GA-Z87X-UD5H does not boot into system after installation

[bluemax65]

I have install the GA-Z87X-UD5H into a Coolermaster HAF X case with 16GB Cosair DDR3 RAM and 2 X 2TB Hatachi HDD's. I did not install anything else.
I wanted to install Debian Linux on the system using a USB stick. The first time the machine came up it did not recognize my USB stick. I went into the BIOS and, as per in the manual, I did the following:

Fast Boot -> Disabled -> Enabled
USB Support -> Full Initial

I then went over to Peripherals -> SATA Config and saw that my HDD's were on Port 0 and Port 1. I did not change anything there at all.

I then saved and exited the BIOS.

After restarting the machine booted off my USB stick and I installed Debian Linux (latest stable version).

After the installation was over the machine was restarted and when the login prompt was shown I could log into the system. I checked to make sure that everything had installed properly and I then turned off the system.

Next morning I restarted the system then logged into it. I left the system running and when I returned about 10 min later I saw that the machine was not running. Long story short, my power supply had to be replaced. After buying a new one, I restarted the machine. This time I got an error message:

Reboot and Select proper Boot device
or Insert Boot Media in selected Boot device and press a key

After pressing a key I got the same message.

I put in the USB stick and restarted the machine, which booted straight off it. When I entered the installation menu, I went into rescue installation and in the process found that the installation software found the HDD's. I then went into a shell and checked the HDD's and could work on them without a problem. I restarted the machine, and entered the BIOS. I checked the Peripherals - SATA Config and saw that the BIOS had recognized the HDD's.

I don't understand what the problem is. I have not changed the BIOS settings, apart from the Fast Boot and USB Support. I can't see how these two changes can effect the system to the point at which it no longer boots from a HDD!

Does anyone have a idea or a suggestion as to what I can try to do?

Thanks

[dmdilks]

Make sure you are booting to the right drive in BIOS Features / Hard Drive BBS Priorities. Then check the boot option 1 make sure that drive is first.

[bluemax65]

Ok, problem fixed. I'll try to explain what happened and how the problem was fixed.

You can read what we did upto the point when we were constantly getting the "Reboot..." message.

It turns out, that the EFI boat loader had been damaged during the night when there was a power cut (we are in the Caribbean). The first time I turned the machine on in the morning, the system still had the boot loader from the Debian installation to boot up to. However after the power supply failed completely (it had to be replaced), and the boot loader file was destroyed.

The solution was to get a boot loader from a functioning linux machine, edit the file, copy it on to the USB stick in the Rescue install directory, boot from the stick, and then at the appropriate point of the installation we chose Rescue installation, then went into the command line. The boot loader was then copied on to the first HDD, renamed so that the BIOS would read it as it's own. We then restarted the machine, and when it came up without a problem, we did the same thing to the second HDD.

When we restarted the machine, the linux guru ran through all his checks and explained exactly what had happened, and what he had done. At the time I wasn't too attentive, I was just happy that the @#$@# was up and running. He did say that the clue for him was that the mother was a UEFI motherboard. I have to admit that since I haven't done too much of HW building in the last 4 or 5 years, so UEFI/EFI didn't mean much to me.

SO, I'm just glad I have a linux guru working with me, and we managed to get this up and running.

[dmdilks]

Glad you got it running. You are not the only one with problems with the new UEFI bios. I thing it is the cause of a lot threads here because people don't really understand it.

Yes it is nice that you can boot your computer really fast with it setup. But the only OS that really gets any thing out it is windows 8. If you are running windows 7 yes you can use it but 7 use it or doesn't need it.