New Win8 laptop arriving, wish to Dual Boot with Seven

[gregrocker]

Thanks Si. I will have both EaseUS Todo Backup Workstation (v5.8) Giveaway and the Paragon Pro you linked me which I just registered for. How about if I make an image with each from the installed program?

Anyone have tips on imaging and reimaging a full HD with preinstalled OEM Win8?

 

[SIW2]

Pretty obvious how to do it with paragon - I untick Tools>Settings>Backup image options>Control archive integrity and untick image splitting.

Normal compression works best for me.

Get the BMB additional download from your paragon account to create a 64 but uefi bootable winpe - you would need to use WADK (not waik ) for that to be ok with secure boot.

Ther is another called RMB for creating bootable usb only - not many options with it - so I would stick with BMB.

 

[gregrocker]

Machine arrived. Under Security in BIOS Secure Boot is greyed out with the only choice to Disable Secure Boot flow beneath it.
Do I need to set up an Admin password to get access to Disable Secure Boot? What if I dont' want to boot with a password?

There is a CSM setting to Enable under Boot. When I enable it it asks if I want PXE OPRom also enabled. Is this how I get access to UEFI Bootable USB or DVD?

The i5 is lightning fast but internet is strangely slow as molasses. My other laptop just warned me that another PC on the network is using the same IP address, so I shut it down and power cycled Router but the new Asus still has ridiculously slow internet.

 

[theog]

How to ENABLE CSM.

ASUSTeK Computer Inc. -Support- Windows 8 Support Information

How do I boot to DOS with USB Flash drive or USB CD-ROM?
Solution

Enter the BIOS setup menu by pressing and holding F2 key when powering on.
Switch to "Boot" and set “Lunch CSM” to Enabled.
Switch to "Security" and set "Secure Boot Control" to Disabled.
Press F10 to save and exit.
Press and hold ESC key to lunch boot menu when the notebook restarts.

 

[Hopachi]

I'm a bit late here but for 15days... You could install 7 on a VHD and dual boot without partitioning. UEFI and SecureBoot should be working normal.

http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/2393-windows-8-vhd-create-boot-dual-boot.html
or better
Virtual Hard Drive VHD File - Create and Start with at Boot - Windows 7 Help Forums

And if you consider VM's: VMware Player 5 provides great performance. I use it on Win8 host and I can confirm that Win7 as a VM works nicely.
VMware Player: Run Windows 8, Chrome OS on a Virtual PC

By the way, thanks for one of your posts of a Easeus giveaway link, I've installed Todo Backup as well.

 

[gregrocker]

Thanks, I just ran an Easeus backup of the entire HD fresh from the factory.

It only wanted to include the 300mb System and C drives, so I ticked the other two partitions marked Recovery.

As soon as it began backup it warned me it didn't support those other partitions format without drive letter but that it would back them up sector-by-sector. I OK'd this and it proceeded.

Since this version of Easeus says it supports Win8 you'd think it would be prepared for the full UEFI System partitioning and not give disturbing cryptic messages about partitions expected to be on there. Do you think I'll be okay with it?

I want to also make the Recovery media but it wants a 16gb flash stick which it says it will wipe clean first and I don't want to sacrifice it. I need to find another way to do this. I'd temporarily load it onto my 16gb Kingston data traveler if I can offload it to External for storage. Any suggestions?

 

[theog]

I would go with Paragon 12 & Windows backup.

 

[pparks1]

Gregrocker,

I would not trust your backup unless you have a hard drive or something to test it with. I usually use Acronis and Macrium and both have worked out ok. However, with secureboot and UEFI support, neither product worked and got me back to a bootable machine.

I since switched to Paragan Backup and Restore 12, created an UEFI boot USB key and it works perfectly. I lose 2-3 days testing with various backup and restore programs failing over and over and over again.

 

[SIW2]

It's ok Greg is getting Paragon. Should be fine.

I would definitely do a paragon image before attempting anything else.

I have been using Paragon for a few years - forum regulars will know that already - never failed me in a backup/restore.

 

[Lee]

I would like to also thank all of the poster here. I have learned a great deal though most of it will be forgotten by tomorrow. . .

 

[gregrocker]

Thanks everyone.

Windows Image Backup looks much better so I'll replace the Easeus with that. Still waiting for my Paragon key.

FYI Secure Boot on this Asus K55 lappy turned off by choosing the BIOS Security setting below it for Secure Boot Control, described as something for "flow control." It is the only SB setting it would let me disable and when I did and booted back in both were disabled.

Is there any way to modify my NTFS WIn7 64 bit installer flash stick to use it to install the Dual Boot? I see it needs FAT32 otherwise.

 

[SIW2]

If you want to do it the efi way - you need FAT formatted usb. Bit of a pain.

 

[theog]

or use the DVD.

 

[gregrocker]

Nothing in the Manuals or anything much I can find online refers to the 16gb Recovery Drive it offers to make under Recovery. I went ahead and sacrificed my installer stick for this since i have others, and it confirms it is copying the Recovery partition, but I can't find anything on the web about how this is run to recover to Factory condition.

I assume its bootable since it formats the stick wiping everything out. Anyone familar with it? I wonder why Asus keeps it such a big secret.

 

[pparks1]

It should be bootable.

 

[gregrocker]

The Recovery Drive stick completed and even said I could delete the Recovery partition with a link to do so, which of course I didn't do.

Good thing too since it doesn't show up in boot menu even when CSM and PXE OpROM are enabled in BIOS. I'm not sure how to get it to show up. Is it meant to be run from the Advanced Boot options because nothing there recognizes it either?

 

[theog]

The One Time Boot Menu should show the DVD/USB as UEFI bootable.





Should also show in Boot Over Ride.

 

[gregrocker]

I couldn't find anything about the Asus Recovery Drive stick in their Manuals, literature, online search, etc. So I decide to try their Tech Support. Both chat and phone are atrocious. They have no idea how Recovery Media is generated for the PC model, claiming randomly that it is an 8 System Image, AI Recovery disk creator (not even on the Win8 machines), limited to Windows Reset. No one knows anything about the USB Recovery drive.

Now I see why our Forums are so successful.

I have overridden Secure Boot and enabled CSM, but stick still doesn't show up in BIOS or Boot Menu. Just found a buried Tom's post saying to find the Recov Drive stick under Boot Override in Setup. If that doesn't work I'll rewrite the stick.

Win8 imaging won't save Recovery partition so I'll wait for Paragon to get all partitions in an image.

Next I tried the UEFI-formatted Win7 flash stick install to a partition shrunk from C, and am getting "error occurred while attempting to read the boot config data" from EFI\Microsoft\Boot\BCD. Does the file copied to desktop from install.wim and renamed need to be deleted from .wim archive after it is copied to efi/boot?

 

[Hopachi]

Use Windows 7 File Recovery Image (see Control Panel) instead.

It works, all system partitions are included by default and the recovery one is selectable.



Too bad they will remove this feature in the next Windows version, because I got used to it.

 

[gregrocker]

Spent all day getting Paragon Boot Media made to have a secondary backup of entire HD.

Now installing Win7 in UEFI mode. When clicking Next after selecting pre-formatted Win7 target partition it warns that "the partitions are not in the recommended order for GPT disk" but lets me continue with install anyway.

Is this a known issue which might cause problems if I decide to wipe the Win7 and Win8 clean reinstall partitions to Extend C and take back the PC? If the wireless speed (40 kbps Download, 10gb Upload) cannot be resolved in Networking thread I have then I will prob do that anyway.