MB: GA-F2A85XM-D3H newly installed: Windows 7 SP1 install problem: EFI vs MBR

[Raleightom]

   
MB: GA-F2A85XM-D3H newly installed: Windows 7 SP1 install problem; currently EFI vs MBR vs GPT 

Old system expired recently (bad capacitors); overhauled system; now trying to use newly built system (SEE signature) with old Windows 7 (64bit SP1) hard drive. NOTE: while Windows refuses to install or repair itself; Ubuntu Live has full access to both hard drives). Have not succeeded in loading Ubuntu to disk, yet; but it writes, deletes files, etc with no problems accessing what it changes.

Tried to use Windows 7 SP1 64-bit from old Intel/Nvidia system (replaced motherboard/apu/memory & kept disk drives) and Windows stayed in repair mode. Made several attempts; then said contact mfr.

Tried to install Windows 7 (all I currently have are Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit and Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-bit, both upgrade CDs). I am allowed to create partition and to format it. Then, when I attempt to install there; I get the following error.
 
      " Selected disk has MBR partition table on EFI systems. Windows can only be installed on GPT disks. " <=== All Greek to me

This particular message started after aborting Ubuntu Install when I could not figure out how to place Ubuntu in an existing partition on non-windows system disk.  Ubuntu Live still able to see everything and update files on old Windows system disk and backup drive.

After trying to install drivers from DVD supplied with motherboard; I get this message .

Attempted driver loads during Windows 7 attempts at repair and/or install from DVD from locations specified in user's manual for ACHI and RAID. I don't have a USB flash or floppy drive. Using DVD drive instead.

Folder BootDrv \Hw7\Raid\x64 and BootDrv\Hw7\AHCI\W64A. Windows doesn't think the hw7\raid\x64\achix64s raid drivers are correct and hides all 4 of them. I UN-hid them to load 1 at a time testing. hw7\achi\w764a also has 4 if un-hid; but, one is accepted by system as good.

All hardware below is new other than the two disk drives.

MB Serial#     132440048614
MB Model:      GA-F2A85XM-D3H
BIOS version:  F3   (not flashed & unchanged other than boot sequence for DVD first to boot Linux Ubuntu Live dvd)
BIOS date:       04/08/2013
BIOS Id:            8A01BG0A
Sata III Port 0  ST3250620AS   sata II hard drive 250GB
Sata III Port 1  ST31500341AS sata II hard drive 1500GB
Sata III Port 7  LG GH24 sata II dvd drive
Memory slot 1 4GB ADATA DDR3 1333MHz
Memory slot 3 4GB ADATA DDR3 1333MHz
CPU/APU:          AMD A8-5600K 64bit
Graphics:         HD7560D Radeon

Driver DVD:      Gigabyte AMD FM2/FM1 Series Utilities *chipsets / Serial-ATA / RAID Network / Audio Drivers
                           (BAR CODE 12DC1-AMDFM2-106FR) Ver. 1.06

Tom   

[absic]

Hi there,

it is very rare for an existing copy of Windows to BOOT/run on a new system especially if you are switching from Intel to AMD or vice versa.

Have you tried to reformat/secure erase the main disk using Parted Magic or similar linux program?

[Raleightom]

Thanks for the response.

I do not understand UEFI; that is, the advantages of using it or what it is. I thought it was a BIOS thing that I didn't need to learn about.

However, I noticed when I use F12 to select boot device, there are two entries for the same DVD drive. I had not noticed that before. Selecting the UEFI DVD drive is what changed my original circumstances to getting the error message I wrote about in the initial post.

Looks to me like if I chose legacy instead of UEFI, I will not experience the problem I wrote about. However, doing that I get a message when I try to load gigabyte drivers during the install, that I need CD/DVD drivers. The dvd drive is new.. An LG24NS09. Per their web site there are no drivers needed. Strange I got that far w/o drivers. I can read dvds and I am running Live Ubuntu from that dvd drive.

From Microsoft during Windows 7 SP1 install using custom option to create new system before it loads anything to disk.
" Required CD/DVD drive device driver is missing. If you have a driver floppy disk, CD, DVD or USB flash drive, please insert t now."

Seems that if I do not use the UEFI dvd option, than my MBR should work just fine for now. AM I incorrect ?

[Vezina]

BIOS allows you to change between , i see no problem.
And it works both ways.
Why so much fear of UEFI ?!

