T440s & Windows 7 in UEFI mode

Hi,
I try to install Windows 7 on my T440s. However, I fail booting the USB stick with error code 0xc000000d ("An error occurred while attempting to read the boot configuration data"). I created the USB stick as described in the Forum here (http://forums.lenovo.com/t5/Windows-7-Knowledge-Base/Prepare-an-usb-thumb-drive-to-boot-windows-7-in...). Also, the USB-Stick boots fine in UEFI mode on my old (HP) Laptop. Also I can boot on CSM-Mode Compatibility Support Module. I tried several other how-tos and what else Google answered search fo that error code (e.g. disabling USB3, disable nearly everything the UEFI BIOS could disable etc...). It really seems to be an issue in conjunction with that UEFI implementation...
I'm using latest UEFI BIOS (GJET64WW, 2.14).
Anyone successfully installed Windows 7 on that model? Any help would be appriciated.
Best regards,
falstaff
Solved!
Go to Solution.

Hi,
What do you mean by Also I can boot on CSM-Mode Compatibility Support Module ?
Windows 7 won't run in UEFI mode without CSM enabled. IIRC it may boot but won't run.
I don't have a T440s to test with, but here's how I make and boot a Win 7 UEFI installer: format a flash drive as a single partition - FAT32. Use an (un)archiving tool like 7zip in Windows to extract the contents of a Win 7 SP1 installer ISO to a flash drive. (or just copy a DVD to flash).
Boot it and install. IIRC the file manipulation required to create a bootable flash drive applied to pre-SP1 Win 7.
Z.
The large print: please read the Community Participation Rules before posting. Include as much information as possible: model, machine type, operating system, and a descriptive subject line. Do not include personal information: serial number, telephone number, email address, etc. The fine print: I do not work for, nor do I speak for Lenovo. Unsolicited private messages will be ignored. ... GeezBlog
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Quote
Is normal that when the Windows 8 boots, it shows me the Msi Logo, instead of the classic windows logo ?
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Prepare an usb thumb drive, to boot windows 7 or 8 in UEFI mode

