Unbuntu 12.10 Installer doesn't see windows partition.

[BlackTai]

Okay, Round #2. Well last time I installed ubuntu it worked(kinda), but those are all issues of separate categories that are not the pressing matter at the moment. So when I did that, ubuntu was the only thing that would boot normally, causing me to manually select the the windows 7 partition from the boot menu in the uefi/bios menu if I wanted to boot into windows... not ideal for how I'd like this computer to operate.

So, provided that I reinstall ubuntu in the same fashion(using 'something else' and manually partitioning drives), is there a way to manually make my computer to ask on startup which OS I want to boot from?

[oldfred]

If both Windows & Ubuntu are each installed in the same UEFI or BIOS mode, then the grub menu should let you select. And from grub you can select which system you want to boot as default.

Otherwise you have to go into UEFI menu and select. And if not in same UEFI or BIOS mode, you have to turn that on or off in UEFI depending on which system you want to boot.

[BlackTai]

Okay well I'm not sure what to say then because it didn't. From your earlier post you had said that I have windows installed in UEFI mode. And I had run both a LiveUSB and a LiveCD in UEFI mode. Both of them did not detect windows on my HDD. I've attached some pictures of my system's boot menu in both EZ and advanced mode. Something I see does raise a flag though. In EZ mode I see that my system does not see my HDD in UEFI as it does with the Windows boot manager, ubuntu, and for my optical drive.

Could that be an issue? If it is, how then do I fix it?

[oldfred]

Most others that have posted UEFI screens have been similar to the old BIOS, yours is one of the first I have seen with all the graphics. That supposedly was one of the advantages of UEFI.

Is option ROM messages just messages or is force BIOS means it boots to BIOS mode not UEFI?

I did not see secure boot settings for on/off on any of those screens or is it underneath something?

Does gparted from live installer show partition layout?

[BlackTai]

The description reads "Set display mode for Option ROM"
The User Manual reads:

[Force BIOS] The third-party ROM messages will be forced to display during the boot sequence.

[Keep Current] The third-party ROM messaged will be displayed only if the third-party manufacturer had set the add-on device to do so.

I also did not see any form of secure boot in any screen. I somehow don't think my motherboard has that feature.

As for the gparted thing it appears to to be the same as the screenshot I posted earlier. Or are you asking from different information?

[oldfred]

If it does not have Windows 8 pre-installed then it may not have secure boot.

But all Window 8 pre-installed systems have to have secure boot and per Microsoft specifications to the vendors the user must be able to turn it off. Unless it is Windows RT which is not really Windows.

[BlackTai]

Yeah, It's a custom build, no Win8 of any kind...

[oldfred]

I do not know what else to suggest. UEFI should multi-boot without issue, if no secure boot.

Someone posted this info on renaming a boot from his UEFI.

Enter your UEFI menu, select "Boot maintenance manager", then "Boot options", then "Add boot option", then "NO VOLUME LABEL,....Primary,Slave...1, GPT,..", then browse the /EFI/ubuntu/ folder via the UEFI boot menu, and select the grubx64.efi . Give it the name you want (eg "Precise"), then "Commit Changes and exit", then Enter.
UEFI system only shows ubuntu. Delete ubuntu entry & reboot a couple of times & it resets to defaults including drives & USB ports.