Solved Win 7 UEFI installation on new SSD .

[Ranger4]

I wish reinstall Win 7 on my new unused Samsung 840 Pro 256gb SSD. I have a new OEM SP1 Home Premium 64 bit installation disc that has never been used.
I thought this would be a good opportunity to set it up in the UEFI mode, however I am not sure how to make sure it will use the UEFI loading.
My specs are up to date so you can see I have a very recent motherboard & CPU. I believe I will need to set the BIOS settings to UEFI in all cases where necessary & to set AHCI as well before installation. Is there anything else that I should be aware of.
I will rely on the installation to set up the partitions as needed as I don't want any special partitions.
Is there anything I need to do to the SSD before hand. Samsung provide a DVD that has cloning software on it which I would not be using, but I would use the SSD maintenance program that is also on the DVD. I assume I would run that after OS installation.
Any suggestions or warnings are most welcome, to make this as easy as possible.

 

[Prof Kerfuffle]

Hi there.

Yes there are a few extra procedures to running on UEFI.

What is the specific reason on why you want to boot off UEFI and not a legacy bios boot? I will be honest there isn't a real difference in booting performance. The normal reason why is a MBR (legacy) doesn't support disks over 2TB and GPT (UEFI) does. If you don't understand the difference I suggest you just install Windows normally as there isn't a major difference.

Anyway if you wish to continue How to Install Windows 7 Using the "Unified Extensible Firmware Interface" (UEFI)


P.S. I'm on a GPT boot on my SSD and your specs are similar to mine and it will work fine if done correctly.

 

[theog]

As the new MOBO's now have a uEFI/BIOS firmware.
How to install Windows 64 bit on a uEFI/BIOS firmware:
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorial...e-firmware-interface-install-windows-7-a.html
or
UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface) - Install Windows 8 with


For more info on uEFI:
Windows and GPT FAQ
Unified Extensible Firmware Interface - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
UEFI Firmware
Technical Note: UEFI BIOS vs. Legacy BIOS, Advantech(EN) - YouTube
Sample: Configure UEFI/GPT-Based Hard Drive Partitions by Using Windows PE and DiskPart

UEFI Bootable USB Flash Drive - Create in Windows

 

[gregrocker]

It isn't necessary to waste a new $100+ Win7 OEM copy since you could easily reinstall an existing copy of Win7 on the PC to the SSD.

During the reinstall insert the old Product Key after changing BIOS if desired to UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface) - Install Windows 7 with - Windows 7 Forums
to boot UEFI DVD, delete all partitions during install.

 

[Ranger4]

It isn't necessary to waste a new $100+ Win7 OEM copy since you could easily reinstall an existing copy of Win7 on the PC to the SSD.

During the reinstall insert the old Product Key after changing BIOS if desired to UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface) - Install Windows 7 with - Windows 7 Forums
to boot UEFI DVD, delete all partitions during install.

The only reason I got a new OEM Win 7 installation disc was because I only had an Upgrade from Vista version & it was a fairly early version so required a huge number of updates after installation. Also the last time I did a clean install using it I had a hell of a job getting it activated & I spent ages on the phone to Microsoft quoting all sorts of info on the disc, eventually getting it activated.

 

[gregrocker]

You can use the Upgrade version license with the latest official installer with SP1 provided in Step 1 of Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7.

On a new drive where the installer will not see an underlying OS when it boots to do the install, leave the Product Key blank during install and then afterwards do the quick registry edit Option 3 in Clean Install with a Upgrade Windows 7 Version in order to activate Upgrade version on a new, wiped or empty HD.

There should be no problem activating after doing this. You're entitled to reinstall retail Win7 Full or Upgrade to any PC you want as often as you like, as long as there is a qualifying OS which belongs to that PC or is retail and not being used during the period it qualifies for Upgrade - and it does not need to be installed at all to qualify.

 

[Ranger4]

Thanks to everyone who replied. I eventually decided to use the Samsung data migration program to clone the OS to the new SSD. Yes it was the easy way out, but as my OS installation was only a bit over 2 months old & still very clean it was simple & very quick.
All is now working perfectly, so I will leave it alone.
Best regards.
Bligh.

 

[gregrocker]

Glad you're up and running. How is the performance difference?

 

[Ranger4]

Thanks Greg. My previous drive was a Kingmax Client 35 240gb SSD & the new one is a Samsung 840 Pro 256gb SSD. Both are of course are very fast, but I think the Samsung has the edge.
The only reason I changed the drive was as a result of me updating the Kingmax firmware which seemed to have caused a major problem with the boot manager. It would start from a cold start up or from a shut down but would not restart from a restart boot. A check of the BIOS at this time showed that the Kingmax was not anywhere in the boot order, but it would show up from a cold start situation.
I was worried that with this condition it might fail at any time, so hence the change.

