UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface) - Install Windows 7 with

How to Install Windows 7 Using the "Unified Extensible Firmware Interface" (UEFI)​

   Information

In addition to better interoperability, UEFI firmware provides several technical advantages:

• Compatibility with operating systems that support only BIOS
• Ability to boot from large disks
• CPU-independent architecture
• CPU-independent drivers
• Flexible pre-OS environment
• Modular design

Two of the most notable Windows features for UEFI systems are the following:

• Multicast deployment, which enables large scale network-based image deployment in manufacturing and enterprise settings.
• Fast boot and resume from hibernation, which improves user experience.

The rich UEFI interface provides ample room for innovation in the development of operating system features. Along with the other members of the Unified EFI Forum, Microsoft is investigating the following:

• Rootkit prevention
• Network authentication

-Microsoft Corporation

This method can also be used for the UEFI installation of Windows 8, Windows Server 2008 SP1, Windows Server 2008 R2, and Windows Vista SP1.

   Note

You will need to satisfy the following requirements in order to proceed:

• A Windows 7 compatible system
• A Windows 7 x64-bit installation media. 32-bit is not supported.
• A UEFI v2.0+ compliant PC. Check your chipset manufacturer/firmware documentation.
• A blank, partition-free, hard disk for installation.

   Warning

• Disabling UEFI will make the system unbootable as there is no MBR on the disks.
• You CANNOT make a sector-by-sector copy of GPT disks. The Disk and Partition GUIDs will no longer be unique. This must never happen. You can make a sector-by-sector copy of the contents of ESP or basic data partitions.
• Disable secure boot before installing Windows 7.

Here's How:

1. Do step 2 or 3 below depending on what installation Media you are using.

2. If using a Retail 64-bit Windows 7 Installation DVD A) Insert the DVD, restart the computer, and go to step 4 below.
3. If using a 64-bit Windows 7 Installation USB Flash Drive with UEFI A) If you have not already, you will need to create a Windows 7 installation bootable USB flash drive for UEFI from either a Windows 7 installation ISO or DVD.

B) Connect the USB, restart the computer, and go to step 4 below.
4. Press whatever key (ex: F11) it shows to boot to your motherboard's boot menu, and select to boot from the DVD or UEFI USB. (see screenshot below)
5. Do steps 3 to 7 in the tutorial link below. http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/1649-clean-install-windows-7-a.html
6. Delete all partitions/volumes on the disk # (ex: Disk 0) that you want to install Windows 7 as UEFI on until that disk # shows as unallocated space. (see screenshot below)
7. When you are finished, click/tap on New, Apply (for full size of disk), and OK. (see screenshot above)

8. You will notice that the disk has now been formatted as GPT with 3 partitions. Select the "Primary" partition 3, and click/tap on Next. (see screenshot below)
NOTE: You might receive a "Windows can't be installed on drive 0" warning, but as long as you can click on the Next button, you're fine.

   Note

The 3 partitions are:

• Partition 1 - System - The EFI System partition that contains the NTLDR, HAL, Boot.txt, and other files that are needed to boot the system, such as drivers.
• Partition 2 - MSR - The Microsoft Reserved (MSR) partition that reserves space on each disk drive for subsequent use by operating system software.
• Partition 3 - Primary - Where Windows is to be installed to.
  
  It is imperative that these 3 partitions remain in the exact order as they are

9. You can now finish doing the steps in either tutorial below.

• Pick up at step 9 here - http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/1649-clean-install-windows-7-a.html
• Same as picking up at step 9 above, but also pick up at step 2 in any of the OPTIONs here - http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/31402-clean-install-upgrade-windows-7-version.html

10. That's it. You have successfully installed Windows 7 on an UEFI system.

Related Tutorials

---

• How to Downgrade Windows 8 to Windows 7
• How to Create a Bootable UEFI USB Flash Drive for Installing Windows 7 and Windows 8
• http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/2432-usb-windows-7-installation-key-drive-create.html
• http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/1649-clean-install-windows-7-a.html
• How to Clean Install Windows on a MSATA (SSD) Drive
• http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/31402-clean-install-upgrade-windows-7-version.html
• http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/26193-convert-mbr-disk-gpt-disk.html
• How to Convert a GPT Disk to a MBR Disk
• How to Enable or Disable Secure Boot in UEFI
• How to Check if Windows is Booted in UEFI or Legacy BIOS Mode

External Links:

---

Windows and GPT FAQ
Unified Extensible Firmware Interface - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
UEFI and Windows

 

[ds1844]

Step 8... You might receive a "Windows can't be installed on drive 0" warning, but as long as you can click on the Next button, you're fine.