Purpose of this post:
Prepare an usb thumb drive, to boot windows 7 in UEFI mode and install the system in pure UEFI mode.
Why am I writing this:
I had a hard time finding out how to make a custom installation of windows 7 in pure UEFI mode, and avoid using the factory restore disks. After hours of research, experiments etc I finally got the point and found a solution. And I'm happy to share my research with you. I hope this will be of help. If something is not clear, or more information is needed, I will be glad to explain things further.
History:
As most of you already know, BIOS was developed for PC in early eighties and has remained unchanged in recent years. But, since 2000, Intel started working on a new firmware interface, called Extensible Firmware Interface, abbreviated EFI. And since 2005 United EFI Forum has been handling the responsibility for development, management and promotion of UEFI specifications. Bigger companies like Intel, AMD, Microsoft and Dell have already started to bring out their products in accordance to UEFI standards which has more stable, secure and easier to use interface.
How does UEFI works (in a nutshell):
Once you power on the UEFI based PC, the Pre-EFI is executed which initializes only the CPU, memory and the chipset. This followed by Driver Execution Environment (DEX) where other hardware is initialized.
Advantages of UEFI:
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   Also integrated drivers allow rendering GUI based control panel which out dates the old school bluish BIOS screen.
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   Applications like anti-virus and diagnostic tools can be stored on virtually any non-volatile storage devices attached to a PC.
For a system to boot and install in UEFI the partition table of the HDD should be GPT (GUID Partition Table), not the old school MBR (master boot record). GPT has many advantages, can have virtually an unlimited number of partitions (windows will allow only 128) and impressively big partitions.
Since UEFI has a lot of advantages why not having a system install and boot in UEFI mode? AFAIK new Lenovo notebooks/netbooks are UEFI capable and OS’s are already installed in pure UEFI mode.
So, let’s go now to the point. Do you want to have more control over your HDD? Let say, you have a 320GB HDD and you have divided it in two partitions, one of 50GB, for your Windows 7, and the remaining for your data. If something goes wrong and you need to restore your system to factory default, with the recovery disks, it will wipe your partition scheme, set the system to default and this way your data will be lost.
You may want to make a “vanilla” installation of windows from a USB thumb drive and avoid using factory recovery disks. Now here things get complicated. A standard preparation of the USB with Microsoft’s software (Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool), or other tools, will give you a bios installation, not a UEFI one. So for the system to boot, you will need to change some settings in bios, and changing it from UEFI to legacy bios. The installation will prepare the HDD in MBR partition table, and you will lose all the advantages of UEFI, described above.
Now this can be avoided, by properly preparing an USB to boot and install in UEFI mode. Here are the steps:
Step by step tutorial:
1.   In a windows computer, download a legal copy (although trial) of the windows 7 os. You can do this from here: http://www.mydigitallife.info/official-windows-7-sp1-iso-from-digital-river/
Be sure to download the same version that came preinstalled in your computer. For example, if you have a Lenovo x120e, with a Windows 7 professional, 64bit, download an iso image of the Windows 7 professional 64bit.
2.   Once downloaded burn the iso to a USB thumb (at least 4GB) using Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool.
3.   After preparing this, create a folder on your computer, name it whatever (i.e. W7pro64bit). Go to the root of your USB
and select all the files and folders there (9 in total) copy, and paste to your folder you created, W7pro64bit.
4.   Using windows format the usb again in FAT32. Windows 7 USB/DVD Download tool, formats it in NTFS. We need a FAT32 formatted disk to achieve our goal. Formating again the USB in FAT32 will not touch the MBR of the USB thumbdrive. And after copying back the files (see step 6) the USB will still be bootable. (nice, and simple, isn't it?)
5.   Now go to the folder W7pro64bit and do the following:
a.   Browse to W7pro64bit\sources\ and open install.wim file. It’s a big file, and can be opened as an archive with 7zip (free software). Do not extract it, do not modify it, just browse the file with 7zip. Just to be sure you do not mess with that file, you can copy it somewhere else in your computer, and than procede.
b.   Browse this file (install.wim) to \1\Windows\Boot\EFI\ and locate the file bootmgfw.efi. Do not move, delete it, but just drag that file to the desktop. (if you have copied the file install.wim to another place in your computer, than you are safely do whatever you want with that file ) Close the 7zip program to release the install.wim file.
c.   Rename the file you just copied to the desktop from bootmgfw.efi to bootx64.efi.
d.   Now go back to w7pro64bit folder and browse \efi\Microsoft. Form there copy the folder boot and paste it one level up, on the folder: \efi. It will look like this: \efi\boot.
e.   Now copy the file you saved on your desktop and renamed (bootx64.efi) to \efi\boot (inside the boot folder you copied on step 5d
6.   Now go to the root of the folder W7pro64bit and select all folders and files (9 in total) copy, and paste all those files back to your USB thumb drive. (see step 4 for more info)
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9.   Now restart your laptop, and enter your bios settings. Go to the boot settings, and set the computer to boot in UEFI only. Not both, not UEFI first, or legacy, BUT UEFI only. Save and restart.
10.   Press f12 (or the corresponding key for your machine) to choose the boot device and chose to start from the USB thumb drive with your windows 7 pro 64 bit.
11.   If everything is done correctly, your computer will boot from the USB.
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It may look a looong tutorial, but once you do this for the first time, it will look a piece of cake.
Final words:
From now on, you can install windows 7 in UEFI mode with your special USB without changing your partition scheme anymore. If you have a data partition beside your os partition (see the example above), when you reinstall the system using your USB thumb drive, at the disk partition window chose the partition where windows is installed, delete it, and reinstall windows to the unformatted area. Your partition with your data will be intact and the installation will automatically mount your data partition to the system. And, all the scope of this procedure, you will always have a pure UEFI installation of the system, with all its benefits.
Have fun!
abvasili
Moderator note: changed subject to match new content. Was: Prepare an usb thumb drive, to boot windows 7 in UEFI mode
I'm just a volunteer. I like to help others where I can. Do my ideas work? I hope so. o_O
Who helped you today? Do not forget to thank him.
My hardware: TP x120e 0596-2ru. Windows 7, sp1, 64Bit, English, installed in UEFI mode.

