ASUS P8Z77-V Pro - Can't set up Win7 x64 on UEFI

[Skullcraft]

Hi folks,

I've built a new i7-3770K system on an ASUS P8Z77-V Pro motherboard with Windows 7 Ultimate x64. But I just can't get it running well with a UEFI installation despite having spent days trying. It works great with a legacy BIOS installation (I'm using it right now). But under UEFI, I can't install or boot if I have any drives except the boot drive connected, whether they're SATA or USB.

Nothing is overclocked or tweaked in any way. RAM is specced DDR3-2400 but is running at default settings of DDR3-1333. Using the integrated Intel HD Graphics 4000 for the time being.

Lots of details follow.

Hardware configuration:

• ASUS P8Z77-V Pro motherboard
• Intel Core i7-3770K CPU
• 16GB (2x8GB kit) G.Skill Trident X (F3-2400C10D-16GTX) DDR3-2400 RAM
• Intel 520 SSD 240GB (boot drive; on SATA port 1 - Intel 6Gbps)
• Seagate ST3640323AS HDD 640GB (on SATA port 3 - Intel 3Gbps)
• LG WH14NS40 BD-RE (on SATA port 5 - Intel 3Gbps)
• SeaSonic Platinum 860W power supply
• eSATA and USB 2.0 adapter included with motherboard (eSATA on SATA port 6 - Intel 3Gbps)
• Front panel USB 2.0 ports connected to internal USB 2.0 header
• Front panel audio ports connected to internal HD Audio header
• ABS mechanical keyboard (USB)
• Microsoft Wheel Mouse Optical (USB)
• Seagate My Backup Plus 1TB external USB 3.0 hard drive (not initially connected)

Firmware configuration:

• Latest BIOS 1206, updated via BIOS FlashBack before installing any drives or booting the system
• Loaded optimized defaults and set system date/time
• Made no other changes -- no overclocking; RAM is running at stock DDR3-1333 speed; etc.
• SATA mode preset to AHCI

Drivers:

• Latest P8Z77-V Pro drivers downloaded from ASUS web site
• Did not install ASUS utilities or WiFi software

First setup procedure:

1. System configured as above.
2. Boot to Windows 7 Ultimate x64 DVD (UEFI).
3. Install Windows to unpartitioned space on SSD.
4. Allow initial installation step to complete. Reboot.
5. Enter UEFI Setup. Verify that the first boot device is Windows Boot Manager (UEFI). Continue boot.
6. *** System fails to boot. Either the boot manager will show error 0xC0000225; or the system will attempt to boot from a different (non-bootable) drive in legacy BIOS mode.

If you'll notice, this is a really basic installation. Connect drives, install Windows from DVD -- and fail. Can't even reboot to complete the installation. (I can tell it's trying to boot legacy because the text on the pre-boot screens looks different in UEFI boot than legacy boot.)

But it did finish the installation after I unplugged the internal SATA HDD. So next I tried with just the SSD.

Second setup procedure:

1. System configured as above *** except Seagate SATA HDD disconnected ***.
2. Boot to Windows 7 Ultimate x64 DVD (UEFI).
3. Delete existing partitions on SSD.
4. Install Windows to unpartitioned space on SSD.
5. Allow initial installation step to complete. Reboot.
6. Enter UEFI Setup. Verify that the first boot device is Windows Boot Manager (UEFI). Continue boot.
7. System boots successfully. Windows installation completes.
8. Install drivers.
9. Power off and reconnect Seagate SATA HDD to SATA port 3.
10. Boot and enter UEFI Setup. Verify that the first boot device is Windows Boot Manager (UEFI). Continue boot.
11. Boot successfully! Configure Seagate SATA HDD.
12. Connect external USB 3.0 hard drive to USB 2.0 or USB 3.0 port. Reboot.
13. Enter UEFI Setup. Verify that the first boot device is Windows Boot Manager (UEFI). Continue boot.
14. *** System fails to boot. Either Windows 7 will fail to start up and will reboot; Windows 7 will ask whether to run system restore or start normally; or the system will attempt to boot from a different (non-bootable) drive in legacy BIOS mode.

Also tried connecting the SSD and HDD to different SATA ports at this point, including the ASMedia SATA ports, with no change -- system still failed to boot. Changing Option ROM and other related fields to either UEFI only or disabled also didn't help; nor did disabling the ASMedia SATA ports or configuring SATA to use IDE mode, or doing a CMOS reset. It also didn't help to disconnect the front panel and rear port connectors. The only thing that worked was detaching both the external and internal HDD's.

Finally, after searching forums for a couple of days, I found some advice on the "best" way to install Windows 7 on UEFI.

