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I'll start by saying I tried everything I found. And still nothing worked.
Preface
I've converted my old MBR to GPT partition table. I actually thought I'll just have to reinstall GRUB2 and eventually Windows and it'll be fine. It wasn't. I used gdisk(GPT fdisk) to do the conversion without data loss.
Problem
At first, my Windows wouldn't load. Then, I'd do repair of BCD, where the problem was, and ended up not being able to boot to HDD at all and stuck at grub rescue screen. Tried full repair, and every other repair I run into, same thing. When I reinstall/repair GRUB, I get BCD error at windows boot.
Solutions and further problems
The most obvious one - reinstall Windows. Well, not gonna happen. It won't install on GPT without UEFI hardware. Protecting me from myself, so Microsoft-style. I made a terrible mistake and didn't realize the problem was at the partition TABLE, and not the partition itself, and formatted Windows partition. I didn't lose anything important - well, except Windows.
Next thing I tried was hybrid-MBR. I guess no one told Windows installer that, since it gives the same error(tried windows 7 and 8 both 64-bit). I used gdisk recovery menu for that, and went through all the inputs, and finished working properly.
Next was the attempt of DUET installation. Where I expected it to fail boot, due to my AMD CPU, it didn't even manage to install. I used duet-install script which I downloaded together with the files here. The script stops always at the same spot:
Partition starts at sector 2048
. And I've looked at the script's source, it should soon print out next line(it printed 13 lines in a moment), but nothing happens, for hours. Tried re-running, re-downloading, running from live CD, and nothing. Here's the whole output:
Will install SYSLINUX to the MBR Path to SYSLINUX is /usr/share/syslinux
Path to bootduet is /home/ubuntu/Downloads/tianocore_uefi_duet_builds-tianocore_uefi_duet_installer/BootSector
Path to UEFI DUET is /home/ubuntu/Downloads/tianocore_uefi_duet_builds-tianocore_uefi_duet_installer
Will install UEFI version UDK Target partition is /dev/sda1
Will create a FAT filesystem called 'ESP' on the target partition
Target disk (for storing MBR boot code) is /dev/sda Partition number is 1
Partition starts at sector 2048
[edit] Tried installing XP, but it can't format the unformatted space. I tried formatting it with GParted to ntfs, but installation still registers it as unformatted space(and nothing else except it). But to be completely honest - that cd was shelved for a long time, I barely found it, and I have no idea is it x64(probably isn't so not gonna work).
So, I'm stuck now. Help please?
Also, reformatting whole HDD isn't an option. Windows isn't worth it, I'd rather stay with Linux. Also, conversion back to MBR neither, since as far as I read, it includes formatting. Also, I got 7(or 8?) partitions(5 on old MBR, but I used extended partitions... was messy).
Specs
MoBo: ASUS M5A78l-M LX CPU: AMD Athlon II x3 450
Current Workaround (well, except the obious(linux))
I got windows 8 installation to start in VirtualBox. It's some progress, but I don't want to be stuck with VM every time I want to launch Windows.
Edits
I've played around with a duet-install script. If I type some letter and hit enter, it prints parted: invalid token: [letter]
. If that letter is 'c', it prints Unknown partition table type ! Aborting!
, which is obviously not the case. I guess I'll have to analyze the source deeper to get to the root of problem, because that script is the best solution to me now.
Got to the point where script stops executing:
ptLine=
parted "${targetDisk}" print | grep "Partition Table"`. Will try to find a solution by skiping checks and set values to match my system.
I have edited the script, and removed the part that didn't work, and finally manage to install DUET. Or at least it said so... I notice no changes to BIOS, it's all like on beginning. Still won't work.