 

[gregrocker]

If we'd known this we would have first asked for a Disk Mgmt screenshot. Sometimes the boot manager ends up on a spinner which defeats the purpose of SSD for fast start. So you always want the all other HDD's unplugged during install, but that's not always possible to do during cloning or imaging.

What's most important is to check that the System Active Boot flags are also on the SSD so you know it is booting itself, with the System flag signifying the boot files are onboard and booting the OS, Active flag pointing to where they are, and Boot flag merely showing which partition is booting at the moment.

 

[Ranger4]

Thanks for that information Greg. The Kingmax was the only drive installed at the time. It was immediately after the firmware update that it failed to boot. I ran start up repair well over 3 times to no avail. The boot was showing up on the C partition when checking it under disc management & the drive was active.
I did have this problem checked by a computer specialist where I buy most of my computer gear from & they informed me there was nothing that could be done & I could try a later version of the firmware when it became available, but so far that hasn't happened.
Thanks for your interest & concern. I will check for a later version of the firmware & install it when it becomes available & see whether it fixes the problem, but in the meantime all is running very well with the Samsung.

 

[gregrocker]

I just finished writing that Boot flag only means the partition that is currently booted. System flag signifies the partition booting the OS in Disk Mgmt. I was hoping you'd check if it is correct based on these criteria.

 

[Ranger4]

I am not quite sure what you mean. The Kingmax SSD had 2 partitions on it, the Primary of 100mb & Drive C. Drive C was the active partition, with all the other items on it including boot etc. The Primary partition was the System Reserved, with nothing mentioned except Healthy.
I hope this is what you are after. I now have that drive disconnected, so I can't easily check it for you.

 

[gregrocker]

I'm assuming you decided against UEFI since there would be no boot or Active flags on GPT partitions which is how UEFI installs are formatted. So deciding to clone the old MBR Win7 negates the title of this thread in case readers are puzzled.

With an MBR install with the 100mb System Reserved partition present, it should be marked System Active if it is indeed still booting Win7, while C will always be flagged Boot since that only means the partition which is presently booted.

If the 100mb no longer has the SYstem Active flags then it has been bypassed and the partition holding the System label is now booting Win7. It should also be marked Active.

This is why I asked you to confirm by posting back a screenshot of Disk Management - Post a Screen Capture Image, because if you left the source HD plugged in then it may still be booting Win7 if the cloned C is not marked System Active.

 

[Ranger4]

Yes Greg I see your point on the possible confusion in the post title. After giving the UEFI install some thought I decided to clone the the new drive as my existing installation was very clean. Also it takes a lot of time reinstalling programs, re activating them & then transferring saved data to get everything back to full operation again.
Whereas cloning takes a very short amount of time & you are up & running virtually straight away.
As I have mentioned in my replies in this post that I have disconnected the old drive, which is still in the tower, but not used. When a firmware update becomes available I will try to see if I can get it to work properly again.

Greg, if you refer to my OP of 2 weeks ago under General Discussion titled "Hiding a partition in Computer window" you can see a screen shot of my disc management screen, which exactly shows what I think you want. Also you did post a reply to that post. The verdict from Brink on my disc was it looked good.
I hope this helps.

 

[gregrocker]

As suspected the 100mb System REserved partition was cut out of the boot, likely because the Active flag was moved to C and then repairs were run which move the System boot files to the Active partition. I'm not sure how this was sequenced during the Image Recovery or if it was done later. You also removed the SysReserved drive letter which was advised. If performance is OK then there's no reason to worry.

But if you still have the hideous Win2000 government-file-cabinet graphics instead of WIn7's elegant Aero glass windows, I would rightclick on blank area of Desktop, select Personalize, choose an Aero theme, perhaps a slideshow of some of the spectacular Win7 scenic backgrounds which can be loaded with the entire collection downloadable from 120 Original Windows 7 High Resolution Scenery Regional Wallpapers Free Download » My Digital Life.

If Aero glass still doesn't show up on window frames, type Aero in Start Search box to Troubleshoot Problems with Aero, report back results.

Enable Automatically deliver drivers via Windows Update (Step 3) then Check for UPdates to install all Important and Optional, with reboots, until there are no more.

 

[Ranger4]

Thanks again Greg. As I have mentioned I am no longer using the drive that is referred to in the screen shot, as it would not boot from a restart, but would boot from a shut down & then starting again. This problem resulted in having to get professional help as after the firmware update I could not get the drive to boot at all. What they did in getting it able to boot is not known to me. Further discussions with them indicated the drive had a problem & a later firmware update may fix the problem.

As far as my choice of a colour scheme is concerned I just prefer my current one, rather than the Aero. Aero glass or transparent is available on my computer if I wish to use it. Yes I have auto updates installed & I always install all of them. In all the years I have been using auto updates I have never had an update problem, touch wood!!.

I also use MSE as my AV & I always download the definition updates every morning, together with any other updates that are available.