UEFI boot options on GA-H77M-D3H w/Intel 520 SSD

[wpcoe]

I'm preparing to upgrade my desktop computer (in sig) from Win7 to Win8.

When I check BIOS and/or Boot Menu the only drive that shows a UEFI option is my HDD (1GB Western Digital WD10EARS-00M). I can choose it for either UEFI or non-UEFI boot.

Neither of the SSDs show a UEFI option. The old Kingston SSD, I'm not surprised, but why doesn't the 120GB Intel 520 SSD -- which is my boot drive -- show a UEFI option?

The Intel SSD is plugged into a SATA3 (6Gbps) port and the HDD is plugged inot a SATA2 (3Gbps) port, if that's relevant?

 

[bankster55]

Is the SSD now MBR or before at any time ?
If so you will have to secure erase with Intel SSD toolbox
With a fresh canvas you can make it either way - for a BOOTING drive with Win 7 X64 only.

One does not make an UEFI GPT/MSDOS MBR drive selection AFTER install of Win 7

 

[wpcoe]

If I secure erase the SSD, will the Win8 (x64) installation process detect the motherboard type and make the drive UEFI by default? If not, when/where do I specify it in the installation process?

Why does my HDD give the option of UEFI boot if I never formatted it for such? That's what confuses me most, I guess.

 

[gpse]

when you install windows 8, put it on a USB stick (use the windows 8 download\install program to create the USB stick).
when you reboot, hit F12 or F10 to enter the boot menu, select the USB stick it should say:
USB
UEFI: USB
select UEFI USB and install windows 8 that way.

 

[bankster55]

The motherboard has no type
The UEFI bios is hybrid it can go either way
MSDOS MBR (legacy) - UEFI GPT
They basically left legacy in for XP which still has wide usage
www.UEFI.org says they will keep legacy for 14 more years

It is YOU who determines what mode Win 7 (or Win 8) will ultimately install in, Its your call
It depends on what mode YOU pick during boot
You can have a 3TB HDD DATA drive that is just made GPT by say, right clicking drive in diskmanager and "convert GPT"
It will then notify you that all data/partitions will be erased. Converting from one to other requires a clean slate. You may then see full 3TB DATA from booting X64 non GPT drive
Booting and DATA GPT are two dif things entirely

I dont know whats going on with your HDD or Gigabyte bios, I only build ASUS mobo. But if you secure erase the SSD and boot to an X64 Win 7 disk you will have UEFI mode choice somewhere.

 

[gpse]

that mobo has native UEFI, it's not like the "older" Gigabyte boards with the hybrid UEFI, using my method (boot menu, select UEFI:USB) will install windows 8 in UEFI.

 

[bankster55]

That is not correct
There is no such thing as "native" UEFI
ALL UEFI is dual mode since Jan 2011 (Intro of Sandy Bridge)
The original was (Intel only) EFI (2005)
It has to be dual mode or you couldnt make an MBR HDD

The later ASUS bios which have the CSM option gives you complete control of both BIOS and UEFI devices and booting options
In other words, Win 8 friendly.

http://i50.tinypic.com/2zsv591.jpg
http://i45.tinypic.com/1087p4y.jpg

There also seems to be a prob with the MS ISO's
http://vip.asus.com/forum/view.aspx...id=1&model=P8Z68-V+PRO&page=1&SLanguage=en-us

Actually, I have better things to do then debate word interpretations with you back and forth

 

[wpcoe]

when you install windows 8, put it on a USB stick (use the windows 8 download\install program to create the USB stick).
when you reboot, hit F12 or F10 to enter the boot menu, select the USB stick it should say:
USB
UEFI: USB
select UEFI USB and install windows 8 that way.

Thank you. That's exactly what I need to know.

I already have a Win8 Pro bootable installation USB drive that was created when I downloaded the upgrade version from Microsoft for my notebook. I just need to select "UEFI:USB" when I boot from it.

 

[gpse]

Thank you. That's exactly what I need to know.

I already have a Win8 Pro bootable installation USB drive that was created when I downloaded the upgrade version from Microsoft for my notebook. I just need to select "UEFI:USB" when I boot from it.

that is correct, just select UEFI:USB and you're good to go!
glad I could help.

