Reinstall Win 8 in UEFI and Acronis Backup

[theog]

I would redownload setup, & reburn DVD.

 

[fireberd]

The saga continues. I tried UEFI with my Windows 7 install disc. It installed but then when I rebooted it came up with an error that it couldn't repair, similar to what I am getting with Win 8.

However, I can restore the drive with Acronis back to the Win 8 MBR install without problems.

I'm beginning to think there is something with the ASRock UEFI BIOS. It is an ASRock Z77 Professional motherboard, with the latest BIOS. There is an option to restore the UEFI defaults in the BIOS and I did that, and it didn't help.

 

[fireberd]

The Win 8 disc that I made, was from a redownloaded Win 8 image. But, with the Win 7 (with a factory Win 7 disc, not a downloaded/burned disc) doing the same thing it would appear to be some sort of motherboard/UEFI BIOS issue.

 

[theog]

Linux are having problems with the ASRock uEFI/BIOS firmware.

 

[fireberd]

Hmm. I tried loading the Acronis Linux rescue disc and all I got was garbage on the screen. Fortunately I have a WinPE (3.0) Acronis rescue disc and it works OK.

Thats too bad if it is an ASRock UEFI BIOS problem (and its looking like it is).

 

[theog]

Yes, it is looking that way.

 

[znod]

Good luck. I'll be interested in seeing how it turns out.

 

[fireberd]

Since non UEFI works OK, it has to be either something in the UEFI BIOS or some other motherboard problem. I'm betting on the UEFI BIOS. When I get a chance later in the week I'm going to reflash the BIOS and then try it again.

 

[fireberd]

I just saw that ASRock has a new BIOS version (1.60 dated 2/18/13 (today)) for my ASROCK Z77 Professional Fata1ty. I'll install that and try again later in the week, since I was going to reflash the BIOS.

The only thing listed for the update is "improve memory compatibility". I didn't have any memory problems as I'm using memory that is listed by ASRock as compatible with the board. But, there may be additonal fixes that are not listed.

 

[Saltgrass]

I just went from an Windows 7 MBR install on an non-UEFI computer to a UEFI install on the new computer, which is harder that what you are doing. Windows 8 should not be that different, except you may not be able to use a Recovery partition.

It seems you are having problems with a normal UEFI install. I would not pre-configure the hard drive, just use it in a RAW state, as you might have after cleaning it with Diskpart. I would also let the Windows 8 download make a Flash Drive rather than an .iso file.

If you need the specifics, let me know. You may want to have the Partition Wizard Home Bootable version available so you can boot to it and copy and recreate the OS (boot) partition from the original drive. Any Partition management software that can copy a partition might work just as well.

 

[fireberd]

Saltgrass, I've tried various configurations and prepping of the hard drive and let Windows format/create the partitions. If Windows can't format or create the paritions, nothing will. The OS installs, both Win 7 64 bit and Win 8 Pro 64 bit, and basically works until the PC is rebooted. However, the same drive MBR formatted has worked for 6 months without problems.

I have to try again since I updated the BIOS. I suspect either the BIOS or an issue on the motherboard is causing the problems, not the install procedure, including disc formatting.

 

[theog]

I just went from an Windows 7 MBR install on an non-UEFI computer to a UEFI install on the new computer, which is harder that what you are doing. Windows 8 should not be that different, except you may not be able to use a Recovery partition.

Harder?

 

[fireberd]

Well, it still does not work with the new 1.60 BIOS. I get the exact same error. I even went through the option in the Win 8 setup disc to erase the drive, then formatted it with Win 8 and installed.

I'm back up with the MBR version (I'm entering this from the PC with the MBR Win 8 installed) and all is working. Guess I'll have to leave this system as is. I don't know what else to try with UEFI. I need to take my own advice about "if it ain't broke don't fix it". LOL

 

[Saltgrass]

I'm back up with the MBR version (I'm entering this from the PC with the MBR Win 8 installed) and all is working. Guess I'll have to leave this system as is. I don't know what else to try with UEFI. I need to take my own advice about "if it ain't broke don't fix it". LOL

There have been times when booting to something listed as UEFI does not actually do that. I ran into that problem when I was making .iso files for Windows 8 on my own. Do not know if this is related to your situation.

