Jtdylktuy

I have a brand new ASUS M32AD desktop computer. It came with Windows 7 Home Premium installed. After the initial configuration of Windows and some updates completed, I tried to upgrade to Windows 7 Professional using an installation disc. The upgrade failed and the system no longer recognizes the HDD. I can install Ubuntu 14.04 in a partition but not Windows 7 Professional. Every time I boot from the installation disc, the system enters the BIOS.

I tried to run the system recovery disc that I created after the initial customization completed but it fails since it can't find a image to restore.

Everything I find on the Internet tells me to turn off Secure Boot. The UEFI BIOS has stopped me. I have worked with 4 support personnel from ASUS and have not found how to turn off Secure Boot. We can't find the option. They haven't been able to tell me how to get Windows installed.

I need to install Windows and Ubuntu as a dual boot system. I can install Ubuntu 14.04 and partition the HDD.

• The computer is an ASUS M32AD desktop with 12 GB RAM and a 1 TB HDD.


• 
  

  It has an American Megatrends, Inc. UEFI.

  
  
  

  BIOS version 0601 x64,
  
  Build date 06/09/2014,
  
  ME version 9.0.30.1482,
  
  South Bridge Stepping 05/C2
  
  

  
  

Anybody have any thoughts?

As far as I understood you are having an issue with installing Windows (this answer was written before the question was migrated). If you still think you have an issue with Ubuntu, then please state more clearly what issue you have.

Everything I find on the Internet tells me to turn off Secure Boot. The UEFI BIOS has stopped me. I have worked with 4 support personnel from ASUS and have not found how to turn off Secure Boot. We can't find the option.

Usually this is documented in the manual of the motherboard. With Asus being a recognized brand selling retail motherboards including usable manuals, I expect no less for entire computers from that brand. However, I looked at what was offered as a "manual" on Asus' support site and it doesn't seem to cover (page 70) anything beyond getting into the firmware menu (aka "BIOS" or BIOS setup screen) and it wasn't obvious with which motherboard this model ships with.

Let us reiterate: You talked to 4 different employees from Asus support and they were unable to help you getting the Professional version – which should just be a different license that enables more features – of the same operating system that the computer shipped with and was obviously certified for installed? Even if your question was asked the wrong way, they should have figured it out and provide you a solution. One can't put it anymore politely than that they completely failed.

Honestly, nothing differentiates non-custom built off the shelf computers from coffee machines. So, what should every consumer do in such a situation if the product in question was not a computer and brand new as you suggested? Nothing else than returning it and buying another product from probably another brand. You should also give feedback to Asus that the reason for your return was that the support couldn't help you to install/register your legitimate copy of Windows 7 Professional on this computer. Hopefully this will improve the quality of their customer support.

With that being said, let's continue.

It came with Windows 7 Home Premium installed.

Everything I find on the Internet tells me to turn off Secure Boot.

Assume that you might have missed something when there was suggested to turn off Secure Boot, because pre-installed copies of Windows 7 are usually legacy/MBR style.

The easiest way to determine if your operating system was installed and is running in UEFI mode on Ubuntu would be to run the following command:

[ -d /sys/firmware/efi ] && echo "EFI boot on HDD" || echo "Legacy boot on HDD"

On Windows you could look for a GPT partition table and an EFI System Partition (ESP) and look at the output of bcdedit /enum as suggested in this answer.

I tried to upgrade to Windows 7 Professional using an installation disc.

When you have an installation disc at hand do a clean install of the OS you want to install. This is always the best option. (Doing this properly involves backing up the old operating system including partition tables, recovery partitions, recovery media and so forth.) Look for instructions on how to properly install a new operating system in UEFI mode before you start (you should already have or create new a GPT partition table and you need to boot the media in UEFI mode or ensure that the media isn't bootable in legacy mode, which is as simple copying all the files to a USB stick). If that somehow fails, you should consider that the platform isn't completely UEFI capable (like a lot of computer models from 2011) and that you have to install in legacy mode.

While Windows 7 can be installed in UEFI mode, you should consider to install Windows 8 or Windows 10, as these offer improved or more fine grained support for UEFI platforms in the underlying tools (like bcdboot) and libraries.

Good luck and best regards.

A few ideas: Maybe you could create another Windows install disk. You can find download links are in this PC World article. The manufacturer's install disk could be causing issues possibly. Not sure though. You might be able to change the disk boot to legacy mode instead of UEFI mode.