I am getting the error and unable to click the NEXT button.

 

[Drumming Pete]

If I partition my 120gb ssd and create 1 20gb partition for installing windows on it. Will setup still create the ESP/EFI partition needed for my machine (not talking about the MSR partition)?

 

[Brink]

Hello Pete,

Sorry, but no. To have all the UEFI partitions created, you'll need to clean install Windows on an unallocated disk instead.

 

[Drumming Pete]

My head is spinning. To be clear there can exist the following partitions. Not sure if WinRE will be created on a UEFI system for whatever reason.

WIN RE
EFI/ESP
MSR
System/OS
Factory Recovery

AFAIK. WinRe, MSR are not needed. Recovery is not needed for my system as well.

How to avoid the WinRE and MSR?

 

[ThrashZone]

Hi,
Why would a recovery partition be created that would only be created coming out of the box from said seller = asus/ dell/......

 

[Barman58]

If you use UEFI it will create a small, 128MB IIRC, partition at the root of the drive as this is needed for UEFI to work, Think of it as a type of MBR

If windows is installed onto a clean disk it will add the System Reserved partition, Size will depend on OS installed but Windows 7 defaults to 100MB

If you pre allocate your preferred partition scheme then Windows will install it's system files onto the partition you select for the Windows install as it always did. The potential issue here is that boot errors may bork the whole Install whereas the separate System Reserved partition is more robust and less likely to effect the actual windows install - this is of course your choice to make

The other partitions you mention are I think all either OEM recovery partitions or different naming conventions for parts of these and are imaged onto the disk by manufacturers, as stated above, I've seen up to four partitions involved in OEM recovery options on a single drive

 

[Drumming Pete]

Does one need to wipe the entire drive clean before installing with gpt/uefi?
Or can you clean the disk and partition it. If you wanted to clean install windows7 on a smaller partition?

 

[Barman58]

If you wish to install windows into an existing partition them this will be no problem, The parts of the system that are normally installed to their own small partitions, (hidden), will be placed at the root of the specified installation partition. Of course this is not as efficient or secure against possible future issues but it will work just fine - Just be aware that an issue with any of the parts of the system are capable of taking out the whole system, which is less likely with the preferred layout

 

[Wheelman]

I am having issues with my new build and Windows 7 Home Premium x64 Retail. I first installed as standard MBR but decided I wanted to used the new GPT UEFI method. So I deleted all the partitions, converted to GPT, booted the Windows installer via the UEFI selection and proceeded with installation. I verified it was installed via UEFI by checking I had the System, MSR, and Windows Partitions. I also checked some log that indicated that the detected boot environment was EFI.

Everything is running fine but I plan on dual booting to OSX later and discovered I need to have CSM disabled. I contacted EVGA and asked them for a UEFI compatible BIOS and they gladly obliged. I went into my bios and turned CSM off. The computer will POST and starts loading Windows. The animated logo will show and just prior to showing the desktop, it reboots.

The bios gives the following message: "The current BIOS setting do not fully support the Windows UEFI mode. The CSM (Compatibility Support Module) settings have been changed for better compatibility. For further adjustments, press <F1> to enter BIOS Setup. If No adjustment are needed, press <F2> to confirm the current settings and enter OS directly."

I thought oh Great, now I have to reinstall. So before I wiped the drive again, I unplugged my SSD and storage drive to try installation to the 180GB drive I intend to use for OSX later. I again turned CSM off and tried booting to the UEFI Windows DVD. It does the same thing, just prior to showing the installer, it reboots. I'm not sure what is wrong. Do I have a Bios setting wrong? I updated all the drivers directly from the manufacturer for Intel and Nvidia. I'm pretty sure Secure Boot is turned off, I have "Other OS" selected. It still says Secure boot is enabled but not Loaded but I guess that's normal for Asus Bios's? I also turned off Fast Boot because I thought it doesn't work with Windows 7, not sure.

