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I have a Notebook that dual-boots Arch Linux and Windows 8 via GRUB. After swapping hard drives, Windows couldn't boot anymore, and I've spent hours on fixing this to no avail. (I've cloned everything correctly, and the Windows Partition was readable, only the boot didn't work).
So I decided to reinstall Windows 8, but now the installer says, Windows can be installed on GPT-drives only when using EFI mode. But I'm using MBR, and I don't wan't to re-format my whole drive. I don't even want to use EFI after all.
I guess, Windows tries to install in EFI mode, since the automatic UEFI-/Legacy-selection of my BIOS boots the recovery disk in UEFI mode. But in Legacy-only mode the recovery disk simply doesn't boot.
So how can I install Windows 8 on MBR? There must be a way, since I've done it before, from the same recovery media. If it only works when the recovery media is booted in legacy mode, then: How can I get my recovery media to boot in legacy mode?
LukeLR
Posted 2016-04-05T18:14:11.540
Reputation: 1 233
Windows 8 can be installed on both MBR and GPT partitions. If you are being told it cannot, then you have booted to the installation media, without first enabling legacy mode. There a reason you don't want to use GPT partitions which is fully support by Arch Linux? – Ramhound – 2016-04-05T18:16:13.657
I guess you're right, but, as I already wrote, when enabling legacy mode, I can't boot the recovery media. So I guess I need to fix this.
The main reason I don't want to use GPT is that I'd need to reformat my drive. I want to avoid this, since I've already spent enough hours in getting Windows to work. – LukeLR – 2016-04-05T18:17:28.717
If you can't boot to the recovery media, then its not bootable, more information outside of "it can't boot" is required to determine the cause. "The main reason I don't want to use GPT is that I'd need to reformat my drive" - Says whom? – Ramhound – 2016-04-05T18:21:31.173
The recovery media is bootable, otherwise I wouldn't be able to tell that Windows won't install because of MBR. Instead, it just refuses to boot in legacy mode, so It seems to work only with UEFI boot, however. I don't think one can convert an existing MBR drive to GPT without needing to extract/copy back the data? – LukeLR – 2016-04-05T18:25:29.817
The requirements for a device to be boot with legacy mode enabled is different then with it disabled. "I don't think one can convert an existing MBR drive to GPT without needing to extract/copy back the data? - I have done it before. – Ramhound – 2016-04-05T18:30:44.847
Of course are the requirements different. But I've used the same recovery media before, and I was able to install Windows 8 on MBR. There must be a way to get the install media bootable in legacy mode? Could you describe how to convert MBR to GPT? I've already searched the web but found nothing helpful. – LukeLR – 2016-04-05T18:33:50.263
"I've already searched the web but found nothing helpful." - This website has information I have used to do it. – Ramhound – 2016-04-05T18:37:20.150
I'd still prefer to use Windows 8 with MBR, and if the only way to get this to work is to boot the install media in legacy mode, then: how can I get my install media to boot in legacy mode? – LukeLR – 2016-04-05T18:42:20.920
Have you downloaded a Windows 8.1 .ISO from Microsoft and attempted to make a new installation media instead of using the one you had? – Ramhound – 2016-04-05T18:46:57.710
I've downloaded my Windows 8.1 ISO from Microsoft Dreamspark and already created a bootable stick from it using
ddand burned the ISO to a DVD. Both don't work in legacy mode, the stick was already used to install Windows on my MBR disk. – LukeLR – 2016-04-05T18:54:56.4331"using dd and burned the ISO to a DVD" - This is the reason its not bootable. I am confused if its not working in Legacy mode how did you install it on your MBR disk? – Ramhound – 2016-04-05T18:58:55.123
It IS bootable, but only in UEFI mode. I have already installed windows to my MBR disk with this recovery media last week, and I can't tell you why it worked that time and why it doesn't work anymore. If I could, I'd probably fix the issue by myself, but I'm asking here in hope that someone has an idea why the boot media doesn't boot in legacy mode... ;) – LukeLR – 2016-04-05T20:16:52.463
If the installation medium was booted in UEFI mode, your installation CAN'T be done on a MBR disk, that's a restriction of the installer. I don't know why your DVD doesn't boot in legacy mode, but for a USB flash drive, it needs to have necessary boot code for loading
– Tom Yan – 2016-04-05T20:40:33.213bootmgron the (1.) MBR and the (2.) boot sector of its (3.)activepartition. So partition your USB flash drive withfdiskin Linux, create a partition and mark it asactivewithainfdisk. Then format it to FAT32 or NTFS. For the boot code you can use something like http://ms-sys.sourceforge.net/Copying the content of the ISO to the stick can be a bit tricky under Linux though. You probably need to deal with some "permission" problem. – Tom Yan – 2016-04-05T20:42:12.463