OK, I know this one is complicated, and I've tried a variety of stuff, none of which has worked. I bought an ASUS N76 notebook cheap It came with Win7 Home Premium :-( and I want/need Enterprise/Ultimate features. And I want to dual boot Linux. From what I have read, I need GPT-partitioning to allow Linux to install correctly. Also, I'd like to replace the factory-installed 750GB disk with my own 120GB SSD. Even were Home Premium enough for my purposes, I still have the issue of getting it to work on my SSD. Problems: 1) The N76 is UEFI boot. You can only install Win7 on GPT-formatted disks in UEFI machines, and DAZ loader won't work on GPT/UEFI systems. 2) You can't activate Ultimate by KMS. 3) The drivers supplied by ASUS won't install on Enterprise. Things I have tried: 1) Install Ultimate on SSD MBR. Works fine, but Linux install fails, corrupts boot partition. 2) Install Ultimate on SSD GPT. Works fine, can't activate. 3) Install Enterprise on SSD MBR. Works ok, Linux install fails, corrupts boot partition. 4) Install Enterprise on SSD GPT. Works fine, can't install drivers. 5) Install Enterprise on SSD GPT. Change registry keys to report Home Premium, still can't install drivers. 6) Copy partitions from existing disk to SSD GPT. Won't boot, complains about missing *something* (partition ? disk? ....) I used gparted to copy partitions, so UUIDs should be the same, copied the MSR reserved partition using dd. 7) Copy recovery partition from existing disk to SSD GPT - recovery fails. Does anyone have suggestions as to how to get around this ? unspam
for the activation have you tried using any VLKs? Also try deleting the partition and remaking it. ive had problems with stuff like that before when installing an op system and if i deleted the partition and remade it it worked. id try that. but def get a second opinion cuz idk if that will work or not just a suggestion.
You have missed the main thing So it already has SLIC 2.1. You just need to install Asus cert & serial to activate. Answer of the problems: 1. You can turn off UEFI boot and use MBR booting instead. AFAIK dual booting Linux with Windows under UEFI isn't so simple. 2. That right, but you can use Enterprise. Also having SLIC 2.1 already, you don't need any loader. 3. Drivers aren't SKU specific.
Basically you have to learn facts before you start messing with something that you do not yet know about... (take it as constructive criticism)
True but if you don't break it then you'll not know how to fix it. Not everything goes as smoothly as the guides and helpful information suggest.
Thanks for the replies - the SLIC pointer is probably the most helpful. I didn't mean to suggest that the drivers were SKU specific, but rather the packages I have available to me obviously interrogate the SKU, and refuse to proceed when they don't find what they expect. Yes, I could probably extract the drivers and apply them directly, However, given that the notebook has a whole bunch of features that rely on additional software, and that won't install on the wrong version either, one thing I was looking for was a way of having windows report precisely what I wanted it to so as to allow the installations to proceed. Anyhow, I'll have a look at the SLIC stuff and see if I can make that change. Thanks again, unspam