Third setup procedure:

1. Prepare Windows 7 Ultimate x64 SP1 UEFI bootable USB flash drive and follow detailed installation guides in these forum posts:
   http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/303873-30-wont-resume-sleep-booted-raid
   http://www.overclock.net/t/1156654/seans-windows-7-install-optimization-guide-for-ssds-hdds
   Include Intel RST "F6 floppy" drivers obtained from ASUS site's RST driver package.
2. System configured as above *** except Seagate SATA HDD and LG BD-RE disconnected; UEFI-bootable USB flash drive connected; and SATA set to RAID mode, as detailed in guide ***.
3. Boot to Windows 7 Ultimate x64 SP1 bootable USB flash drive (UEFI).
4. Load the Intel RST drivers before installation.
5. Delete existing partitions on SSD.
6. Install Windows to unpartitioned space on SSD. Reboot.
7. Enter UEFI Setup. Verify that the first boot device is Windows Boot Manager (UEFI). Continue boot.
8. System boots successfully. Windows installation completes.
9. Install drivers.
10. Power off and reconnect Seagate SATA HDD to SATA port 3.
11. Enter UEFI Setup. Verify that the first boot device is Windows Boot Manager (UEFI). Continue boot.
12. *** System fails to boot. Either Windows 7 will fail to start up and will reboot; Windows 7 will ask whether to run system restore or start normally; or the system will attempt to boot from a different (non-bootable) drive in legacy BIOS mode.

As you can see, this went even less well than the second major attempt -- I didn't even get one boot with the HDD attached. Switching SATA mode from RAID to AHCI didn't help. Removing the external drive didn't help either. The only way I could get this iteration to boot is by detaching the USB and SATA HDD's so that only the SSD and BD-RE were attached.

Honestly, I haven't had this much trouble setting up a PC since I helped put together a Pentium Pro with Windows 95 back in the day. There seems to be absolutely nothing I can do to make a UEFI installation work on this system with more storage than just the SSD attached, regardless of whether the extra storage is connected at installation time or after installation is complete. And even if I get the internal HDD working, all it takes is one reboot with an external HDD attached to break the whole setup irrepairably.

Yet the legacy BIOS installation works flawlessly. The computer's been up continuously for several days; and I can reboot with both my internal and external HDD's attached and have no problems whatsoever.

The only other thing I can think of trying is flashing an older version of the firmware.

If anyone has some advice on how I can make this work with UEFI, or a description of how you made it work, I'd love to hear it. Right now I strongly suspect this board's firmware is to blame.

Thanks!

 

[Bubbaleone]

Have a look at How to Install Windows 7 Using the "Unified Extensible Firmware Interface" (UEFI). It's short and to the point, but note the caveats. Hope this helps.

 

[Skullcraft]

Thanks for the reply. I did come across this guide in my research but went with the overclock.net guide instead. The main differences I can see besides the obvious BIOS differences are that this guide recommends booting explicitly from the EFI shell and using cdboot.efi instead of bootmgfw.efi (renamed to bootx64.efi).

My board's UEFI setup recognized the Win7 DVD as UEFI-bootable and offered me the choice of a UEFI or non-UEFI boot. From the installer I was able to create GPT partitions, which should mean I booted successfully from UEFI. (I also made sure to delete all partitions and install only to the unallocated space on the SSD each time.) And I was able to boot Windows eventually -- as long as I had only the SSD attached.

I'll give it a try, though.

 

[spanglenuts]

Just wanted to say I have a very similar setup that I just built yesterday and have been having the same issues. I've tried everything I could find on the internet(like you have) but haven't gotten a good reliable boot yet. VERY Frustrating. I have the same processor/mobo and attempting to do a SSD boot drive with OCZ Vertex 4 128GB.

I'll keep ya posted if I figure it out. I subscribed to this thread to stay in the loop.

Thanks for posting. Good luck.

 

[Skullcraft]

I reinstalled twice by booting the installer from a TianoCore shell, once from the CD and once from the flash drive. Nothing changed materially. I could still boot with SSD + HDD but not if I added the external USB3 drive into the mix. (Also now my SSD and HDD numbers are swapped in Disk Management. Odd that it's only happened when I've installed from the shell.) I tried rolling back to FW 1105 as well, but other than some reshuffling of the CMOS setup options, there was no difference.

However, I did find a solution for my problem late last night. After I removed the extended partition from the USB3 HDD, Windows booted without a hitch.

I partitioned the drive while backing up my previous WinXP system (yes, I was overdue for an upgrade) because I wanted to play with TrueCrypt. So I made one large primary partition to be encrypted and one small extended partition for utilities. Last night I zapped the encrypted partition but it didn't help, so I deleted both partitions and replaced them with primary partitions. That did the trick! Just to check, I also reencrypted the first partition, and it still booted fine.

