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Can "Hybrid EFI" really boot GPT disks?

psaux

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Can "Hybrid EFI" really boot GPT disks?
« on: April 29, 2011, 06:15:09 am »
Hi.  Hopefully someone with some degree of insider knowledge can answer this conclusively for me.

Can "Hybrid EFI" really boot GPT (GUID Partition Table) disks?

Also, if so, is there a recommended way to install Win 7 64-bit such that'll happily set up the boot drive GPT?  I assume it'll entail oscdimg.exe, as there seems to be no hint of the EFI Shell as being one of the pieces that Gigabyte chose to graft onto their BIOS.  (That said, I'm thrilled they didn't jump into EFI whole-hog like everyone else.  I have an Adaptec dedicated RAID card that the new-fangled EFI just does NOT play nice with.)

Thanks in advance.

Dark Mantis

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Re: Can "Hybrid EFI" really boot GPT disks?
« Reply #1 on: April 29, 2011, 06:29:15 pm »
Hi

Yes the Gigabyte Hybrid BIOS/EFI will boot a 2+ TB disk with a GPT format. There is more information here if you want to check it out.

http://forum.giga-byte.co.uk/index.php/topic,4876.msg38770.html#msg38770
Gigabyte X58A-UD7
i7 920
Dominators 1600 x6 12GB
6970 2GB
HX850
256GB SSD, Sam 1TB, WDB320GB
Blu-Ray
HAF 932

Gigabyte Z68X-UD5-B3
i7 3770K
Vengeance 1600 16GB
6950 2GB
HCP1200W
Revo Drive x2, 1.5TB WDB RAID0
16x DLRW
StrikeX S7
Full water cooling
3 x 27" Iiy

psaux

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Re: Can "Hybrid EFI" really boot GPT disks?
« Reply #2 on: April 29, 2011, 11:04:26 pm »
Thanks, DM.

So, install should be accomplished via oscdimg EFI-forcing?  Or is there actually a way to get to an EFI boot shell?


Dark Mantis

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Re: Can "Hybrid EFI" really boot GPT disks?
« Reply #3 on: April 30, 2011, 07:55:36 am »
To be perfectly honest I haven't had a chance to get to grips with it myself yet so any of my knowledge is purely second hand. I know you have to enable the EFI via the CDROM setting in the BIOS. Beyond that I am afraid I am in the dark so far.
Gigabyte X58A-UD7
i7 920
Dominators 1600 x6 12GB
6970 2GB
HX850
256GB SSD, Sam 1TB, WDB320GB
Blu-Ray
HAF 932

Gigabyte Z68X-UD5-B3
i7 3770K
Vengeance 1600 16GB
6950 2GB
HCP1200W
Revo Drive x2, 1.5TB WDB RAID0
16x DLRW
StrikeX S7
Full water cooling
3 x 27" Iiy

psaux

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  • 0
Re: Can "Hybrid EFI" really boot GPT disks?
« Reply #4 on: May 03, 2011, 06:26:15 pm »
To be perfectly honest I haven't had a chance to get to grips with it myself yet so any of my knowledge is purely second hand. I know you have to enable the EFI via the CDROM setting in the BIOS. Beyond that I am afraid I am in the dark so far.

Do you have any idea where that might be?  The advanced bios features section of the current revision of the manual doesn't appear to say anything about EFI regarding the boot priority/order settings, which is the region I'm assuming you mean. 

Thanks for the information so far.

Dark Mantis

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Re: Can "Hybrid EFI" really boot GPT disks?
« Reply #5 on: May 03, 2011, 08:02:39 pm »
No I don't believe there is anything in the manual to help and I have just had to pull my review board apart as the company wanted the CPU returned and so I can't check on there I'm afraid.

However I have managed to dig out something that Soar posted a while ago about it and hopefully it will help

1. Go to Advanced BIOS Features.

2. Go to CD/DVD Boot Option.

3. Set the BIOS up to “EFI” option.

4. Save and exit BIOS.

If you want to read the whole thread it is here:  http://forum.giga-byte.co.uk/index.php/topic,4876.msg38771.html#msg38771
« Last Edit: May 03, 2011, 08:03:38 pm by Dark Mantis »
Gigabyte X58A-UD7
i7 920
Dominators 1600 x6 12GB
6970 2GB
HX850
256GB SSD, Sam 1TB, WDB320GB
Blu-Ray
HAF 932

Gigabyte Z68X-UD5-B3
i7 3770K
Vengeance 1600 16GB
6950 2GB
HCP1200W
Revo Drive x2, 1.5TB WDB RAID0
16x DLRW
StrikeX S7
Full water cooling
3 x 27" Iiy

Re: Can "Hybrid EFI" really boot GPT disks?
« Reply #6 on: November 11, 2011, 03:09:39 am »
I found my problem and Gigabyte must document it:
- For your CDROM/DVDROM only use the SATA of Intel Chipset (1-6)
- Put EFI in BIOS
- Use last Bios (F6 for GA-P67A-UD7-B3)
- SATA must be RAID(XHD) or AHCI

Re: Can "Hybrid EFI" really boot GPT disks?
« Reply #7 on: August 29, 2013, 09:58:05 pm »
My GA-970A-UD3 (rev 1.0) with the latest Hybrid EFI BIOS does NOT support booting from 3TB+ volumes in  a RAID configuration.  Gigabyte support confirmed that the BIOS and RAID ROM only support 2.2TB max.  You have to use a single disk (3TB+) in AHCI mode to be able to boot using Hybrid EFI.