UEFI failed installation of Windows 7

Drives over 2.2TB cannot be used as MBR for booting/primary drives and need to be GPT. GPT can only be a boot drive under an UEFI installed OS.

While I appreciate your suggestion of just using Windows 7, I am looking for an answer to my question.

Thank you.

Most likely, the install DVD you're using only has the MBR boot block instead of the UEFI boot block. You can fix this, but you'll need to reburn the install DVD:

1. Install the Windows 7 Automated Installation Kit onto another system.

2. The only tool from the AIK you'll need is oscdimg.

3. Copy the contents of your install DVD onto the system with oscdimg into a temporary folder (referred to hereafter as <folder>). Note the title of your DVD (referred to hereafter as <title>).

4. Create the new ISO with the UEFI boot block from an elevated Command Prompt

oscdimg -u2 -o -h -m -n -e -pEF -b<folder>\efi\microsoft\boot\efisys.bin -l<title> <folder> <title>.iso

For an explanation of the CLI options, see this link: oscdimg CLI options .

5. Burn the new ISO to physical media.

I thought the latest Windows 7 installation DVDs had the UEFI folder already prepared for installation.  Does the process you describe eliminate the BIOS boot block? Will I see the UEFI shell during this installation or will it go right to the Windows 7 installation?

Thank you for your help.

Yes, this process replaces the BIOS boot block with the UEFI boot block. However, you haven't lost anything, since you'll still have your original install DVD with the BIOS boot block.

Trying this in a VM doesn't cause the UEFI shell to appear for me, unless there's a boot failure. It goes right to Setup, after the "Press any key to boot from CD/DVD" prompt.

You can also try burning a multi-boot DVD with both boot blocks, but this usually doesn't work, since most motherboard implementations of El Torito don't understand multi-boot boot blocks.

oscdimg -u2 -o -h -m -n -bootdata:2#p0,e,b<folder>\boot\etfsboot.com#pEF,e,b<folder>\efi\microsoft\boot\efisys.bin -l<title> <folder> <title>.iso

Thank you again for working this issue. I might have made an error somewhere because oscdimg said I could not use -n with a -u2. I copied the string directly from the email. The only was to get the process to finish was to delete the -n. Did this ruin the ISO build?

Samuel,

I used an external USB DVD drive and finally got the installation to work using the OEM DVD without any changes. I am not sure why the IDE and SATA drives would not work, but I will assume that it is a motherboard controller issue. It would not install from a USB thumb drive either.

http://usingwindowshomeserver.com/2010/11/22/3tb-western-digital-drive-on-a-uefi-day-night/

Thank you again for helping me. I will mention your name in the article.

Tim