Solved Is Windows 7 x64 UEFI install even possible?

[Engert]

Hi everyone,
i joined this forum because i found a lot of interesting information here regarding Windows installations and unattended setups.
I've been in I.T. for 15 years installing windows since 3.1
We now are a a crucial step in Microsoft Windows life where all the computers with USB3.0 support, UEFI only and no legacy BIOS support are not compatible with Windows anymore.
When you try to boot off a USB you get:
\EFI\Micosoft\Boot\BCD error with a status of 0xc000000d
The latest hack i tried from a USB was to get all the Windows 10 setup files but replace the install.wim with the Windows 7 one.
When you do this, the install works and the windows setup files are laid down on the hard drive but after reboot you get the same error.
BCDEDIT doesn't help so the only thing i can think of is to mess around with the OSCDIMG.exe options to create a purely efi .ISO and see if that works.

Just wondering, has anyone here ever gotten this to work?
By the way, the unmodified Windows 7 Microsoft ISO boots up fine in a system where UEFI is on and secure boot is off, but from USB you get that error, which leads me to believe the OSCDIMG might be the key.
Anyway i wanted to get your thoughts and if i get something working i'll post a guide here because this site is useful and might help other people in the future.

Thanks.

 

[ignatzatsonic]

I re-built a couple of months ago and did a UEFI install of Window 7 Home Premium 64 bit.

Used an AsRock Z170 motherboard and an Intel 6600K.

It was more painful than earlier installs, but I got it done. I used a Windows 7 ISO that I made from a slipstreamed Windows 7 DVD installer that I made a few years ago.

I failed when I tried to install using an official Microsoft Win 7 ISO that I had just downloaded and put on a bootable USB stick. I got a failure midway through the "Windows is expanding files" portion.

I have no idea why the official ISO resulted in that error, when the ISO I made from a burned DVD did not.

Most of the motherboard manufacturer's have a USB 3.0 patch or workaround of some kind to get you past the lack of support for USB 2.0 Enhanced Host Controller (EHCI) mode with the Skylake motherboards.

AsRock has a "PS/2 simulator" that you can enable for the install and later disable.

 

[Engert]

Hey ignatzatsonic,

what i'm trying to do is install Windows 7 in purely UEFI mode on systems where the legacy option rom is not even available.
If you do an install on systems where legacy rom option is enabled, then the installer works and it even creates a GPT disk with 3 partitions (like it should).

But i cannot get this to work on UEFI mode on, Secure boot off, on systems where USB2.0 is not available and legacy option roms are not available. So we're talking very new systems and i'm not sure if it's even doable.

Also, when i use the original microsoft disk, i can boot in UEFI but my modified files are not bootable after i create an iso using OSCDIMG, which then i burn into a USB flash drive. So this leads me to believe that the way i have created the iso, is not working in UEFI boot.

I have followed this article here: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/947024 but still haven't had luck with the ISO

 

[Engert]

The latest on this for today is that if i burn the unmodified Windows 7 Microsoft ISO onto a DVD then i don't get the \EFI\Micosoft\Boot\BCD 0xc000000d error but if i burn the same ISO onto a flash drive with rufus, then i do get the error.
So this issue may not have to do with OSCDIMG but with rufus and the way it formats the flash drive.
I'll test on this tomorrow by using Microsoft's tools (Diskpart) to prepare the flash drive instead of Rufus.

 

[ignatzatsonic]

When you used Rufus, did you set it to create for UEFI BIOS/GPT, rather than legacy?

The install process is testy and finicky--I was at my wit's end before I finally succeeded.

I can't recall what setting I used within the motherboard's UEFI for legacy. I think the default is enabled.

 

[Engert]

Yes of course, I used Rufus in GPT mode only where it creates a FAT32 partition and you also need to split the install.wim by the way if its larger than 4gb.
So the issue may be specific to Windows 7 and Rufus because when I burn a Windows 10 ISO with Rufus, I don't have this problem.

 

[Osprey]

The problem is that Windows 7 calls BIOS INT10 even when it's booting from UEFI, no matter what video mode the system supports. Windows 7 works at UEFI mode as long there is INT10 support in the firmware.

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh824898.aspx?f=255&MSPPError=-2147217396

Windows 7

◦ Support UEFI 2.0 or later on 64-bit systems. They also support BIOS-based PCs, and UEFI-based PCs running in legacy BIOS-compatibility mode.

◦ Support on Class 2 systems running in legacy BIOS-compatibility mode by using a CSM, so they can use the legacy BIOS INT10 features.

◦ Are not supported on Class 3 systems, because these operating systems assume the presence of legacy BIOS INT10 support in the firmware, which is not available in a Class-3 UEFI implementation.