Could it be the UEFI firmware on your system, possibly. I assume you have reset the bios to its defaults after installing the latest firmware?

But you can boot into an UEFI install media and get to the first page of the install? This is were you used Diskpart to clean the drive, I assume. When you continue with the install, and tell it where to put Windows 8, you show the 4 partitions a UEFI install creates?

It reboots a couple of times during the install. That part goes OK and you are able to actually use the install after you get logged in? But during subsequent reboots, the install fails....

If I am misinterpreting your experience, please advise where I differ.

I did once have a new drive that would allow me to install the OS, but during the first or second normal reboot, it would fail. Turned out to be a bad drive.

I did go ahead and work with Windows 8. I got the OS partition transferred and the system booted normally after. Still not completely sure if the Recovery mode will work correctly, although the BCD store does look as it should concerning the "recoverysequence" entry. But it won't do much good if you can't install in UEFI mode.

 

[fireberd]

I reset the BIOS by removing the CMOS backup battery for 15 minutes and no help. I've reset the BIOS to the "restore UEFI defaults" several times and that has not helped. I've disabled fast boot and that made no difference. The different BIOS versions have not helped.

With the Win 8 UEFI install the first time it reboots during the install is when it fails. With the Windows 7 UEFI install (from a factory Win 7 disc, not a burned disc) it will install and get to the desktop, but the first time its rebooted it fails and will not repair. I've got a second hard drive connected to the system and I thought that may be causing problems as it had been a Windows 7 system disc, I disconnected that drive and tried another complete new install and it didn't make any difference so that drive is not the issue.

Another indication that makes me suspect the motherboard (or BIOS) is that an Acronis Linux rescue disc will boot but the display is broken up and unreadable garbage. The WinPE/Acronis rescue disc loads without problems and Acronis will format either MBR or GPT and the restore function to restore the drive from a second hard drive works as it should.


The PC is an ASRock Z77 Professional Fatal1ty motherboard, i5 3550 CPU, 8GB GSkill Ripsaw memory (memory part number certified by ASRock for the motherboard). I'm using the built in CPU Intel graphics. No expansion cards. Two SATA Optical Drives.

 

[fireberd]

Update (again). The Acronis Linux version disc boots up but the display is all garbled. I tried two different discs, one created with Acronis 2012 and another created with 2013 and they both are the same.

I downloaded Ubuntu 12.0 and created an iso disc. That boots and works fine. I ran Ubuntu from the disc only for testing.

 

[Cowboy]

Fireberd,

I'm a little late to the show here, but I have been using Acronis, Windows 7, and GPT drives for the last few years. I have been using Acronis on Windows 8 UEFI also, so I have some experience. Whenever I have converted a working system from MBR to UEFI I have restored the partition to the new drive with Acronis, but the computer would not boot. I then had to boot with a UEFI USB stick running Microsoft (not acronis) Windows PE (or an install disk) and fix the BCD entries before the system would boot on its own. Further, Acronis does not support UEFI with WinPE. You can make a Linux restore disk that will be UEFI compatible, but not WinPE. A good example of this is that if you boot your system with an Acronis WinPE recovery disk you can do backups and restores but you will lose your BCD data. A good way to test where you are is to boot your UEFI system from the Acronis WinPE disk (or stick) and then alt+tab to the DOS window and run BCDEDIT. If it says that the BCD data cannot be found you probably have a valid UEFI install but you need to fix the BCD data and for that you have to be running in UEFI mode. You can do that by booting with the EFI option of the Windows install disk, hit shift + f10 at the language screen and then run Bcdedit and fix the path to the EFI partition and maybe the device and osdevice entries. This stuff can be tricky and it took me a while to realize how it works. If you have access to a running UEFI system run BCDEDI on that system so you know what the entries are supposed to look like.

 

[fireberd]

Thanks for the info, I'll keep this in mind. I've just about given up, at least for now, of trying to get this system converted to UEFI. As I noted, the Acronis Linux version rescue disc will boot but all I get is garbled display, nothing that I can read. I've tried this with discs made previously with Acronis 2012 and recently with Acronis 2013, however, an Ubuntu Linux disc loads and works (from the disc) fine. I posted on the Acronis forum about using an Acronis MBR disc backup to restore and according to what was posted there it won't work.