Make sure the Win7 on GPT remains set first to boot in BIOS setup during boot with Disk3 attached.
If so then move the data off first then wipe DISK3 with Diskpart Clean Command to remove any boot code that may be interfering.
Copy & Paste - in Windows Recovery Console
Diskpart Clean Command
That is a good catch about the logical partition. I would not of thought about that, but I suppose some more testing might be in order.
But the EFI Shell concept interests me. ASUS boards will not normally install a EFI shell, and probably rightly so. But you can load one and access it from the bios. It appears your system actually lists the EFI shell as one of the boot options?
I have never tried playing with it and have just been able to change directories, but I now know what your mean by blk8, since I used the map command.
Where is your shellx64.efi file located, in the EFI partition?
Edit: I just confirmed your findings. With the MBR configured drive and logical partitions on it, the system immediately went into a Recovery environment and ended up with a Grub Rescue shell.
Last edited by Saltgrass; 17 Aug 2012 at 13:42.
Thank you for the tips so far. I was hoping that I could keep my partitions on HD#3 intact, but this does not seem to be possible.
So, I simply used the trick to replace the disk identifier with zeroes, boot Windows 7 once and copied everything I that needed copying before repartitioning HD#3.
I don't even know about changing the Disk Identifier, but would have probably converted some of the logical to primary, after moving stuff around. If that would have even been possible.
I just tried the same thing in Ubuntu, and it seems to boot OK even with the logical partitions.
I stumbled upon these two articles:
"Boot failed" error when you start a UEFI-enabled computer from a 64-bit version of Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2 installation DVD (Package 1)
"Boot failed" error message when you start a UEFI-enabled computer from the installation DVD of a 64-bit version of Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2 (Package 2)
Apparently, Windows 7-64bit and Windows Server 2008-64bit have problems with recognizing extended partitions. The boot manager thinks the extended partition is an UEFI partition and thus, the boot process fails.
I haven't tried the proposed hotfixes as they have to be applied to the installation media.
Well, I suppose the subject has come up before, but the condition on the link does not happen on my system. But it does seem to appear it is a Windows situation...
I went through an install with the offending drive connected. It worked fine until the first reboot, then the install failed...Perhaps some fixes have already been applied to updated systems.
I see a problem like this being very hard to diagnose, since how many posters would offer info about extended or logical partitions on secondary drives.
But at least we now know some of the symptoms, thanks to you. :)
Edit: I just tried the same thing in Windows 8. It went into a reboot loop and even after removing the drive, I had to go into the bios and reset the boot device and restart.
Edit 2: Just tested, and even if the errant drive is placed in an External Drive, it messes up the boot. In my case, a USB external enclosure.
Last edited by Saltgrass; 19 Aug 2012 at 17:11. Reason: Additional Info
I have been thinking about this situation. On my systems, I can plug an offensive drive in after the system is booted. Either by using an external drive, or in my case, an HDD dock.
But if you want to maintain the same number of partitions you had on the old drive, just convert it to GPT (which will normally wipe it) and then add all the partitions you want.
Do I understand that I need to convert all partitions on all my discs to GPT and with all partitions being Primary?
You shouldn't need to have any but the OS HD as GPT.
But if another HD is interfering then I'd wipe it with Diskpart Clean Command as often stray boot code can interfere. Be sure to back up the data as this will wipe the HD.
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