Dual Boot screen doesn't appear

[pedrotairum]

Hello there,

I own a laptop that came with Windows 7 instaled.
I bought a new license of Windows 8 and installed on a diferent partition of this laptop so I could dual boot and devolop windows 8 store apps. But I'm having a problem, which is, the dual boot screen does not appear and the computer automaticly loads the first partition with Windows 7. When I'm on Windows 7 I can see on 'My Computer' that the windows 8 was well installed and all the files are there but I just can't seem to load it.

Thank you very much for your help!

 

[DavidE]

You should post a screen shot of your Disk Management.
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/274797-disk-management-post-screen-capture-image.html

I don't have Win 8, but it looks like your Win 8 installation only uses ~ 8 GB of space on D.
To me that seems low, based on my experience of Win 7 Installations and how much space they use...
Maybe someone here knows how much space is used for a "normal successful" Win 8 install.

 

[Brink]

Hello Pedrotairum,

In addition, please post a screenshot of what you have set at step 9 in Option One of the tutorial below.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/2285-operating-system-start-change-display-list-time.html

 

[pedrotairum]

Hey David, here you go:

Aside from my HDD, this UltraBook has a SSD so it turns on quickly on it's hibernated. It's pretty clear in the screenshot.

I understand what you say about 8GB looking a bit less than what Windows 8 needed but I installed it and it reported no error

Thanks one more time!

 

[pedrotairum]

Brink,

Here:

Thanks again!

 

[DavidE]

To me it looks like you had the HD and the SSD connected when you installed Win 8.
You should only have 1 HD or SSD connected when installing Windows, the device Windows will be installed on.

What you can try is using the "One time boot option" to see if you can boot Win 8.
You need to tap a key when booting the PC to display the "One time boot option" screen so you can try and choose to boot from the SSD.
You need to find out what key is used for your "One time boot option".
It should be in your documentation, and/or displayed in the startup screens when starting the PC.
It would probably show something like "Boot Menu" and show what key to use.
That way you could test if Win 8 is installed and working correctly.

You'll need advice from an installation expert how to best fix your dual boot situation, or use the One time boot option if that works.

 

[pedrotairum]

Yes I had the two connected just because I can't take them off because computer is still covered by warranty and I can't unplug the drivers, the HDD or the SSD.

So what you say is that you want me to try to boot from the SSD? That's odd because when installing windows 8 it asked where do I wanted to install it and I choose the D: drive, but i'll try.

I'll give some news in a sec

 

[pedrotairum]

Can't boot from SSD. I have no option available in the Boot options from the BIOS :\

 

[DavidE]

That's a bummer.
Just have to wait till an installation expert sees this thread and can give you the best way fix the dual boot.

 

[pedrotairum]

Bummer!
Thanks for your help though I appreciate

EDIT: Do you think I should post this thread to the Windows 8 forums or the people that read both forums are the same?

 

[DavidE]

Hello pedrotairum,

I noticed the edit to your last post.
Yes, I think posting in the Windows 8 forum is a great idea.
Your issue is with Win 8 and you might get help there from someone that has experience with this.

It seems odd to me that you can't select the SSD as the boot device.
If you post back with the Make and Model of your laptop I'll see if I can find anything about this.
It would be best if you update your SF system specs and this tutorial can help with that:
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/180324-system-info-see-your-system-specs.html
Also, are you using the older type BIOS setup, or the newer UEFI?
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorial...e-firmware-interface-install-windows-7-a.html

Another thing you can consider is using a 3rd party Boot Manager so you could add Win 8 to a Boot selection window.
EasyBCD (free) is highly recommended here from what I have read.
https://neosmart.net/EasyBCD/
I've never used it as the Windows Boot Manager and One Time Boot Option have always worked for me, so I never needed it.
Those two options don't seem to work for you...

I ALWAYS make System Backup Images and data backups before attempting changes such as this.

I'm not an installation expert, but I do lurk here to learn.
So, accept my advice with a GRAIN of salt.
It seems many problems have something a little different that may be important to fix the issue.
In your case you can not remove the HD or SSD because of warranty considerations.
I don't know how that will play out with this and how it will affect using Windows Repair if that's needed to fix your dual boot...

I'll quit rambling on now

 

[gregrocker]

You said you completed the Windows 8 installation to it's desktop which was functional? Then when you rebooted it started into Win7? Did you follow the steps to Clean Install - Windows 8 ? Are you using UEFI or MBR BIOS for installation?

The reason I ask is because it doesn't seem you have a Windows 8 installation judging from the size of your Eight partition or in the dropdown where it should appear to choose default OS.