seanare wrote:
Thank you, as I noted here, your post was the key to my getting a Windows 8 SecureBooting setup on a W530.
In the case of Windows 8, I needed to copy the files away, reformat my USB key as FAT32 and copy the files back, and viola I was able to boot from my USB install media with the BIOS set to only boot UEFI. From there, there rest was easy (for Windows 8, the copying and renaming is not necessary, the key is having a FAT32 partition on the USB media, rather than an NTFS one; the EFI files are already in the right location).
Thank you again good sir.
You are welcome... and I'm happy that the change of the file system helps with windows 8 too. Thanks for confirming that.
abvasili
I'm just a volunteer. I like to help others where I can. Do my ideas work? I hope so. o_O
Who helped you today? Do not forget to thank him.
My hardware: TP x120e 0596-2ru. Windows 7, sp1, 64Bit, English, installed in UEFI mode.

How do you reinstall 64-bit Windows 7 in UEFI mode?

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Hi,
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Go to Solution.

Haven't heard of this issue with Win8. The issue with Win7/UEFI/bitlocker from last year is definitely solved.
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Hello Jerry:
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How to use WMI to query to distinguish legacy and UEFI mode Windows?

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I am following the guide on page: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Un … _Interface due to the fact that I am receiving error " No loader found. Configuration files in /loader/entries/*.conf are needed."
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rEFInd (version 0.5.0) "About" dialog reports EFI Revision 2.31, Firmware: American Megatrends 4.653, Screen Output: Graphics Output (UEFI)
I have tried adding various things to the refind.conf "options" directive, e.g. gpt, loglevel=7, pci=nocrs, add_efi_memmap, archisobasedir=arch, archisolabel=ARCH_201212, acpi=off, etc. in different combinations.
I am at wits' end. Bottom line: nothing but rEFInd (via flashdrive) and Windows works in UEFI boot mode - nothing. Any help will be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

I doubt if this will help you with your main goal, but I've fixed a few memory bugs in rEFInd recently, so the "String.c(166) String != ((void *)0)" error you mentioned might go away if you upgraded to the latest version of rEFInd (0.6.0).
Beyond that, here's a suggestion:
Prepare a USB flash drive or CD-R with rEFInd 0.6.0. Be sure to include an EFI driver for whatever filesystem you used in Arch's /boot (or root, if there's no separate /boot partition) in the flash drive's or CD's EFI/BOOT/drivers_x64 directory. (Note that rEFInd 0.6.0 includes an ext4fs driver.)
Using an emergency disc, create a refind_linux.conf file in Arch's /boot directory. Include, at a minimum, two lines, each of which should include the options "ro root=/dev/{whatever} initrd={\path\to\initrd}", changing the device filename to point to your root and the initrd= specification to point to your two Arch initrd files (one for each line). The path should be relative to the root of whatever filesystem holds those files, so if you've got a separate /boot partition, there would be no directories, just the filename preceded by a backslash; and if you have no separate /boot partition, you'd lead with "\boot\". Note the need for BACKslashes, not forward slashes, in the initrd= specification (but forward slashes in the root= specification).
Reboot using the rEFInd flash drive or CD-R you've prepared. With any luck, rEFInd should come up and show you an Arch option. Try using it. If it fails, try again, but hit Insert and select the second option from the list.
With any luck this will get your system booted in EFI mode, but I can't make any promises about that.

Blue screen when booting from USB drive in UEFI mode (2013.07)

