An amazingly crazy problem :(
 

Hello everyone, I'm in desperate need to help with a problem.
It's quite a complex problem so I'm going to try and describe it as best I can.. here goes.

I got a 256GB SSD for Xmas and am trying to put Windows 7 64bit and Linux Mint 16 KDE 64bit on it.

My computer is custom built with a Gigabyte Z77X-UD3H motherboard (rev 1.0), it has UEFI DualBIOS on it and is updated to the latest non-beta BIOS.

When I try to boot the computer using 'Legacy', it can see all my DVD and Hard Drives. When I try to boot the computer in 'UEFI', It cannot find anything.. no DVD drives, no Hard Drives.

I can press F12 on boot to access a boot menu to choose what device I want to boot from.

I tried to make the new SSD use the GPT partitioning system but my computer, when booting in UEFI, doesn't even find my DVD drive to start installing.

So, after a while in my old Windows installation, I made the disk MBR and proceeded to install Windows absolutely fine on a partition.

I then tried to install Linux Mint 16 KDE and the pain started.

I loaded the install CD and went to install it but Linux Mint can't find my Windows partition. It said the entire drive was empty.

I proceeded to ignore it and make a partition on the other half of the drive and Linux Mint installed fine. I reboot and get greeted with a 'Windows cannot boot' screen.

After digging around, I have discovered that even though I have selected 'Legacy' and not 'UEFI', Linux Mint decided to make the disk GPT and install itself on the latter part of the disk, erasing and unallocating the Windows partition.

So now I am in this position, Window seems to have been wiped from the disk. UEFI mode on my PC makes all my drives on my PC vanish for no reason so I cant boot into anything with it and all I have is a working Linux Mint installation :(

I am at a loss for ideas now, I've spent hours browsing forums and I'm unable to find any helpful information.

I want to get Windows 7 and Linux Mint 16 working side by side in MBR/Legacy mode only, UEFI/GPT seems to be nothing but problems for this machine.

I hope someone can offer some guidance on the issue.

Thank You in advance.

Make sure secure boot is off in the BIOS. This may explain it not finding disks in UEFI mode.

I know that some installs fail in UEFI mode, but it should still detect the disk.

From here... Could you check that this is not your case? This might explain why your computer even refuses to see the DVD ..

Basically ensure that the DVD-ROM is not on SATA2 (connector 5) .. You could try simply to plug it in on another connector..

Secure Boot is not installed on this motherboard. At least, I don't believe it to be after checking. The latest BETA BIOS seems to 'Support' Secure Boot.

http://www.gigabyte.com/products/pro...?pid=4153#bios

Actually this has got me thinking, it says Secure Boot option. Could it be that Secure Boot is on this machine already and that this update merely adds the option to switch it off?

How can I set my SSD to MBR in Linux so I can install Windows to update the BIOS?

OK I just swapped the cables around and SATA5 is now empty, but I still dont see any drives at all in UEFI only mode :(

Ok, so... Aparently you need to do a hybrid gpt/mbr partition table (GPT actually reserves the first 512 bytes just so it won't brake the MBR)

What I've read so far: http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/top...ithout-format/
http://www.rodsbooks.com/gdisk/whygdisk.html

What I would do if I was you...
Start mint live cd..
Create a complete gpt disk, and then find a way to partition and create an hybrid mbr-gpt (there is "gdisk" -- an fdisk equivalent for GPT)
Restart and install windows..
Install Mint

If Secure Boot would be enabled on this machine you wouldn't have been able to install Windows 7 in the fiirst place, since it simply does not support Secure Boot.
I also would be very surprised if you have a mSATA SSD in your system, those are usually used in laptops and if you didn't specifically by such an SSD you most likely don't have one.
So, this possibilities are already out of the way.
I would do this:
- Install Windows 7, in Legacy mode
- Boot from the Mint DVD and post the output of

I can't install Windows right now since Linux saw fit to make my SSD GPT without asking me if I wanted to keep MBR :( I'm going to grab the gparted ISO and make this SSD MBR so I can install Windows again.

OK in the end I got completely fed up, installed Windows on my old HDD and used the Disk Management tool to make the SSD a MBR drive again. I burned GParted to a DVD and now, after creating the two partitions I need (|NTFS|EXT4| on the drive), I have to try installing Linux Mint so that it doesnt screw up my Windows partition.

If it doesn't see the partition I created, I guess I'll have to do without using Linux Mint for a while until I can find a solution (I need Linux for my job so its crucial)

Success! Linux Mint was able to install proerly onto the second partition now and after following this helpful video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9dwwSSg-kJM

I was able to set things up just the way I want it. Thank you all :) Its been... enlightening!

Glad you got it installed. Please mark this as Solved!