Before taking Windows 7 option

I would recommend to try once again restoring to factory default.

The error message "Non-bootable device" means somehow the system partition was corrupt,
but recovery partition should be still there, so you can try once again to restore to factory default
and note down the steps you take and any error messages you get, and then post here.

You can configure Windows 8 so that it takes the look and feel of Windows 7.

As for frequent automatic download, you can disable automatic Windows updates.