Two years ago I got a 2 Tbyte HD for "data" and it's less than 25% full, 2 years later, so I made a partition on it so I could install Win8.1 as an experiment. Used an ISO and Rufus. USB drive boots, but Win8.1 refuses to install to the GPT partition. Research shows there are "BIOS settings" somewhere, but everything I change renders the USB drive non-bootable. Somehow, when I first bought the 2 Tbyte drive, I got it recognized by this computer for Win7, but Win8 won't have anything to do with it. The computer is an HP but Speccy says it's "Asus". Asus P5BW-LA BASSWOOD3G It has "P5BW-LA" printed on the motherboard, so I'm sure it's this. I read about modded BIOS and SLIC, but I have no idea what that is. I wonder if "unlocked" BIOS gives me options to access this GBTpartitioned hard drive. Help?
@November_Zulu 1. Please post a screenshot of the Disk Management window with the HDD connected with it. 2. Its not feasible to emulate UEFI environment on this legacy platform to install Windows in UEFI mode.
It's only a 2TB Hdd. You don't need GPT. Just wipe it and install as a normal bios/legacy/mbr. As a data drive it can be GPT, but not as a primary...
Note: Parition/Drive "J:" is where I was able to successfully install Win8.1 (somehow). I'm certain that the 1st time Win8 would not allow me to install on this HD. I've switched several things in the very limited BIOS, none of them say anything like "secure boot" and every time I switch something that might be significant (such as disable legacy usb support), the USB drive is no longer recognized as a bootable device. Thanks I was wondering if this was an option. Is there a way to do this from a Wn7 environment? I could move all the data off the 2 Tbyte, wipe & reformat and be done with this problem.