UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface) - Install Windows 8 with

How to Install Windows 8 or Windows 8.1 using the "Unified Extensible Firmware Interface" (UEFI)​

   Information

Systems that are built using Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) are more likely to achieve very fast pre-boot times when compared to those with traditional BIOS. This isn’t because UEFI is inherently faster, but because UEFI writers starting from scratch are more able to optimize their implementation rather than building upon a BIOS implementation that may be many years old.

Delivering fast boot times in Windows 8 - Building Windows 8 - Site Home - MSDN Blogs

This method can also be used for the UEFI installation of Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 SP1, Windows Server 2008 R2, and Windows Vista SP1.

   Note

You will need to satisfy the following requirements in order to proceed:

• A Windows 8 compatible system
• A Windows 8 64-bit installation media. 32-bit is not supported.
• A UEFI v2.0+ compliant PC. Check your chipset manufacturer/firmware documentation.
• A blank, partition-free, hard disk for installation.

   Warning

• Disabling UEFI will make the system unbootable as there is no MBR on the disks.
• You CANNOT make a sector-by-sector copy of GPT disks. The Disk and Partition GUIDs will no longer be unique. This must never happen. You can make a sector-by-sector copy of the contents of ESP or basic data partitions.

Here's How:

1. Do step 2 or 3 below depending on what installation Media you are using.

2. If using a 64-bit Windows 8 or 8.1 Installation DVD with UEFI

A) Insert the DVD, restart the computer, and go to step 4 below.
NOTE: If you are unsure that your 64-bit DVD has UEFI support, then see OPTION TWO here: Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 ISO - Download or Create


3. If using a 64-bit Windows 8 or 8.1 Installation USB Flash Drive with UEFI

A) If you have not already, you will need to create a Windows 8 or 8.1 installation bootable USB flash drive with UEFI from either a Windows 8 installation ISO or DVD.

B) Connect the USB, restart the computer, and go to step 4 below.

   Tip

Enable or Disable Always Automatically Boot PC from USB Drive in Windows To Go Startup Options

How to Boot from a USB Drive within Windows 8 and 8.1

How to Boot from a USB Drive on Surface

4. Press whatever key (ex: F11) it shows to boot to your motherboard's boot menu, and select to boot from the listed UEFI DVD or UEFI USB. (see screenshot below)



5. Do steps 2 to 7 in the tutorial at the link below, and return.

Clean Install - Windows 8

6. Delete all partitions/volumes on the disk # (ex: Disk 0) that you want to install Windows 8 as UEFI on until that disk # shows as unallocated space. (see screenshot below)



7. When you are finished, click/tap on New, Apply (for full size of disk), and OK. (see screenshot above)

8. You will notice that the disk has now been formatted as GPT with 4 partitions. Select the "Primary" partition 4, and click/tap on Next. (see screenshot below)
NOTE: You might receive a "Windows can't be installed on drive 0" warning, but as long as you can click on the Next button, you're fine.

   Note

The 4 partitions are:

• Paritition 1 - Recovery
• Partition 2 - System - The EFI System partition that contains the NTLDR, HAL, Boot.txt, and other files that are needed to boot the system, such as drivers.
• Partition 3 - MSR - The Microsoft Reserved (MSR) partition that reserves space on each disk drive for subsequent use by operating system software.
• Partition 4 - Primary - Where Windows is to be installed to.
  
  It is imperative that these 4 partitions remain in the exact order as they are

9. You can now finish doing the steps in either tutorial below.

• Steps 9 to 21 here - Clean Install - Windows 8
• Same steps 9 to 21 as above, but also steps 4 to 6 afterwards here - Clean Install with Windows 8 Upgrade

