Solved Unable to install W7 Ultimate SP1 to a blank SSD using GPT

[hellsbells]

I'm doing a fresh install on a newly-assembled PC. It has an SSD (~220GB) and a magnetic HDD (1TB). Ultimately I plan to dual-boot with Fedora Linux, so I want to partition for Windows to not use the whole disks.

The first time I did this installation, I didn't pay attention to whether Windows 7 used MBR or GPT partitioning, and I've since learned that it has to use GPT partitioning if I want it to use UEFI. It seems like I want to use UEFI (that's new to me), so I'm trying to re-install, this time using GPT.

I've followed the "How to Install Windows 7 Using [UEFI]" tutorial, but something's going wrong for me. Step 8 says, "You will notice that the disk has now been formatted as GPT with 3 partitions." But that's exactly what I don't notice.

Because I had already installed using GPT, I've used 'diskpart' to convert both of the previously-partitioned hard drives to GPT. When I'm on the screen shown in step 6, I go off with Shift-F10 and use 'diskpart'. Long story short, before returning to installation, 'list disk' shows me '*' in the 'Gpt' column for both disks. It looks like they're GPT. If I come back to 'diskpart' immediately, they still look 'Gpt'.

Now if I click 'New' and create the partition I want for Windows (140GB of the 220GB available), I get 'To ensure that all Windows features work correctly, Windows might create additional partitions for system files", then it shows me two partitions: "Partition 1: System Reserved" (100MB) and "Partition 2" (140GB). If I now go back to diskpart and look at 'list disk', it shows this disk as no longer 'Gpt'.

I have noticed two gotchas on this subject, so let me address explicitly them right-off:
1. From the UEFI BIOS, I did choose the UEFI boot option for the installation DVD.
2. I am using a 64-bit installation DVD. Or at least, I am sure that the filename that I burned indicated it was such, so I feel about 95% on this. Not sure how I can confirm this besides re-installing and looking inside of Windows.

As a workaround, perhaps I should try installing Fedora first... Then I wouldn't have to ask Windows to create the partitions from scratch.

 

[ignatzatsonic]

I think GPT disks also contain two hidden partitions called the ESP (EFI System Partition) and the MSR (Microsoft reserved) and they must be placed in this order and before the primary partitions.

Just curious: why are you going with UEFI?

 

[gregrocker]

What are the UEFI, CSM, Legacy BIOS and Legacy Boot or any other related settings in BIOS setup? Taking camera snaps of them with the settings choices expanded would be helpful - attach using paper clip in reply box.

You 'd want UEFI, CSM enabled, No Legacy BIOS, and booting the device as UEFI to install to UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface) - Install Windows 7 with - Windows 7 Forums.

You should only need to delete the partitions and if the BIOS settings are correct it will create GPT partitioning for you. So the BIOS settings are likely wrong and it is trying to install as an MBR disk.

We see nothing but problems with UEFI here which are all resolved by deciding to Bypass UEFI to Install WIn7

 

[hellsbells]

Thanks for the swift reply. I poked around in my BIOS and didn't see anything about legacy BIOS or CSM. I attached a couple of screen shots anyway, so you could roughly see what I've got to choose from- I only took screen shots of 'Boot' and 'Advanced'.

I don't have a knock-down reason to use UEFI, really. Supposedly it could help it to boot faster, which is something tangible that's important to me. Otherwise, I just wanted to be using up-to-date technology and not falling back on ancient stuff.

I'll reflect on whether to push forward with this UEFI attempt. It sounds like your recommendations would be not to.

 

[hellsbells]

Classic. Having posted my screenshots, I returned to poke around a bit more... and found the CSM option. I had to disable the "Fast Boot" option which you can see in the 'Boot' screen shot. I'll go play around and report progress back, but wanted to update this real quick.

 

[hellsbells]

That worked! The CSM sub-options were automatically adjusted when I tried to proceed with installation, and the GPT partitioning worked as expected. The installation seems to have succeeded.

Thanks!

 

[gregrocker]

Thanks for reporting back. The Fast Boot setting was not obvious that it was hiding CSM so you did good to detect that.


We get no good reports on UEFI here, though I watch for them. We see only problems, and no one bragging about faster boot. I get a 5 second boot on MBR with an SSD with Core i5. An SSD is the best upgrade we see here.