The internal HDD is the same one I had used in my previous setup, and I believe it too was originally partitioned with one primary and one extended. At some point in my trials, possibly during a test install under legacy BIOS, I repartitioned the drive without any extended partitions. (Disk Management doesn't let me create new extended partitions anymore. Diskpart threw errors when I tried it on a USB flash drive.) I didn't realize it at the time but that must have been what enabled me to boot in UEFI with the internal HDD still attached. Still not quite sure why I couldn't recover from the failure in my third set of steps in the original post, though, so do I have some residual mistrust.

Not sure if this is a Win7-on-UEFI problem or a FW problem. Anyone out there booting Win7-x64 on UEFI with a drive with extended partitions? A Google search didn't turn up any complaints, so I should probably report it to ASUS.

Anyway, at least now I know what the problem is. Thanks for prompting me to take another shot at it.

Spanglenuts, if you have an old drive you're trying to reuse, you might want to do a legacy BIOS installation first and check the drive for an extended partition. (Disk Management outlines it in green.) If it has one, back up the logical drives, remove them and the partition, and create new primary partitions instead.

 

[Vitafresh]

Did you resolve your problem?

I have the same with my PC Asus P8H77-V, Intel i5-3550, HDD Seagate 3 TB when connect second drive with Windows XP and extended partition on it.

Is the only solution - removing of extended partitions on a second drive?

 

[compsciman21]

I am running an I7-3770k with an ASUS P8Z77-V board. I have enabled UEFI mode, my Active Killdisk will give me an boot option of UEFI and a boot option of Legacy. However my Windows 7 disc will only give me Legacy. Am I missing something? It is my understanding that Windows 7 can in fact be booted in UEFI and my motherboard is basically designed with UEFI in mind. The main reason I want to get this installed on my GPT drive is because I have a 3 TB seagate HDD and I would like to access the extra ~725GB's that a standard installation of Windows 7 would truncate.

 

[Vitafresh]

... Am I missing something? It is my understanding that Windows 7 can in fact be booted in UEFI and my motherboard is basically designed with UEFI in mind.

Yes, but it must be Windows 7 64-bit edition. If you have x64, then try other installation disk.

 

[buggers]

Goes to show you just how bad windows really is. They don't just add gpt support with windows update? You can't use MBR disks with Logical Partitions on ANY disk after installing in UEFI mode. and whats with not being able to partition USB thumb drives without windows freaking out? Sure you can use diskpart but you can't mount it without windows exploding.

You'd think the most expensive operating system would actually release useful updates, seeing as you have to download 200MB+ of nothing after a new install, and continually download useless garbage just to be "up to date."

Whats with having to reboot after you update or install darn near ANYTHING?

 

[wackman]

I know this is an old thread, but I had to post. I found the solution to this problem.

On my previous motherboard, an Asrock Extreme3 with an Athlon II, I was having this same problem. I thought it was just a buggy UEFI implementation on the board. I didn't think of trying to unplug my 2nd drive, I just knew that the install would seem to go fine, but I could never get it to boot once installed. I always got either 0xc0000225 or 0x000000c codes.

With my tax refund, I rebuilt my computer. I upgraded my SSD from a 64 GB Crucial to a 256 GB Samsung 840 Pro, and the processor is an i5 3570k. My 2nd drive is the same SATA 1.5 TB hard drive. But I had the same problem.

I finally found the post and tried to boot without plugging the 2nd drive in - success! But when I plugged it back in, no boot.

After a couple days of fighting with this, I solved it. The problem is that Windows 7 (I'm not sure about 8) does not like mixing GPT and MBR disks. If your boot drive is going to be GPT you must have your extra drive(s) GPT as well.

The solution: There is no easy way to convert the 2nd drive to GPT without data loss. I dual boot linux. Linux could still boot a GPT install while the 2nd drive is connected. Linux has a GPT-enabled partitioner called gdisk. Gdisk can convert MBR to GPT without touching the data.

All you have to do is run gdisk on the 2nd disk (the disk, not the partition) as in "gdisk /dev/sdb." Once it opens, it will list the disks (including removable disks) and whether it can tell if they're MBR or GPT, then it will have a warning box saying that it's going to convert to GPT and there's a potential of data loss. Of course, there always is potential if you're messing with partitions. If you don't want to risk it, press q to quit without doing anything.

Once you say yes, immediate press w to save it, then quit. Now you're done. That's it. Reboot and make sure you're booting the Windows Boot Manager (unless you have another EFI boot manager like grub working). Now, windows will boot without crashing and your other drive will be there. The only downside is that gdisk just assumes all partitions are windows partitions, so windows will show your non-windows partitions, but if you try to go into them, it will ask you to format them. You'll have to go back into Linux and change the partition types. I'm not sure if you can get away with that unless you format.

Thanks, Skullcraft. This was the only post I could find that helped me.