Can "Hybrid EFI" really boot GPT disks?

[psaux]

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]

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

[psaux]

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]

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.

[psaux]

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]

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

[manusfreedom]

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

[rodney-10233]

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.