Plop Windows7, Ubuntu with a GPT disk

starbright · August 05, 2015, 07:17:38 AM

I have a Win7 (GPT HDD), so Win ist at sda3 (counting from 1) and ubuntu with root in (sda5), also I installed Linux bootloader into root.
I am referring to manuel chapter 3.4 (installing Bootloader in Windows to MBR).
A few message can be seen, first with a success but finally I get an error.
Can the reason be, that this is not an MBR hdd but somewhat a GPT disk? Howto handle this?

My final target is to silent boot windows except there is a key pressed during boot (as it is done in BIOS with F2 or F10).
Is this possible?

(BTW: There is mentioned an alternative, but the link is dead).

Elmar · August 05, 2015, 11:42:49 AM

Hello,

its not possible. GPT is currently not supported.

Best regards
Elmar

starbright · August 05, 2015, 13:16:04 PM

Thanks for quick answer!
Maybe you can mark it somewhere in description, that this is (currently) not possible.

For me, as I am not an expert it is rather confusing. This EFI, Legacy, GPT ... is all new to me. The depencies are not clear to me. With my laptop I can't install Win7 in UEFI mode (also in secure boot disabled), just in legacy mode. I expected a MBR-System than, but Windows installer - even on a clean disk creates GPT with EFI ?!?. Obviously things are much more difficult than expected.

Elmar · August 05, 2015, 13:25:38 PM

Quote from: starbright on August 05, 2015, 13:16:04 PM
... even on a clean disk creates GPT with EFI ?!?. ...

this depends on how you started the Windows install program. The BIOS has options to boot the DVD in UEFI mode (default on UEFI BIOS) or Legacy mode. Just boot the DVD in Legacy mode and you will get a MBR partition table instead of GPT.

starbright · August 05, 2015, 14:33:55 PM

Notebook Bios is rather crippled, so I can't remember to have options for USB CDROM or UEFI CDROM.
Maybe I can copy DVD to USB stick and install from that device - maybe this makes a difference.

Elmar · August 05, 2015, 15:23:16 PM

USB makes no difference. But it should work when you remove the efi directory.

starbright · August 07, 2015, 13:40:27 PM

I am already OT, but just for your information:
I created MBR partitions, but my Win7-DVD (downloaded by Winfuture) wouldn't go to install into an MBR device. Sometimes things are more difficult. Either this because of a strange implementation of Legacy mode in BIOS or is depending on my Win7-DVD. (I guess installation process ask for GPT capability and answer is yes -even in legacy- and than it will just use this and regret a MBR). But this is somewhat of educated guess.
It works fine into MBR with Win7 32bit.