Reply from Gigabyte Technical Support on the problems installing Windows 7 64-bit

Although the problem is now fixed, I have had this reply from Gigabyte (which took around a week):

 

Are you upgrade from Windows XP to Windows 7?

Do you have alternate HDD or Windows 7 copy to test?

Please try to reset the CMOS -
1) Disconnect the power cord from the power supply. Remove the CMOS battery (the flat silver disk) from the motherboard using a srew drive or similar implement. Leave it out for a minute or two, then replace it and power on the system. The BIOS settings should have been reset, allowing the computer to boot.
2) Go into the BIOS – “Load optimized default”
3) Save settings and exit.
4) If this doesn’t work then try “Load Failsafe default”

 

So.. judging from the generic approach, I would say it’s not a well known problem, by them at least. But it’s another option to try out – resetting the CMOS. I have read this on a forum elsewhere as well, although I’m not sure if this means it’s a trusted method, or whether they just had the same generic reply from Gigabyte Tech Support!

 

Got there! Gigabyte GA-G33M-S2H now running Windows 7 64-bit

Perhaps the last 3-4 posts I’ve made have reflected the countless hours I’ve spent trying to get 64-bit Windows 7 installed on my Gigabyte motherboard. Now, finally, I’ve managed it.

In the end, I cheated. What I did was simply:

• Install an old 64-bit Windows to a new partition (I chose Windows Server 2003 R2 64-bit)
• Run that 64-bit Windows, and then run the Windows 7 64-bit installer from within Windows  – and install to another partition

The reason for this alternate route, was because my Gigabyte board repeatedly refused to boot from the 64-bit installer media directly. My best guess for the reason, from a lot of experimentation, is that the board disagrees with the bootloader on the newer operating systems (Vista, Windows 7, even Ubuntu), but would still work with the older bootloaders.

Along the way, I found:

• You can run the installer from within an older version of Windows (mine being XP), but you can only go from 32-bit to 32-bit, or 64 to 64. Since I currently run 32-bit, and wanted 64, this wasn’t a quick option.
• You CAN boot from USB Flash Drives on Gigabyte motherboards like mine, but you have to plug it in, go to the BIOS, and treat it like an internal HDD – moving it ahead of the others in the HDD Boot Order in Advanced Settings. Selecting USB-HDD, for example, seems ineffective. However, once I got this working, Win7 started to boot, but still failed before it got anywhere useful.*
• Unplugging and disabling every single peripheral, including AHCI, Virtualisation, Serial/Parallel, USB devices, TV card, PCI cards, RAM, Optical Drive, even all the HDDs!, had no effect on the boot failure
• You can’t try to run the setup in VMWare instead to do an install to physical disc, since VMWare Server 1.x doesn’t support Windows 7, and 2.x doesn’t support writing to physical discs.**

So, now this is working, I’ll immediately take a clean image using BootIt NG, and then start the long process of building up all my apps to get the same operability as I had in XP.

Notes:
* – Although my initial install from within Server2003 also  failed from the USB stick – and then succeeded from ISO image – so maybe the files did actually corrupt that time round. So this approach might still work…
** – There is a hack to write to Raw disc in Linux. But whether you have the patience to find a Linux distro that will install, then install VMware inside that, then create a VM, and try to install Win7 in it… and then hope it’ll boot successfully direct from that installation despite all the different devices…… is another question.

Getting there..

Well, I’ve managed to get as far as booting from a USB Flash drive into Win7 64-bit, but it’s falling over after the bootloader.

To get this far, I used method 6 from http://www.bootdisk.com/pendrive.htm (why isn’t WordPress letting me add links?) to build the Boot USB – using my existing 32-bit Win7 installation. I then copied the entire contents of the Win7-64 ISO onto this USB.

Taking tips from other sites about booting USB drives on Gigabyte boards, I then inserted the USB drive into the rear USB slots (not wire-connected ones at the front), and booted into the BIOS. Going to Advanced Settings, HDD Boot Order, I can see my 3 conventional HDDs, and the HDD Flash at the bottom. I moved it to the top.

I suspect the f12 Boot Menu has no impact if you select USB-HDD,  USB-CDROM, or any other; you actually have to go into the ‘conventional’ HDD list in the  BIOS with the USB inserted, find the USB drive, and move it to the top.

Anyway – it now boots from USB, but bluescreens with an error about a file in \windows\system32. Since I’m booting from USB, which doesn’t have such a directory, I suspect it’s either going back to my fixed HDDs and getting confused, or its building a RAM disk and falling over there. My next step will be to unplug the DVD drive in case it’s still causing problems, and then maybe move onto playing around with Win7 Boot loader sequences.