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I have installed Ubuntu 11.10 x64 onto a 500GB SATA (Seagate Barracuda ES.2) drive. I have downloaded Windows 8 Developer preview x64 onto a USB stick and I can't install it on a NTFS partition I created in Ubuntu with GParted. The error says that Windows cannot be installed onto the partition because the partition is GPT. My motherbaord is an Asus P8Z68-V LE and it supports UEFI, but i have no idea whether this is enabled. Gparted shows me this: enter image description here How can I determine whether Windows 8 is using UEFI?

Can I install Windows without wiping the entire HDD?

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The Windows partition has to be first, I believe. – satyrwilder Jan 26 at 2:27
@satyrwilder Is there any way to do that without wiping Linux? – Tim Jan 26 at 2:30
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up vote 4 down vote accepted

Windows Vista and 7, and presumably 8, only support installing to a GPT disk when the installer is booted using UEFI rather than BIOS emulation. This is a configuration setting in your "BIOS" (really a misnomer on a UEFI system).

Consult your motherboard's manual to find out how to boot from the install media without using BIOS emulation. (And make sure your install media actually supports booting that way — IIRC, it should contain a directory called EFI, containing a file named bootx64.efi.

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The USB only has: bootmgr.efi efi/microsoft/boot/cdboot.efi efi/microsoft/boot/cdboot_noprompt.efi efi/microsoft/boot/memtest.efi – Tim Jan 26 at 8:56
Psst! – JdeBP Jan 26 at 14:05
@Tim, I might be wrong about the requirement for a bootx64.efi file; I haven't found any comprehensive documentation on the EFI boot process and all its possibilities. But AFAIK, bootx64.efi is the "default bootloader" for a disk, used as a fallback when the machine doesn't have any NVRAM entries defining other .efi files to boot from. (When you install Windows, it should create an NVRAM entry to boot something like Microsoft\boot\bootmgfw.efi.) – Wyzard Jan 26 at 15:27
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