I don't know how often I already checked this ultra-helpful article: www DOT sevenforums DOT com/installation-setup/320700-boot-windows-7-8-gpt-bios-system-no-hybrid-mbrs-duet.html The article is about how to boot Win 7 on an old system (without UEFI) when Win 7 itself is on a GPT disk which an old PC of course cannot see. (The solution is simply to have another disk or a USB stick even that is MBR, and do the few steps in the article: Basically, for loading Win7 from the GPT disk it only needs a few boot files accessible on a MBR. The boot files are read, and then the Win7 on GPT loads). I did that already multiple times and I have no plans to convert my wife's PC to MBR. The cool thing about it: It WORKS also with DAZ Windows loader. I have activated Win7 Ultimate without converting the disk to MBR. I can run (and activate) this Win 7 on a new motherboard with UEFI or even on a very old motherboard which doesn't know GPT. Worked every time. So: Let's say you have a Win 7 machine and don't want to or are too lazy to convert your entire disk to MBR to activate, all you need is some old HD, size doesn't matter, just get the oldest and slowest HD you can find in your junk drawer, put in the PC as additional drive and use the method in the article..and activate Windows.
Thanks flexy123, this is really interesting. I have installed Win 7 64 on a very recent board with Kaby Lake. I had to install it with GPT because although the "CSM support" option in BIOS makes MBR work, this is only true for USB ports not for the SATA port. MBR disks are simply not seen on SATA port. but GPT means I can't use Daz's loader the classic way. I was thinking I can buy a nano USB (the very small ones usually used for mouse), keep it plugged forever and use this approach. I want to avoid the BIOS solutions at all cost as the computer is very new and they really scare me. Any thoughts/suggestions are welcome. How much is boot time affected?
???????????? The sata port is not leading.... When you enable the csm, it will allow to install Legacy BIOS/MBR.
Yes but in the case mentioned it won't work. It will tell you "Setup was unable to create a new system partition". You can try if you don't believe me... I think you missed this part of my post. They are slowly removing legacy bios support from the new boards.
use diskpart to create the partitions press shift+f10 when you see the windows setup Code: diskpart list disk (check if 0 is your disk) select disk 0 clean convert mbr create partition primary active format fs=ntfs quick exit Continue the windows setup
Thanks but I tried even better than this. Get your hands on a new board if you can. They are slowly removing legacy bios support from the new boards. For example on my board MBR disks are only read via USB as I said in my first post.
Hi lynloz_83, Sure, It's an Asus UX310UAK mobo with Kaby Lake. I believe the previous model with Skylake doesn't have this "problem".