10. That's it. You have successfully installed Windows 8 on a UEFI system.

Related Tutorials

---

• How to Clean Install Windows on a MSATA (SSD) Drive
• Create a Bootable UEFI USB Flash Drive for Installing Windows 7. Windows 8, and Windows 8.1
• How to Install Windows 7 Using "Unified Extensible Firmware Interface" (UEFI)
• Create Bootable USB or DVD with Windows 8 ISO
• How to Do a Clean Install of Windows 8 or Windows 8.1
• How to Do a Clean Install with Windows 8 Upgrade
• Convert MBR Disk to GPT Disk - Windows 7 Forums
• How to Download and Run the "Windows 8 Upgrade Assistant"
• How to Create or Download a Windows 8 Upgrade ISO
• How to Enable or Disable Secure Boot in UEFI
• How to Check if Secure Boot is Enabled or Disabled in Windows 8 and 8.1
• How to Check if Windows is Booted in UEFI or Legacy BIOS Mode
• How to Boot to UEFI Firmware Settings from inside Windows 8
• How to Do a Repair Install of Windows 8 without Losing Anything
• How to Upgrade from Windows 8, Windows 7, Vista, or XP to Windows 8 or 8.1
• How to Open Device Manager During Installation of Windows 8 and 8.1

External Links:

• Windows and GPT FAQ
• Unified Extensible Firmware Interface - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
• UEFI and Windows
• Technical Note: UEFI BIOS vs. Legacy BIOS - YouTube

 

[m1midan0s]

Hello m1midan0s, and welcome to Eight Forums.

The tutorial below can help show you how to create a bootable Windows 8 installation USB for UEFI.

http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/15458-uefi-bootable-usb-flash-drive-create-windows.html


Once created, you could use the tutorial on the first page of this thread to install with UEFI.

Hope this helps,
Shawn

Al right, thnx! I just ordered an 8gb USB stick (since I only had a 2gb lying around here) and I'll try again tomorrow.

Changed my hardware today and Windows 8 couldn't boot. After resetting windows 8 to factory settings it asked again to activate, which now it can't do, because according to windows my "license key has been activated more than the maximum". What's that all about?

Anyway, I'll be happy if I manage to get w8 installed with UEFI and afterwards I guess I'll give microsoft a call about that deal.

 

[Brink]

Since it's a hardware change, you may need to do a phone activation.

 

[m1midan0s]

Since it's a hardware change, you may need to do a phone activation.

Just wanted to say thank you for everyone's help here at the forum. I had contact multiple times with the customer service, but they didn't even know what UEFI was.

Then, after realizing I could just run the Upgrade Assistant again to create the ESD-folder, I created the ISO with UEFI-support, did a clean install with the windows 8 upgrade CD and activated through the phone as Brink suggested.

Now I have Windows 8 booting lightning fast (7-10 seconds) from my Crucial M4 SSD with AHCI and UEFI enabled! Just like I wanted.

Thanks!

 

[Brink]

You're most welcome m1midan0s. Glad we could help.

 

[dinkoh]

I'm at a loss here.

I'm in UEFI boot mode, secure mode off.

I've deleted all partitions back in LEGACY MODE when I installing Windows 8 PRO x64.

But, when I tried to do a clean install with UEFI, I get:

"No boot device available.
SATA 0: Installed
SATA 1: Installed
SATA 2: None
SATA 3: None
Strike the F1 key to retry boot, F2 to run the setup utility"


It seems that UEFI doesn't recognize my USB flash drive.


But, when I do Legacy BIOS mode, it recognizes my USB drive as "UEFI: SanDisk Cruzer".

Any thoughts?

 

[theog]

I'm at a loss here.

I'm in UEFI boot mode, secure mode off.

I've deleted all partitions back in LEGACY MODE when I installing Windows 8 PRO x64.

But, when I tried to do a clean install with UEFI, I get:

"No boot device available.
SATA 0: Installed
SATA 1: Installed
SATA 2: None
SATA 3: None
Strike the F1 key to retry boot, F2 to run the setup utility"


It seems that UEFI doesn't recognize my USB flash drive.


But, when I do Legacy BIOS mode, it recognizes my USB drive as "UEFI: SanDisk Cruzer".

Any thoughts?

