How to install Windows 8 to EFI system?

willhub · 5 May 2014 at 21:06

Hi.

Having loads of trouble with this.

I've got a HP Envy 17" laptop and I'm switching out the 1TB HDD for a 128GB SSD.

Problem is when I do this and want to install Windows using a DVD, the DVD is never picked up unless I enable legacy mode. In UEFI mode the DVD or SSD does not seem to be detected?

Now I've put the SSD on another computer and converted it to GPT partition type, no partitions yet, but when I try to install Windows 8 from booting the DVD in legacy, it says it can't be installed due to it being GPT???

I'm baffled as to what I need to do to get Windows 8 to install on this SSD.

Do I need to manually create all the individual partitions with the correct sizes?

If I have only UEFI selected in bios then I don't seem to be able to detect the SSD or thr DVD?????

Really confused, my ancient Acer laptop is so straight forward when installing Windows not sure why this laptop has to be so complicated

Thanks.

Django x2 · 5 May 2014 at 21:18

Create a bootable USB stick instead, as FAT32. On you SSD, create the partitions manually.

Format SSD as GPT
Create 500mb FAT32 partition as UEFI
128MB MSR
Then the last partition as NTFS (for the OS).

You will be able to select the USB drive from UEFI boot.

willhub · 5 May 2014 at 21:43

On my HP ENVY 17" there is no where for USB Drive boot.

Also how do I specifiy UEFI when I set partition up, what partition software do I need to use?

andshrew · 5 May 2014 at 23:10

How old is the Windows 8 installation disc your booting from? There were apparently issues with the original image which mean't that it didn't boot in UEFI mode.

It should simply be a case of enabling UEFI mode on your laptop. The installer will then boot in UEFI mode, and you just pick the drive you want to install to. This will create all the necessary partitions automatically.

If you don't need UEFI mode then just boot the installer in legacy mode and let it format your SSD in MBR rather than GPT.

willhub · 5 May 2014 at 23:33

I tried booting in legacy, it was unable to format or do anything with the drive

andshrew · 5 May 2014 at 23:43

With the installer running press shift+f10 to access a command prompt.

Run diskpart select your ssd and run the clean command. You should then be able to quit diskpart, refresh the list of drives available and then let setup format the drive.

jh30uk · 6 May 2014 at 02:19

If the Optical drive/Media is not seen as UEFI then it will not work.

I personally have never seen this option in my Bios as I use a ThumbDrive most times but have done it from DVD but cannot remember seeing option.

That is why when you install from a ThumbDrive you see it listed twice in Boot Options, 1st as a normal device and 2nd as UEFI device.

http://www.eightforums.com/tutorial...e-firmware-interface-install-windows-8-a.html < Mentions DVD install.

nightmare99 · 6 May 2014 at 19:46

As above there is a problem with the EFI bootloader on the DVD, is this a factory pressed DVD or a burnt ISO. Some programs like old versions of magic iso had tendencies to break EFI boot/.

willhub · 6 May 2014 at 20:57

It was burnt, so I'm burning it with an app called Rufus to an SD Card and also partitioning for UEFI so should make it work.

willhub · 10 May 2014 at 00:20

Got it to work, managed to get it to boot via a USB memory stick now, all sorted

, laptop boots from a cold boot in about 5 seconds, it's much faster than my desktop PC apart from the graphics dept!