My hardware:
Asus Gryphon Z97 running latest BIOS
Intel 4690K Slightly OC'd
EVGA Geforce 660 FTW ACX w/ UEFI Bios
LG BluRay Drive
Samsung Evo 850 SSD 250GB
HGST 7K1000 Travelstar 1TB
Hitachi 180GB

I experienced the exact same issue as you. I have Z97-A/USB3.1 board. Got the same message. Did you ever solve the problem? The only way I was able to install and run Windows 7 Home Premium was with CSM enabled. Windows 7 still installed as UEFI and boots with the UEFI into Windows 7 but I was hoping to disable CSM which I can't do.

 

[vtzsolt]

UEFI/GPT-based hard drive partitions

Recommended drive partition rules for UEFI/GPT-based hard drive partitions:

UEFI/GPT-based hard drive partitions | Microsoft Docs

 

[ihatecaptcha]

Step 3: But why do you not even mention burning the ISO to DVD, which seems to spare a lot of hassle..?

 

[Brink]

Hello ihatecaptcha,

The link in step 3 explains how to do that.

 

[Win7fuser]

???

I don't understand step 6.....at step 5 you install windows 7 and then step 6 is basically delete your windows 7 install completely and use a windows 8 disc to create your new partitions so they can start off with GPT partitions and then restart and then try to install windows 7 on those created partitions (which by the way won't work as I just tested it now as they refuse to install to a GPT formatted drive....) from a windows 8 install disc? .....except windows 7 doesn't support GPT as boot drive......so you would error out when you try to boot from UEFI on a more than 2TB GPT formatted drive....................

So doesn't step 6 basically moot step 5 and could just jump from step 4 to 6?

The answers to this question posted here almost came close except I was still unable to boot because it would give me an error(https://i.imgur.com/JwPd45J.jpg and the other method I tried wouldn't even let me into the recovery cmd: https://i.imgur.com/t7vauqt.jpg): boot - How to move an existing installation of Window 7 64bit to UEFI (from legacy) - Super User which means the only way to boot into a boot drive that's over 2TB in size is to upgrade to windows 8.1 or 10.........

 

[Brink]

Hello Win7fuser,

Step 5 is to only do step 3 to 7 in the linked clean install tutorial.

Step 6 is to pick up right after that. Basically what to do at step 7 in the clean install tutorial.

 

[Win7fuser]

Hello @Win7fuser,

Step 5 is to only do step 3 to 7 in the linked clean install tutorial.

Step 6 is to pick up right after that. Basically what to do at step 7 in the clean install tutorial.

Oh I see....

But windows 7 won't create GPT partitions by default if the drive is less than 2TB in size(and you can't even if it's over 2TB and intend to use it as your boot drive....), which means he'd have to have had booted from a windows 8 or 10 install disc to create those partitions for it....which is what the screenshot shows as it doesn't show the windows 7 varient but only windows 8 by the looks for it.....

And after that you will see it fails again since windows 7 will refuse to install on a GPT partition.....this link might be useful: Installing Windows 7 in native EFI mode from USB - bit-tech.net Forums says it's *supposedly* possible - it might be I lack the last requirement being no UEFI firmware 2.0 since this is on a Gigabyte laptop which will obviously use Gigabyte motherboard......which might be why I cannot pass this test.....

 

[Brink]

Yeah, it will depend on if the Windows 7 installation USB was created to support UEFI or not, and if the motherboard supports UEFI.

UEFI Bootable USB Flash Drive - Create in Windows | Windows 8 Help Forums

 

[Win7fuser]

Yeah, it will depend on if the Windows 7 installation USB was created to support UEFI or not, and if the motherboard supports UEFI.

UEFI Bootable USB Flash Drive - Create in Windows | Windows 8 Help Forums

Oh....you can force windows 7 to install on a UEFI platform? Is there a way to do with with a DVD instead of a USB since I'm more accustomed to installing via CD/DVD medias?

Because last time it would freeze at loading before getting to the setup screen...when I booted into UEFI....my laptop is a P35xV3 if it helps....

 

[Brink]

Usually, you will need a USB to install with UEFI.

 

[Win7fuser]

Usually, you will need a USB to install with UEFI.

so not possible with disc?

 

[Brink]

Not impossible, but just easier and faster with USB.