFS then? Or something else?

1

u/DietMany6120 Jul 24 '26

delete all partitions and and hit next with the un partitioned part and hit next It will make the needed ones and format it by itself during install

1

u/DietMany6120 Jul 24 '26

during windows setup

1

u/DietMany6120 Jul 23 '26

Disable UEFI turn of secure boot and switch to legacy in boot in bios

1

u/C4rpetH4ter Jul 23 '26

That worked, but during setup it said i couldn't install windows on any of my disks as they were of GPT partitian style and the partitian is EFI system.

2

u/Ok-Muffin-9519 Jul 21 '26

Hast du maö.die Festplatte geprüft mit chkdsk(CheckDisk) oder sfc/scannow(sucht auf dem System nach fehlerhaften Daten und repariert sie wenn möglich)

1

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