Is the USB drive formatted to FAT32?

http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/15458-uefi-bootable-usb-flash-drive-create-windows.html

 

[m1midan0s]

I have one more question:

I installed Windows 8 in UEFI mode, but with an older BIOS without full Windows 8 support. ATM I didn't know all the UEFI settings, so I unknowingly installed Windows 8 in IDE-mode and with CSM enabled (which AsRock calls "Normal boot").

At that moment, Windows 8 booted in about 45 seconds. Which was slower than my "old" system with an Core 2 Duo E6750 CPU.

After I installed Windows 8, I updated the BIOS to version 2.00, which has full windows 8 fast boot support, and set the boot mode to "Ultra Fast" (which means CSM is disabled) and found that the SSD was running in IDE mode, so I changed it to AHCI (and made the necessary registry tweaks to be able to boot to windows).

At this point, Windows 8 boots in 23 seconds. Which is pretty great, but not what I expected, as AsRock claims the A75M-motherboards with UEFI support should be able to boot in less than 10 seconds.

Now, my question is: can I gain any more speed in boottime if I reinstall Windows 8 again with all these settings set beforehand?

My system specs can be found in my profile.

 

[Brink]

m1midan0s,

I can't use the "Ultra Fast" option since I don't have a compatible graphics card, but it's still the same on my ASRock X79 Extreme11 mobo when I installed how you have it set now beforehand.

I'm thinking that claim is for if you use "Fast Startup" in Windows 8 with UEFI and use the hybrid boot/shutdown feature.

This subject is all for a new thread to keep this one on topic though.

 

[dinkoh]

I'm at a loss here.

I'm in UEFI boot mode, secure mode off.

I've deleted all partitions back in LEGACY MODE when I installing Windows 8 PRO x64.

But, when I tried to do a clean install with UEFI, I get:

"No boot device available.
SATA 0: Installed
SATA 1: Installed
SATA 2: None
SATA 3: None
Strike the F1 key to retry boot, F2 to run the setup utility"


It seems that UEFI doesn't recognize my USB flash drive.


But, when I do Legacy BIOS mode, it recognizes my USB drive as "UEFI: SanDisk Cruzer".

Any thoughts?

Is the USB drive formatted to FAT32?

http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/15458-uefi-bootable-usb-flash-drive-create-windows.html

Yeah, it definitely is. I followed those instructions above (twice). Does it confirm it when I do boot using Legacy mode, it does say UEFI: Sandisk Cruzer? But it doesn't recognize it when I boot in UEFI BIOS mode.

I'm not sure why it doesn't recognize my USB when booting.

 

[theog]

I'm at a loss here.

I'm in UEFI boot mode, secure mode off.

I've deleted all partitions back in LEGACY MODE when I installing Windows 8 PRO x64.

But, when I tried to do a clean install with UEFI, I get:

"No boot device available.
SATA 0: Installed
SATA 1: Installed
SATA 2: None
SATA 3: None
Strike the F1 key to retry boot, F2 to run the setup utility"


It seems that UEFI doesn't recognize my USB flash drive.


But, when I do Legacy BIOS mode, it recognizes my USB drive as "UEFI: SanDisk Cruzer".

Any thoughts?

Is the USB drive formatted to FAT32?

http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/15458-uefi-bootable-usb-flash-drive-create-windows.html

Yeah, it definitely is. I followed those instructions above (twice). Does it confirm it when I do boot using Legacy mode, it does say UEFI: Sandisk Cruzer? But it doesn't recognize it when I boot in UEFI BIOS mode.

I'm not sure why it doesn't recognize my USB when booting.

Do you have Secure Boot DISABLED?

 

[dinkoh]

Is the USB drive formatted to FAT32?

http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/15458-uefi-bootable-usb-flash-drive-create-windows.html

Yeah, it definitely is. I followed those instructions above (twice). Does it confirm it when I do boot using Legacy mode, it does say UEFI: Sandisk Cruzer? But it doesn't recognize it when I boot in UEFI BIOS mode.

I'm not sure why it doesn't recognize my USB when booting.

Do you have Secure Boot DISABLED?

I tried both way with secure boot disabled and enabled, and it didn't seem to matter.