SOLUTION for me was to update the firmware on my ASRock mb as thatu pdate changed the EFI software (by American Megatrends) version from 2.00 to 2.31. However, other users are still experiencing the blue screen.
SHORT VERSION
When I try to boot Arch Linux 2013.07 with an USB drive in UEFI mode (for installation), I get a blue screen (which is rather a literal description and not a hint towards the old Windows' one) with the message
Failed to install override security policy (14): Not found
LONG VERSION
I made an USB installation media (product: Intenso Rainbow) by following this advice on the wiki.
I used the july release of Arch for that. First of, after installing the image to the USB stick I found that I needed to correct the label in the archiso-x86_64.conf file to ARCH_201307 (or was it the label of the usb stick, can't remember right now). (Pretty sure it was the same problem with "Linux Live USB Creator" which I used 3-4 months ago...)
After doing that, I rebooted and selected the entry
UEFI Intenso Rainbow
from this list of entries:
SATA HDJ ... something (the hard drive where Win 7 64 bit is installed with all programs)
SATA something (hard drive which only contains data)
Windows Boot Manager
USB: Intenso Rainbow
UEFI: Intenso Rainbow
It went to a blue screen with a message in white text saying
Failed to install override security policy (14): Not found
Below that was an OK button which had a black rectangle over it.
After I experienced the bluescreen, I tried booting the
USB Intenso Rainbow
entry and the boot process then worked fine, I got to that Arch menu where I could choose
Boot Arch Linux (x86_64)
Boot Arch Linux (i686)
Boot existing OS
Run Memtest...
and so on...
But just to make sure, I then did the check for UEFI mode according to this and only saw a folder acpi and ... something else I can't really remember, but it definitely was not efi. Thing is, I needwant to boot into UEFI mode as I have Win 7 already installed in UEFI mode.
Some info about my motherboard: it's from ASRock and is called H67M. The BIOS is dated to 2011-10-26 and is version 1.7.
So far, I only found a mention of the problem here at superuser.com.
Last edited by jones (2013-07-15 07:15:18)

Ok then, so this thread has also become about the blank screen problem when booting (in this particular case, Arch 2013.06 since 2013.07 seems to be worse).
srs5694 wrote:Typically, you adjust kernel boot options using your boot manager or boot loader. In GRUB, you hit the "e" key to open an editor. In rEFInd, you hit F2 or Insert twice. I don't recall offhand what key does the job for gummiboot (which I'm pretty sure the Arch installer uses), but I'm certain it's got the feature.
You are right. Thanks. I realized I had the gummiboot config right in front of me all the time. It's the file 'archiso-x86_64.conf' in \loader\entries (on Windows).
An addendum: I think the USB: Intenso Rainbow boot option takes me into a GRUB menu. Hitting 'e' in this "big" and fully designed menu didn't do anything IIRC. Hitting 'Tab' did the trick to get into editing the boot command line.
Hitting 'e' worked in the gummiboot menu though.
So I tried booting with the following options (also by combining some of them)
nomodeset
acpi_backlight=vendor
radeon.modeset=0 (I have a Gigabyte 7870 card in this desktop machien)
i915.modeset=0
but it did not help.
To be rather safe than sorry: I should mention that there are two grey-ish bars visible on the top and bottom of the screen after I try to boot the first entry, Arch Linux archiso x86_64 UEFI USB. Always has been with those two older Arch version (2013.05+2013.06). I also found another thread where one user talks about using the VGA port of the monitor, which I am currently not, I am using the DVI one, so that's worth a try too. EDIT It did not help either. What I did was setting the primary graphics adapter in the UEFI north bridge configuration menu to 'onboard' which worked immediately when rebooting (I hit the button labeled "Source" on my monitor and it showed it is using the "Analog" mode), but the problem just stayed the same. Adding aforementioned boot options or a combination thereof did not change anything.
Thanks for the e-mail addresses, I sent one to James Bottomley.
Last edited by jones (2013-07-07 11:12:05)

Impossible to install arch in UEFI mode on my Acer Aspire S3-391

Hi there,
I am trying to install arch-linux on my Acer Aspire S3-391, which came with a pre-shipped Windows 8. I am trying to make a dual boot, so I would like to keep the UEFI mode at startup. However, my computer won't boot on the Arch Linux USB Flash drive when in UEFI mode : when plugged in, the key prevents the computer from loading anything. The "Acer" page keeps on reloading itself, without even letting me access the BIOS menu (In other words, the computer is blocked at "POST" phase when the installation media of arch is plugged in).
Here's what I did to try and solve the problem :
1) of course, I disabled Secure Boot and hibernation in Windows 8.
2) tried to boot in legacy bios. It works, and i could install arch this way : but as told before, i would like to install it in UEFI mode.
3) Checked, re-checked and re-rechecked the installation media.
4) tried to install Ubuntu in UEFI mode. It worked : the bootable key of Ubuntu was loaded, when the bootable key of arch is blocked. Why ? No idea...
5) Installed Ubuntu, and tried to install Arch in UEFI mode from Ubuntu, following the tutorial "Install_from_Existing_Linux". No luck here : i was blocked at step "Testing if you are booted into UEFI mode" on the beginner's guide : I was not, and I couldn't find any solution in the tutorial.
Any suggestions on what I should try next ?