[Raleightom]

This morning I had two disk drives and a dvd drive. SInce then, I was unable to boot my live ubunto dvd that I have been using the last several days. Fortunately, I had another one quite a bit older and that one booted. A couple of days ago this system would not read that one. I went ahead and installed a dual boot with it in case the dvd drive quit reading again. After installing, I inserted the dvd I could not boot from this morning and it shows nothing there. Then, I tried to read the one I just installed from and it would not read that one either. Tried moving on to things that might work. Tried accessing my second drive to  get the Firefox bookmarks I saved there yesterday and got disk errors followed by SMART saying the disk was failing and I needed to back it up. Could not back up those files. All my backups are on that disk. So, then I had one disk drive, no dvd and a failing disk drive. An hour later the second drive disappeared from Ubuntu and from the bios. I am sinking fast and something tells me it is the Gigabyte board and or BIOS that is causing all this havoc.

I no longer know where to start in describing this problem . I went through the GA-F2A85XM-D3H documentation again this morning for the motherboard and learned little. Went through all the BIOS features modifying a few and could not Boot. So returned to BIOS and Hit F7 to eliminate my modifications. Then changed the boot priorities to put dvd first and  started trying to run which resulted in all of the above.

Need someone to review my hardware description and let me know how my BIOS settings should be modified after an F7 reset.I still have a lot of good data on the disk that has an outdated copy of Ubuntu on it (one I installed this morning from early 2012. Since the MBR on that drive is probably 6 years old with only Windows installs prior to today; I am guessing UEFI could be a problem since I don't want to format the entire drive.

I also need to know if there are Gigabyte drivers available for Ubuntu that I need to install. I have added none, thus far. Still have no new Windows for this system, so focusing on Ubuntu (Linux) for now.

[Vezina]

Regarding Linux issues there is something related to IOMMU.
Turn that on or off see what happens.
I haven o issues running under UEFI with OpenSuse , Ubuntu or any other with any manufacturer.

UEFI manages  boot and should not make other drives disappear randomly.
Sounds like HDD issues as SMART is telling you

You can t blame UEFI ,a boot routine for the fact you are not in the mood to troubleshoot your HDD.
If you have issues with HDD-s and you know you handle them properly ,then maybe you should replace the PSU as well as it may be killing your HDD-s.

I recommend you to change to Western Digital and avoid back -ups on Seagates ,since they merged with Maxtor they have crap drives (as Maxtor had).

[Raleightom]

First of all ====> Thank you for any and all responses

Vezina,

With regard to the disk drives I  had intermittent power up problems for numerous months. As long as powered up, all seemed OK; but, if system had to be powered down, I had to wait numerous hours before rebooting. Then about two months ago, I got a SMART Failure warning on the same drive that is down today. I backed everything up. I ran chkdsk on my remaining drive and it tested clean. I also ran a secure erase of all free space on that drive (my good one today). Four days later the whole system failed to boot. Waiting a day, two days didn't help that time. I turned to a very helpful service tech at my local Tiger Direct and he tested the power supply. It was indeed bad. I had it replaced, Corsair CX500M. Not the best power supply around; but, it got the job done. When we powered up; the SMART failure was gone. I ran chkdsk on the full disk and all tested OK. I ran a secure clean on the partitions I had been using, not the full 1.5TB. Maybe this provided a clue as to my attitude about this SMART Failure. Maybe the new power supply is failing too or maybe the electronics in this bad(?) drive have intermittent problems. It is rarely used except as a backup for the few files I have saved while on Live Ubuntu. Maybe it really is bad this time or maybe SMART is crying WOLF again

I will try disabling  IOMMU. I have not tried that.

As you have experience with Linux and Gigabyte AMD, are there any drivers (chipsets,raid, adhi,audi,etc.) from Gigabyte that Linux needs for the motherboard. There are several that are needed by Windows (seems Ubuntu would also) ; that is why I ask ? My board has the F3 bios version. Would you recommend upgrading (our chipsets (75 vs 85) are a little different; bios may be too) ?

Tiger Direct thinks the dvd drive is failing due to a bios issue. They exchanged the first one. It had same problems I have now right out of the box. This one worked right out of the box (ran Live Ubunto 12.04 for several days) and then failed after loading Ubuntu 11.10 to disk. It powers up fine. Bios sees it. Ububto sees it. Bios won't boot from it. Ubunto won't read or write to it.

Tom

Back to experimentation (IE "Fix it until it does" theory)

[Vezina]

Linux doesn t need drivers it will work out of the box ,just update it ,but you can install AMD proprietary drivers for the GPU side of the APU if you like .
It s a hit and miss though as if you update video drivers ,at some moment in time ,the kernel ,via auto updates or whatever ,the Open GL acceleration may stop working.If you are not installing the AMD drivers then games available on Steam for example may not work or work extremely poor.

I would avoid Seagate though