 

[theog]

Yeah, it definitely is. I followed those instructions above (twice). Does it confirm it when I do boot using Legacy mode, it does say UEFI: Sandisk Cruzer? But it doesn't recognize it when I boot in UEFI BIOS mode.

I'm not sure why it doesn't recognize my USB when booting.

Do you have Secure Boot DISABLED?

I tried both way with secure boot disabled and enabled, and it didn't seem to matter.

For better help with problems, Can you post your specs.

Filling out System Specs - Windows 7 Help Forums

System Info - See Your System Specs - Windows 7 Help Forums

 

[dinkoh]

Do you have Secure Boot DISABLED?

I tried both way with secure boot disabled and enabled, and it didn't seem to matter.

For better help with problems, Can you post your specs.

Filling out System Specs - Windows 7 Help Forums

System Info - See Your System Specs - Windows 7 Help Forums

Thanks for helping. I put in my specs.

 

[theog]

I tried both way with secure boot disabled and enabled, and it didn't seem to matter.

For better help with problems, Can you post your specs.

Filling out System Specs - Windows 7 Help Forums

System Info - See Your System Specs - Windows 7 Help Forums

Thanks for helping. I put in my specs.

Reset the Dell BIOS back to default settings.

Also are you using the Dell reinstall Windows 8 x64 DVD to make the USB drive?

 

[uffbros]

I also can't get this to make a UEFI Boot USB. I have a Windows 8 OEM .iso image. I followed the directions on how to make this bootable flash drive and while it boots it doesn't say UEFI when I select my Geek Squad 8GB Flash Drive. It just says Geek Squad 8GB. I have done this like 5 times following exactly the guide. I use Power Iso to do the extraction. I am doing this from my Toshiba Laptop with Win 8 Pro on it. I am getting a new HP Desktop in a few days and will immediately wipe it and clean install but now I don't know????? I have used known working USB Flash drives as well..It's not that. Thanks for further advise.

 

[NIJAVA2]

Need Help With Bios Setup Mode Windows 8

Hi

I recently purchased an Asus N56VJ with Windows 8 pre-installed. At first I was trying to downgrade to Windows 7, but could not get past the windows splash screen. Anyway, while I was trying to figure out how to install windows 7, I was messing around in the bios. I decided to just stick with the Windows 8, but my bios is screwed up. I do not have any boot configuration options anymore. I tried to flash my bios, but still the bios was still the same. I did a full reset on my machine, and still no change in the bios. Is there any way to get my bios options back to the factory settings with all the options? Thanks in advance for any help that can be provided.

 

[theog]

Hi

I recently purchased an Asus N56VJ with Windows 8 pre-installed. At first I was trying to downgrade to Windows 7, but could not get past the windows splash screen. Anyway, while I was trying to figure out how to install windows 7, I was messing around in the bios. I decided to just stick with the Windows 8, but my bios is screwed up. I do not have any boot configuration options anymore. I tried to flash my bios, but still the bios was still the same. I did a full reset on my machine, and still no change in the bios. Is there any way to get my bios options back to the factory settings with all the options? Thanks in advance for any help that can be provided.

Reset the ASUs BIOS back to default setting.

 

[NIJAVA2]

Tried that about a dozen times...doesnt work I'm attaching screen shots of my bios...

 

[BFsampson]

Identify UEFI on Win 8 Pro 64 bit DVD

New to Win 8 and this forum. Is there a way to look in (view files) a Win 8 Pro DVD and determine if it supports UEFI upon a clean installation on Win 8 Pro?

I ask because in the "Here's How" of this tut a Note in step two indicates some Win 8 DVDs may not support UEFI. At least that is my interpretation of the note.

 

[andydviking]

When I installed windows 8 UEFI I inserted my disk and took the following steps. When Windows 8 install came to actual install screen. I 1.) hit ctrl+f10 2.) type diskpart 3.) type list disk 4.) type select disk 0 5.) clean 6.) type convert gpt 7.) exit

After that I just installed windows and it worked fine.

Is this method OK? Or does it cause problems?

Thank you for your time and great guide.