If you've already installed in BIOS/CSM/legacy mode, my recommendation is to install your EFI-mode boot loader and try it out. You'll need to use something else that does boot (such as Ubuntu), install the boot loader using the Windows bcdedit command (assuming you're dual-booting), or install the boot loader as EFI/BOOT/bootx64.efi (if you're setting up for Linux alone) to get it to work, though.

Booting in UEFI mode

Hello,
I have a Z77A-G45 mainboard which supports UEFI. I am trying to install Windows 7 (64 bit) on a GPT hard drive which already has Linux Mint 13 (equivalent to Ubuntu 12.04 LTS) installed. The disk is 1TB big and I have reserved 250 GB of unallocated space for Windows at the beginning of the disk. The disk was partitioned using Gparted (or the Linux Mint partition editor which is also based in libparted I think).
The problem is that the Windows DVD only boots in BIOS mode, so it's not letting me install it on a GPT hard drive. As I have read I must boot the DVD in UEFI mode to be able to install Windows the way I want. The problem is that in the boot options I don't have one for booting in UEFI mode (the only option I get is tagged 'CD/DVD:ATAPI iHAS122 C'). I have read that I can boot into the UEFI shell, browse the DVD and start the installation program from a UEFI boot file (*.efi). When I try to do that most of the tutorials tell me to point my prompt to fs0: but I only see blk'n' (n is the number of the device) block devices. blk5 is the DVD. I mount it using the command 'mount' and the prompt tells me it boots successfully. Then I point the prompt to 'blk5:' and it works, but when I try 'cd' or 'ls' I get the error "ls/dir: Cannot open current directory - Not Found".
I am certain my motherboard supports UEFI and I am quite sure it's enabled because I get the graphical BIOS. I didn't have any problems formatting the disk as GPT, and the Windows installer (in BIOS mode) recognises all the partitions correctly but it won't let me install the OS complaining about the GPT hard drive.
What can I do? Is there a middle step I am skipping? As much as I read around everyone with this problem gets to browse the DVD in the UEFI shell but I am stuck there.
Thank you very much in advance.

I copied all of the files from the dvd to a usb 3.0 stick and installed from the in UEFI mode. (Just select the UEFI: HP usb stick or whatever)
Are you sure you don't see UEFI: DVD Burner in the boot list?

Extended partition on old MBR HDD makes Windows 7 UEFI boot fail

There seems to be a bug in Windows 7 Pro x64 that prevents it from booting on a GPT partitioned HDD when the same machine also has an MBR partitioned HDD with an extended partition.
I have a UEFI bootable PC with two HDDs:
Disk 0 is GPT partitioned and contains Windows 7 Pro x64 and openSUSE systems.
Disk 1 is MBR partitioned and contains Windows XP Pro x64 systems and bootable ISO images.
Both the disks also have separate partitions for data and for booting.
They are normally booted via rEFInd on disk 0 as follows:
UEFI => rEFInd => Windows 7 or GRUB2.
UEFI => rEFInd => disk 1 MBR => GRUB4DOS.
I had previously installed Windows 7 when it was first released, but abandoned it in favour of XP and openSUSE instead. With the end of support for XP I decided to re-install W7. Before doing so I unplugged disk 1 to ensure that W7 booted completely
independently of XP. After installing W7 I installed SP1 and all the Windows updates. The new W7 system could be booted without problem via rEFInd => \EFI\Microsoft\Boot\bootmgfw.efi
However when I plugged in disk 1 W7 would no longer boot. It displayed the message "Windows is Loading Files" as the bar progressed twice before returning to the rEFInd menu. On selecting W7 again it presented the option to "Launch
Startup Repair", but on doing so it too just displayed "loading files" and returned to the reEFInd menu.
I UEFI booted from the installation DVD and ran Repair. When re-booted W7 presented a menu with choice of new and recovered systems, but both failed as before. Neither could be booted in safe mode. Booting directly from the UEFI firmware menu
into W7, instead of via rEFInd, gave similar results.
Investigations showed that the problem is caused by the extended partition on disk 1. If it is deleted, or just hidden by changing the partition type from 0x0F to 0x00, then W7 boots OK. Plugging in an external USB HDD with logical partitions also
prevents W7 from booting.
This all seemed to be similar to the problem described in KB979374, so I downloaded the hotfix (404153_intl_x64_zip.exe), which is supposed to be applicable to Windows 7 as well as WindowsServer 2008 R2. However when the hotfix was run it displayed "The
update is not applicable to your computer" and logged the following error:
error 2149842967 "" (Command line: ""C:\Windows\system32\wusa.exe" "<pathname>\Windows6.1-KB979374-x64.msu" ")
Is this because the version of files mentioned in KB979374 is older (6.1.7600.20617) than the version of Winload.exe in my system (6.1.7601.17556)?
According to http://www.techienewsnetwork.com/247/22/ SP1 included hotfix 979374, but it doesn't appear in the list of Installed Updates given in my W7 control panel. Should it, are hotfixes included in a service pack listed individually? If
not is there any way to tell whether or not hotfix 979374 has been applied?
How can W7 be booted without having to change the partition type code of extended partitions every time, is there a newer hotfix that will fix the problem in Windows 7 SP1?
Almost all the references I can find to this problem are at least 2 years old, which suggests it might have been fixed. Does anyone else with an up to date Windows 7 SP1 have this problem with extended partitions. An easy test is to plug in an external
HDD with logical partitions and see if W7 will still boot.
I don't want to convert disk 1 to GPT as that would make XP un-bootable. Also GRUB4DOS only supports MBR, and it is very useful for booting ISO images as well as XP.
Cheers.

