How to install Windows 7 on an Acer Aspire E1-530

Want to install Windows 7 on an Acer Aspire E1-530? Frustrated at no Windows 7 drivers on the Acer website? Read on…

First thing to do is back up any personal data on the computer to a removable device like a plug-in external drive or USB stick.

Now, look at your hard drive using This PC (My Computer) and navigate to the hidden C:\OEM folder – Acer might not offer any Win7 drivers on their website, but they have very helpfully included everything you need on your hard disk. Browse within the OEM folder, there is a sub-folder, can’t remember exactly what it was called (Preload maybe?) but if you hover over the folders, you will see one is significantly bigger than all the others (1.9GB) so navigate through to there and find the folder called DRV, copy it and its contents to your removable device. There is also an APP folder that may be useful to copy if you want the Acer software.

If you want to reverse this process and reinstall Windows 8 at a later date, you must make a Factory Default Backup. For this, you need the Acer Recovery Manager – to run, press the Winlogo key & R together, then type C:\Program Files\Acer\Acer Recovery Management\eRecoveryUI.exe. When that starts, click the Create Factory Default Backup option and be ready with a 16GB USB stick – yes, for some reason there is no option to create on DVD.

Shutdown the computer and power it on whilst holding the F2 button – this will get you access to the BIOS. First, select the Advanced menu and Enable the F12 Boot Menu. Then select the Boot menu and change it from UEFI to Legacy Boot. Save and Exit, when restarting press the F12 key and you can select to boot up from your DVD drive (with Win 7 media inserted). Follow the on screen prompts to install vanilla Win 7.

When you reach the point of selecting your partition to install Windows 7 to, you will get the message that Windows cannot be installed because it is a GPT partition. This is the point of no return if you haven’t made a Factory Default Backup! You have to delete all 5 of the partitions, then create a new one (or two if you want a D drive, use 239000mb per drive if so) and continue with the installation.

When Windows has finished setup and you have created your user account, etc., you need to install the following device driver files from the DRV folder you backed up earlier. Install the drivers by running the setup file in each folder in the order below…

Intel NB Chipset HM77
Intel TurboBoost_Manageability Engine Code Manageability Engine Code
Intel Intel VGA UMA
Realtek Audio Codec ALC3225
Broadcom LAN BCM57786X
HAI wireless+BT 3rd WiFi 1×1 BGN+ BT Atheros WB335
Boardcom (sic) Card Reader Chip BCM57786x
Elantech Touchpad

Accept the agreements, select the default options, press Next lots and reboot at each stage when asked by the setup program. At the end of the process, you will have one driver still outstanding – a Universal Serial Bus (USB) Controller. This is the Intel USB 3.0 eXtensible Host Controller Driver

To download the driver for this, go to Intel’s website and search for “USB eXtensible Host Controller Driver Intel 7 C216” or download it from a reputable download site like cNet or MajorGeeks (don’t go to the so-called driver sites unless you want spyware). Install that and Device Manager should have a clean bill of health.

Enjoy doing your Windows updates ;)