No Legacy boot from CD-DVD - UEFI and Secure Boot are OFF

[glnz]

♫
Just bought a Dell Optiplex 7010 Mini-Tower with Win 8 Pro 64-bit, 8 GB RAM, 500 GB hard drive and an Intel i5 3470 processor. Right now, it has Dell BIOS version A16.

It is normally in UEFI ON and Secure Boot ON, so that F12 on bootup (one-time boot options) does NOT normally show the CD-DVD as a boot option. OK - no problem.

However, if I reboot with F12 and select both UEFI OFF (meaning Legacy ON) and Secure Boot OFF and reboot, then F12 DOES show me the CD-DVD as a boot option, but if I actually try to boot up from a bootable CD, I get an error message.

I have practiced with two bootable CDs - a Knoppix and an Aomei Backupper, both made on earlier machines. Both these CDs work as boot-up CDs in my old XP machine, and the Aomei Backupper CD also worked in someone else's Win 7 Pro 64-bit machine.

What's wrong?

Again, please let me repeat that I am trying to boot from the CD-DVD AFTER I have turned OFF UEFI, turned ON Legacy and turned OFF Secure Boot.

Thanks.

 

[genet]

https://www.404techsupport.com/2013...efi-bios-to-legacy-mode-to-install-windows-7/

But if you're using those settings, Windows 8 will not start.

Here is more info: Legacy BIOS Boot Mode (installing using the MBR partition style) and UEFI Boot Mode (installing using the GPT partition style): link

 

[glnz]

Genet -

First, thanks so much for your 404.techsupport link. It says the order of the BIOS changes is important, and I'll try that when I get home. (However, I am not optimistic, as the F12 one-time boot option has something special that has NOT worked: Below the option to enter into the BIOS and the other F12 options, there are lines to change settings from "UEFI On + Secure Boot On" to either (1) "UEFI On + Secure Boot Off" or (2) "UEFI Off + Secure Boot Off". These make all the changes in the 404.techsupport link although I do not know the order. Anyway, I have had the no-boot-from-CD problem whether or not I use these special lines in F12 or instead go into BIOS myself and do the changes. But I will try the specific method and sequence in the 404.techsupport link tonight and let you know.)

Second, when you say Windows 8 will not start, that raises a completely different issue. If I get the CD-DVD working as a boot source, I will probably insert a blank hard drive into the PC and do a practice install of Win 7 Pro 64-bit SP1 by itself just to make sure the computer will work with it. If I am successful, my ultimate goal is to have dual boot between Win 7 and Win 8, both Pro 64-bit. But if Legacy BIOS settings stop Win 8, then how is dual boot 7 and 8 ever possible? There are many articles here and in 7Forums about dual-boot.

Thanks!

 

[genet]

But if Legacy BIOS settings stop Win 8, then how is dual boot 7 and 8 ever possible?

You will need to install both operating systems in Legacy BIOS boot mode (installing using the MBR partition style) or in UEFI boot mode (installing using the GPT partition style).

 

[glnz]

Genet - sorry for delay but the real world impinged.

This is what happened:

I bought a second hard drive - blank. Opened the machine, disconnected the first hard drive, connected the new second one, booted up and FIRST installed Win 7 Pro 64-bit. The BIOS is:
UEFI - On
Secure Boot - Off
Enable Legacy ROMs - On

Got it fully updated, then made a blank partition and installed Win 8 Pro 64-bit in it.

Well, so far it's working, and I get the OS choice (in the modern Win 8 style) on bootup.

What do you think about the BIOS setting Enable Legacy ROMs ON?

 

[genet]

What do you think about the BIOS setting Enable Legacy ROMs ON?

"Enable Legacy Option ROMs" - "During the UEFI boot mode, the Enable Legacy Option ROMs option will allow legacy option ROMs to load. This option is disabled by default. NOTE: Without this option, only UEFI option ROMs will load. This option is required for Legacy boot mode. This option is not allowed if Secure Boot is enabled."

If you are using the UEFI boot mode, you can disable or enable the Enable Legacy Option ROMs option. But if Windows 7 does not start when you disable the Enable Legacy Option ROMs option, then enable the Enable Legacy Option ROMs option.

 

[glnz]

Genet - you nailed it. My Win 7 Pro 64-bit will not start with Enable Legacy Option ROMs off.

However, they were on when I first installed the Win 7. Would life have been better if I had kept them OFF when i first installed - in other words, if I had first installed with pure 100% UEFI?

On the other hand, I intend soon to try to set up XP Mode in the Win 7. If I had installed Win 7 with the Enable Legacy Option ROMs off, would that have prevented XP Mode?

Thanks.

 

[genet]

I'm pretty sure that you will fail to install Windows 7, if you disable the Enable Legacy Option ROMs option (in UEFI boot mode). So, the current settings are ok.

 

[glnz]

Genet - you're probably right, but what do you think about
UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface) - Install Windows 7 with - Windows 7 Help Forums
?

 

[genet]

Not all computers have the same UEFI firmware settings.

On some computers, you must enable UEFI mode and Legacy BIOS mode, if you want to install Windows 7 in UEFI mode.

 

[allend66]

Gentlemen,

as I'm trawling for an answer before posting, I found this thread. I have the same problem where my Win8 HP pavilion won't let me boot from CD/DVD or USB.

I have gone into the BIOS and firstly disabled secureboot, then enabled legacy boot, then changed the boot order in both EUFI and legacy BIOS to put the DVD & USB before hard drive/OS boot, and yet my two bootable media (a disc regenerator usb stick, and cd) wont 'take' and the laptop defaults to loading win8. THe dvd drive spins up but after a pause continues to load win8.

I have tried the boot media on my legacy win 7 laptop and they both work fine, so the problem is with the booting win 8.

My BIOS has cd/dvd boot enable/disable (obviously set to enabled but tried both out of frustration)
network boot enable/disable ipv4/eufi (tried all combinations without success)
the only other option left to try is 'delete all certificates' -> defaults to secureboot off, which I don't want to do.

So in summary, I've tried everything and still can't use non-windows boot media.

suggestions please?
thnx

 

[glnz]

Allend - see also

Cannot boot from CD-DVD in LEGACY mode - NOT Secure Boot NOT UEFI - Desktop General Hardware Forum - Desktop - Dell Community

Please let me know here or there what you find.

 

[allend66]

Thanks glnz

I've finally got it sorted, but straight forward is wasn't!

I had to boot into BIOS and disable secure boot. Then enable legacy boot. Then enable cd/dvdrom boot. Then I had to change network boot (even though I wasn't booting from network) from EUFI IPv6/IPv4 to EUFI IPv4 which once enabled changed its name to IPv4 legacy, then I had to save changes, reboot pressing escape key and selecting F9 boot options then select inbuilt cd/dvd rom drive. Pain in the neck. They don't make 'em like they used to...