Reinstalled windows 7, lost boot priority...

[jamdox]

Hello folks,

So. Replacing windows SSD. Tried to clone from old win 7 SSD, fail. Tried to install fresh with other drives attached, fail.

Installed win7. Turns out it made one of its damned boot partitions. Still got the EFI partition on Lion, but whatever Windows did killed my ability to set my Chimera drive as primary in BIOS.

So I automatically boot into Windows unless I F12 and manually select the OSX drive.

I have a burning desire to nuke the Windows boot partition, but I suspect this is a bad idea.

I'm sure this has been gone over, but a search just turns up a bunch of "lol you really want separate drives to dual boot" threads...

Thanks.

PS: I WANT TO REFORMAT THE WINDOWS BOOT PARTITION WITH PREJUDICE AND DRAMATIC KEYSTROKES!!!!one! I WANT TO REFORMAT THAT SUCKER SO HARD!!!!!

 

[themacguy]

Hello folks,

So. Replacing windows SSD. Tried to clone from old win 7 SSD, fail. Tried to install fresh with other drives attached, fail.

Installed win7. Turns out it made one of its damned boot partitions. Still got the EFI partition on Lion, but whatever Windows did killed my ability to set my Chimera drive as primary in BIOS.

So I automatically boot into Windows unless I F12 and manually select the OSX drive.

I have a burning desire to nuke the Windows boot partition, but I suspect this is a bad idea.

I'm sure this has been gone over, but a search just turns up a bunch of "lol you really want separate drives to dual boot" threads...

Thanks.

PS: I WANT TO REFORMAT THE WINDOWS BOOT PARTITION WITH PREJUDICE AND DRAMATIC KEYSTROKES!!!!one! I WANT TO REFORMAT THAT SUCKER SO HARD!!!!!

Try using EasyBCD for recovering your boot settings.

 

[Going Bald]

Not sure I am understanding you - do you have OS X + Win7 on a single HDD/SSD or on separate drives?

If on same drive, boot to OS X and preformat the Win7 partition as MSDOS ExFat, then install Win7 and it won't create that extra partition.
When you boot the Win7 DVD, click on the partition you want to install on, click on advanced button, click on format button - when format complete, click on continue to finish installation.
When install is finished, run MS update until it has no more updates to offer, and install your security suite. Boot with rBoot or UniBeast to boot to OS X desktop and either run MultiBeast or standalone installer to re-install Chimera.

That should fix your problem, I hope.

 

[jamdox]

Thanks for the responses.

Part of the problem is that it just doesn't install if other drives are attached, not sure why, possibly because I'm installing from a CD attached via USB.

I was able to work around the boot issue by unplugging all my drives except the OSX drive, which causes the EFI to switch to only recognizing it!

Well, it's good enough for now. Thanks again!

 

[windandrain]

Thanks for the responses.

Part of the problem is that it just doesn't install if other drives are attached, not sure why, possibly because I'm installing from a CD attached via USB.

I was able to work around the boot issue by unplugging all my drives except the OSX drive, which causes the EFI to switch to only recognizing it!

Well, it's good enough for now. Thanks again!

Hi jamdox. I have the same board with you. A few days ago, I've experienced the same problem.
You must have your Windows 7 installed on a GUID partitioned drive.

IN the BIOS of GA-Z77x-UD5, there are two priority settings, "Boot Option Priority" and "HARD DISK BBS Priority". I don't know why GIGA set it like that. I've never seen such kinds of BIOS settings before.
I have one solution, not perfect but it works for me. Assume that your Windows 7 was installed on DISK A, while Mac/Chameloen on DISK B. First, in the "Boot Priority" settings, set the system to boot from "UEFI DISK B". Make sure the "Windows Boot Manager" is after the "UEFI DISK B". And then, on the "HARD DISK priority" page, make sure your "DISK B" is at the first place. The above two BIOS options can be found in the "BIOS OPTIONS" section.(not exactly, but at least the third section)

However, as your Windows is installed on a GUID partitioned drive, u may not boot your Windows from Chameloen. U still have to press F12 to select which OS to use.

 

[jamdox]

Looking back, I realize I was totally unclear...

I unplugged all my non-OSX drives, then plugged them back in! Now the EFI doesn't list the windows drive, and I set the OSX drive as primary.

Regarding formatting, I let windows partition its drive, so I think it's MBR. So it does appear in the chameleon screen...

I'll try your suggestions, they sound interesting. It's hard to know where everything is in those bios, for sure! Although, it's possible the EFI won't list the windows drive anywhere... strange juju these bios do with the boot drives...