 

[wpcoe]

If it were only that easy. <sigh...>

I won't run through the entire obstacle course I've run so far, but after several secure erases (finding how to do that was educational since obviously you can't run the Intel Tolbox on your system drive, and the Intel Toolbox on my notebook didn't recognize the Intel 520 running off of a USB port on a USB/SATA adapter), I can't get Windows 8 to install on the Intel 520 in UEFI.

The two times that the Win8 installation seemed to work smoothly, after removing the Win8 USB drive to let the computer boot on the SSD, it sets off into an endless boot loop.

Here's what I selected as my boot device when I had a Win8 installation USB drive plugged in:

During installation of Win8 from the USB drive, it prompts to remove the USB drive and reboot the computer. That's when endless boot loops start: beep, BIOS logo appears briefly, beep, BIOS logo, etc

If I interrupt the boot loop and display the boot menu it doesn't display the Intel 520 SSD as UEFI:

Any ideas? I've secure erased the Intel SSD three times via Parted Magic and can't seem to get this to work.

 

[wpcoe]

Okay, after a whole day of tinkering with this, I don't think it is possible to configure:

a UEFI Secure Boot of
Windows 8 on an
Intel 520 SSD on a
Gigabyte H77M-D3H motherboard.

I challenge (and would welcome!) ANYBODY to prove me wrong.

I have secure erased the SSD at least a dozen times and attempted as many things as I could think of and/or read on pages from Google searches.

I even downloaded a full Windows 8 Pro installation .ISO from MyDigitalLife, and manually formatted a USB thumb drive to GPT using these instructions. Booting with that setup only results in a blue screen error code 0xc0000225.

Using a different USB thumb drive which was formatted using the Microsoft online tools makes it through the installation process, but then the computer lapses into the boot loop. Trying to reinstall Windows on top of that set up gives error: "Windows cannot be installed to this disk. The selected disk has an MBR partition table. On EFI systems, Windows can only be installed to GPT disks." Mind you that disk with the MBR partition table was formatted by the same USB stick just minutes earlier.

No place in UEFI/BIOS do I see any option to enable/disable Secure Boot, so I wonder: does the Gigabyte H77 even support Secure Boot?

Under BIOS features I have:

CSM Support set to "Always",
Boot Mode Selection set to "UEFI and Legacy,"
PXE Boot Option Control set to "UEFI First,"
Storage Boot Option Control set to "UEFI First," and
Display Boot Option Control set to "UEFI First,"

even though I haven't a clear understanding what any of them really do.

 

[gpse]

is there an option for legacy boot in the BIOS? like can you enable\disable it?
I know on my Intel DZ77BH-55K I have to leave legacy boot enabled in order to boot, although it does boot windows 8 using UEFI.

 

[wpcoe]

I found that the endless boot loop can be induced by having MBR (i.e. non-GPT) drives attached. I was able to move files off of the 2nd SSD, format it in GPT, move the files back on, and now can EFI boot with both SSDs attached.

The HDD is more of a challenge. I have backups and other large partitions on that drive and nothing big enough to move them on to to convert it to GPT. I've also heard backup/image files are "fragile" and that moving them can render them useless.

Since the Gigabyte H77 UEFI motherboard does not (apparently?) support Secure Boot, I find myself questioning why bother with EFI boot and GPT drives.

 

[gpse]

what video card do you have?
I cannot use secure boot because I have a GTX 560ti, the video card bios doesn't support UEFI, so it wont boot.
However, if I use the onboard Intel Graphics (Core i7 2600k) I can use secure boot without issue.

 

[wpcoe]

I don't have a discrete graphics card, just the onboard Intel i3-3225's HD4000 IGP.

How can you tell if you've booted using Secure Boot? I'm only assuming I am NOT booting with Secure Boot because I don't see any reference to it in the UEFI ("BIOS") screens and therefore assuming the motherboard doesn't support it.

 

[gpse]

Control Panel -> Admin Tools -> System Info
in there you will see something mention SecureBoot=Yes

 

[wpcoe]

Thanks for the directions.

System Information says: "Secure Boot State ... Unsupported."

So, I have an EFI boot to a GPT drive, but no Secure Boot. Darn.