Hi Wade,
To be sure that openSUSE, XP, or any other software on my PC isn't part of the problem I decided to do a new install of Windows 7 on a blank HDD. As I don't have a spare one I had to backup everything on disk 1 (MBR) and then wipe it, including the MBR,
with zeros (using AOMEI Partition Assistant).
I unplugged the original disk 0 so that the PC had just single completely blank HDD (previously disk 1), UEFI booted the Windows 7 DVD and installed W7 again. Unfortunately at this first attempt W7 partitioned the blank HDD as an MBR disk and booted
in legacy BIOS mode, even though I had booted the DVD in UEFI mode. So I deleted all the partitions it had just created and converted the disk to a GPT one.
The next time I installed W7 it was a UEFI one, with an EFI system partition. After installing SP1 and re-booting it a few times to make sure it was working OK I plugged in the external HDD with an extended partition before re-booting. The result
was exactly the same as reported above for the main GPT disk: it briefly flashed "Starting Windows" then displayed "Loading files" for a few seconds as the bars progressed; when Startup Repair was launched it failed as well.
After removing the HDD I booted the new W7 and added some missing drivers and installed all the Windows Updates, including the optional ones. Many hours later the result was a new up to date installation of Windows that worked perfectly (no errors in
any log files), with no other software on the PC. However as soon as the external HDD was plugged in it failed to boot, as described previously.
I then ran Bootrec from the DVD, trying all the commands, but the results were exactly the same: everything worked successfully but no Windows installations were found, and it didn't fix the problem.
The documentation on how to use Bootrec describes how to backup the BCD store that is on the C: drive (e.g. "ren c:\boot\bcd bcd.old"). However the BCD store for UEFI based systems is in the EFI system partition, NOT on the C: drive. This suggest
that Bootrec does not apply to UEFI based systems.
Are you sure that the MBR is used when booting in UEFI mode? From what I have read in several places (not MS pages) the protective MBR on the GPT isn't used, but instead the UEFI firmware runs \EFI\Microsoft\Boot\bootmgfw.efi which looks in the BCD store
in the EFI partition. Can you point me to any MS documentation please that explains exactly how UEFI booting works for Window 7, including its use of the MBR.
Do you have a Windows 7 system that can boot from UEFI when an MBR disk with an extended partition is attached. If so how is your installation different from the one I have just set up, i.e. Windows 7 installed on a PC with just
a single empty GPT HDD?
Do you work at Microsoft? If so perhaps you could find out if anybody with a straightforward UEFI booted Windows 7 has problems when an MBR HDD with an extended partition is attached.
Sorry for the delay in responding, but a lot of work was involved.

T440s & Windows 7 in UEFI mode

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