So what I would do is boot the Win8 installer to again Clean Install - Windows 8,
deleting and recreating the partition for its install.

It also appears the 24gb SSD drive is not being used, since it is normally in a RAID configuration to provide paging file for faster HD performance. Did you turn off Intel Rapid Storage Technology in BIOS or elsewhere, or do you have some other type of caching technology? How to Set Up Intel Smart Response SSD Caching Technology | PCWorld

 

[pedrotairum]

Hey Greg, thank for your answer.
I'm not around my computer at the moment, and since you posted a lot of information I'll try to do all of that today when I'm around it.
I'll give some news in some hours.

Thanks again for your time

 

[gregrocker]

We have a house expert on those caching SSD's so I'll ask him to take a look and contribute if he can.

 

[pedrotairum]

Great! Thanks!

I still couldn't manage to do what you told me to, but I'll do that this afternoon (Portuguese time).

EDIT: If after all this I'm still not able to make all of this work, I'll re-take all the steps and clean installed it one more time but this time I'll film it so you can see.

 

[pedrotairum]

So Greg, let me try and answer all your questions.
I did everything that they told me to do in the 'Clean Windows 8 Install'. I shrinked my volume on Windows 7, and I set a new partition with 100000MB which is around 97GB. Then, I created a bootable USB drive to install windows 8.
I launched it and then followed the wizard and chose my language and time settings.
After that I chose 'Custom Installation' and to my new partition (Which is correct for sure because it's the only one with 97GB on this computer) I chose format.
After the loading was done (I guess the format was complete) I selected again and clicked 'next' and the wizard took me to the next screen which is the installation window.

On that window I could see the progress because I could see the percentage of the instalation incrementing on each 'topic'. When it got to the third 'topic' (Installing Features) it reached 100% oddly fast! But reported no error.
After that all the bullets showed 100% and a little progress bar appeared and said the computer would restart in 15 seconds.
The progress bar concluded after the 15 seconds and the computer restarted to the point where I am right now, no dual boot screen.

About the UEFI or MBR BIOS, I don't know what you mean sorry. Can you please explain?
About the SSD I don't really know, what I know is that it's not supposed to be accessible (that's what the Samsung guy told me) and it only works to put your applications there during hibernation so it wakes up faster when it's time to.

If it helps, my laptop is a Samsung Ultrabook 5 Series - model: NP530U3C.

As soon as I get home I'll try to create a new partition via the windows 8 installer rather then on Disk Management of Windows 7.

 

[pedrotairum]

The video is still processing. It will finish in around one hour.
But this is what's happening!

Thanks

 

[Anak]

What I would like to know is if, you really have Win8 installed properly.

Pedrotairum, when you restart you Ultra do you see the Windows Boot Manager screen appear. As in the first screen shot in this tutorial in step #2 under Here's How?

There are two more areas I'd like you to check, this may seem laborious, but it will help.

Go to: Boot Information and post a screenshot of the Boot Tab as described in Here's How step #4

Then using an Elevated CMD prompt type in bcdedit , you will have to use the print screen key on your Ultra, paste that into an image editor and post that screen shot.
If you can it would help if you cropped some of it, we only need to see the information that is listed otherwise it will ruin your thread visually by expanding it horizontally.


I have to go out for a while, I'll try to get back by 10pm EST.


EDIT:

Your video is unavailable to me.

 

[gregrocker]

The problem with the video is that you didn't let it reboot on its own without interference. Have you done this at least once yet?

It looks like you also had the USB stick set first to boot in BIOS setup. This is why I suggested much earlier that you set the HDD to boot first, then trigger the USB stick from the one-time BIOS Boot Menu key at boot.

 

[pedrotairum]

Anak, I don't see the dual boot screen. It automatically boots windows 7.
As soon as I get home I'll do what you've asked, the print of the boot dialog and the CMD command. That could be around 5:30pm GMT.
Anyway, the video should be available now.

Greg, I tried both. Rebooting by itself or pressing the restart now button as well. Both restart the computer and makes no difference in the end result.
About the boot device, I can't find the 'one-time BIOS Boot Menu key'. I already tried all the F-keys and nothing. F2 opens Bios, F4 opens recovery and F8 opens Windows list of modes. That's the reason I have to change the boot priority in the BIOS so USB can boot first.

David, I never answered you I'm sorry. I tried the boot manager that you suggested but with no luck. When I try to boot from that drive using the configuration provided by the software (I just need to say which OS is and where it's located that the boot manager does the rest) it fails to load. So, no luck there either.