 

[Megahertz07]

I've made a tutorial on how to install Win 7 on new MB.
http://www.sevenforums.com/installa...sb-flash-installation-new-drives-new-mbs.html

 

[Engert]

The problem is that Windows 7 calls BIOS INT10 even when it's booting from UEFI, no matter what video mode the system supports. Windows 7 works at UEFI mode as long there is INT10 support in the firmware.

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh824898.aspx?f=255&MSPPError=-2147217396

Windows 7

◦ Support UEFI 2.0 or later on 64-bit systems. They also support BIOS-based PCs, and UEFI-based PCs running in legacy BIOS-compatibility mode.

◦ Support on Class 2 systems running in legacy BIOS-compatibility mode by using a CSM, so they can use the legacy BIOS INT10 features.

◦ Are not supported on Class 3 systems, because these operating systems assume the presence of legacy BIOS INT10 support in the firmware, which is not available in a Class-3 UEFI implementation.

That is VERY interesting. Thank you. But how do you explain the situation where it works from DVD but not from USB?

 

[Engert]

I've made a tutorial on how to install Win 7 on new MB.
http://www.sevenforums.com/installa...sb-flash-installation-new-drives-new-mbs.html

I'll take a look at your tutorial. Thanks!

 

[Engert]

I've made a tutorial on how to install Win 7 on new MB.
http://www.sevenforums.com/installa...sb-flash-installation-new-drives-new-mbs.html

Okay, your tutorial is great and I understand the issue with most people is when they try to install Windows 7, their keyboard and mouse is either frozen or the hard drive is not visible and that's because drivers need to be injected.
My issue is at the initial boot phase. Because I have done everything that you have nicely laid out in that tutorial but I cannot boot from flash drive.
The error that I get is \EFI\Micosoft\Boot\BCD 0xc000000d.

 

[Engert]

Osprey brought up an interesting point where he mentioned that Windows required INT10 and if the motherboard doesn't have that, it's not going to work.
But the question now is, why does it work from a DVD but not Flash Drive? On a motherboard where INT10 is not present.

 

[Engert]

By the way, using diskpart to prepare a flash drive did not help so rufus may not be the issue.
Since the original Microsoft disc works, now i'm preparing my 8GB iso for a dual layer dvd. We'll see if it works.

@ECHO OFF
title Creating Windows 7 x64 ISO Image ....

ECHO.
ECHo Creating Windows 7 x64 EFI ISO image. Please wait ...
SET bootL=C:\Win7WorkBench\DVD\efi\microsoft\boot\efisys.bin
SET bootC=C:\Win7WorkBench\DVD\boot\etfsboot.com
SET VDVD=C:\Win7WorkBench\DVD
SET VISO=C:\Win7WorkBench\ISO
SET PETOOLS=%Programfiles(x86)%\Windows Kits\10\Assessment and Deployment Kit\Deployment Tools\amd64\Oscdimg

START "Creating ISO. . ." /WAIT "%PETools%"\oscdimg -h -m -o -u2 -udfver102 -bootdata:2#p0,e,b%bootC%#pEF,e,b%bootL% -lWin7Universal %VDVD% %VISO%\Win7x64_Universal_EFI.iso
ECHO.
ECHO Windows 7 x64 EFI ISO Image is created successfully.
ECHO.
PAUSE
EXIT

 

[Engert]

Unbelievable! It works from a DVD.
I'm gonna dig a little further to understand WHY and if a USB install is even possible.

 

[ignatzatsonic]

Unbelievable! It works from a DVD.
I'm gonna dig a little further to understand WHY and if a USB install is even possible.

I'm wondering if the "why" is related to why I failed using a flash drive Rufus-made installer from an official ISO but succeeded using a Rufus-made flash drive installer made from a burned DVD installer's ISO?

 

[Engert]

Unbelievable! It works from a DVD.
I'm gonna dig a little further to understand WHY and if a USB install is even possible.

I'm wondering if the "why" is related to why I failed using a flash drive Rufus-made installer from an official ISO but succeeded using a Rufus-made flash drive installer made from a burned DVD installer's ISO?

The first guess that comes to mind here is that the Windows 7 UEFI installation files (USB only) do not have the mechanism to handle motherboards where INT10 is not present.
So the next test is going to be : USE Windows 8.1 setup files with a Windows 7 wim and see IF that works from a Flash Drive.

 

[Engert]

Doesn't look like it's doable and it all goes back to the INT10 and VGA.sys.
I'm poking around into loading HIVES from the WIM files and delete VGA.sys services which don't work on UEFI motherboards.

 

[Engert]

I think it's pretty clear to me at this point that we have to say Goodbye to Windows 7 on new UEFI hardware with no BIOS emulation since Windows 7 is not fully UEFI compliant.

 

[Engert]

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/2828074

 

[Megahertz07]

To create a UEFI boot able flash drive:
Rufus or do it yourself: UEFI Bootable USB Flash Drive - Create in Windows
Microsoft: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/windows-usb-dvd-download-tool