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Dual Boot issues ML + Win 7/8 on Z77-DS3H

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Apr 9, 2011
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Motherboard
Gigabyte GA-Z77-DS3H rev 1.0
CPU
i5 3570K
Graphics
GTX 670
Mac
  1. MacBook
Classic Mac
  1. iMac
  2. Power Mac
Mobile Phone
  1. Android
Hey guys, I need ur help.

I want to install Windows 7 or 8 on my hackintosh on a separate HDD in order to play PC games but I keep running into UEFI/BIOS issues because my system is Z77 based. Whenever I try to install Win7 to my HDD it says it can't install because my system doesn't support BIOS boot (since it's a UEFI mobo).

Plz help, it's driving me nuts.

Screenshot attached below
 

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I had the same issue and tried all manner of options in my Bios boot settings (Z77X-UP5 TH). After formatting my installation SSD several times and fiddling with the boot priorities etc. I eventually I got it to install.

Unfortunately I can't remember off-hand exactly what I did to make it work (had to re-configure my boot settings after installation so that I get the Chimera system select screen) but do check you have legacy support turned on for SATA controller...

The good news is I'm attempting a fresh install of Win 7 Ultimate later this evening. (It's about 1pm in the UK at the time of posting so its probably going to 7-8pm by the time its up and running if all goes well)

I'll be making notes this time around so I'll update here once I discover the settings that worked for me.

1 handy tip that I discovered last time, be sure to download your mobo drivers (in OSX or wherever) and have them handy on a USB drive. (Not an issue if you have an optical drive and the CD that shipped with your mobo). Basically once I successfully installed Windows I tried to download all the drivers only to realise my ethernet controller had no drivers, so I couldn't access the internet! Doh! :)
 
Right, I successfully installed Win 7 Ultimate last night. Even managed to do it on my first attempt this time!

These are the steps I took.

1) I shut down computer and removed my OSX system drive. (I have 2 Samsung SSD's, one for OSX the other for Windows. They 'look' very similar in the Bios and Windows install screen so thought it best to remove it rather than risk accidentally wiping/overwriting my working OSX install)

2) Start up machine and go to the Bios. Save a profile of the current working config. (ie. OSX is working nicely so I wanted to restore these Bios settings later).

3) From the same Bios screen you just saved a profile from now choose the Load Optimized Defaults option to reset your Bios back to factory defaults.

4) In the Bios Features tab, check that Boot Option #1 is set to your intended Windows installation drive. (With my OSX drive removed I have a total of 2 drives available, my SSD and 2x HDD's used for documents and storage).

5) In addition to the above scroll down to Hard Drive BBS Properties (still in the Bios Features tab) and select it to open another drive priority menu. Again set #1 to your target Windows drive.

note. For steps 4 and 5 when choosing my drive I noticed the drive name/ID was prefixed with a P rather than UEFI.


6) Save and Exit Bios. Hold down F12 to enter the boot menu after the computer has restarted.

7) Choose your Windows Installer disk and boot into the installer (my installer is on a USB drive, I don't have an optical drive in my hackintosh).

8) Click through the installer options and choose Custom to do a clean install. Formatting your target drive from the installer tool.

9) If all has gone well you should now be able to install succesfully. Hopefully you won't be getting the non-bootable drive error. As I didn't get any issue this time around I'm hoping that restoring the bios to optimised defaults was what made the difference, along with setting the correct drive order.

10) If all goes well you should now have Windows installed. At this point, if you were to restart you computer it would automatically boot back into Windows every time. That's a good thing as by the time you've installed all your Windows drivers, system updates etc you'll have restarted the computer several times! Once you're happy with your Windows installation shut the computer down again.

11) Reconnect your OSX drive.

12) Start-up the computer and enter Bios, restore the profile you saved at step 2. Check your boot priorities again and make sure your OSX drive is now #1

13) Save and exit - Hopefully you should now get the Chimera* boot-loader with a new NTFS disk that you can boot into Windows from. (Depending on how your Chimera boot sequence configured you may need to press a key during the countdown timer to display your available boot drives. I have mine set to go straight to the boot selection screen rather than display the timer bar thingy - timer countdown is what is shown by default).


*I assume you used Unibeast and Multibeast to install OSX.


Hope it works for you, good luck! :)
 
Can confirm this method works! Great work!

Right, I successfully installed Win 7 Ultimate last night. Even managed to do it on my first attempt this time!

These are the steps I took.

1) I shut down computer and removed my OSX system drive. (I have 2 Samsung SSD's, one for OSX the other for Windows. They 'look' very similar in the Bios and Windows install screen so thought it best to remove it rather than risk accidentally wiping/overwriting my working OSX install)

2) Start up machine and go to the Bios. Save a profile of the current working config. (ie. OSX is working nicely so I wanted to restore these Bios settings later).

3) From the same Bios screen you just saved a profile from now choose the Load Optimized Defaults option to reset your Bios back to factory defaults.

4) In the Bios Features tab, check that Boot Option #1 is set to your intended Windows installation drive. (With my OSX drive removed I have a total of 2 drives available, my SSD and 2x HDD's used for documents and storage).

5) In addition to the above scroll down to Hard Drive BBS Properties (still in the Bios Features tab) and select it to open another drive priority menu. Again set #1 to your target Windows drive.

note. For steps 4 and 5 when choosing my drive I noticed the drive name/ID was prefixed with a P rather than UEFI.


6) Save and Exit Bios. Hold down F12 to enter the boot menu after the computer has restarted.

7) Choose your Windows Installer disk and boot into the installer (my installer is on a USB drive, I don't have an optical drive in my hackintosh).

8) Click through the installer options and choose Custom to do a clean install. Formatting your target drive from the installer tool.

9) If all has gone well you should now be able to install succesfully. Hopefully you won't be getting the non-bootable drive error. As I didn't get any issue this time around I'm hoping that restoring the bios to optimised defaults was what made the difference, along with setting the correct drive order.

10) If all goes well you should now have Windows installed. At this point, if you were to restart you computer it would automatically boot back into Windows every time. That's a good thing as by the time you've installed all your Windows drivers, system updates etc you'll have restarted the computer several times! Once you're happy with your Windows installation shut the computer down again.

11) Reconnect your OSX drive.

12) Start-up the computer and enter Bios, restore the profile you saved at step 2. Check your boot priorities again and make sure your OSX drive is now #1

13) Save and exit - Hopefully you should now get the Chimera* boot-loader with a new NTFS disk that you can boot into Windows from. (Depending on how your Chimera boot sequence configured you may need to press a key during the countdown timer to display your available boot drives. I have mine set to go straight to the boot selection screen rather than display the timer bar thingy - timer countdown is what is shown by default).


*I assume you used Unibeast and Multibeast to install OSX.


Hope it works for you, good luck! :)
 
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