Reboot and press F12 (or your boot menu key) to select the UEFI USB drive (it will say "UEFI: USB Drive Name"). Part 6: During Installation – Handling the "GPT" Error If you followed the Rufus GPT method, you should not see the dreaded "Windows cannot be installed to this disk" error. However, if your hard drive is already MBR (Master Boot Record), the installer might still complain.
Windows 7 RTM (no service pack) does not support booting via UEFI at all. Service Pack 1 introduced limited UEFI support, but we will still need to modify it. Part 3: The Problem – Why Standard ISOs Fail on UEFI When you extract a standard Windows 7 ISO, you'll notice a folder called efi\microsoft\boot\ . Inside is bootmgfw.efi . However, the ISO lacks the correct boot catalog to tell modern UEFI firmware how to launch this file.
Press F2, DEL, or F12 during startup. Required Changes | Setting | Change To | Why | | :--- | :--- | :--- | | Secure Boot | Disabled | Windows 7 does not support Secure Boot. The PC will refuse to boot the ISO. | | CSM (Compatibility Support Module) | Enabled | Modern boards hide legacy options. Enabling CSM allows UEFI to load the NTFS driver Rufus created. | | OS Type | Other OS or Windows 7 (varies) | Some motherboards (Asus/Gigabyte) have a specific "Windows 7 Installation" mode. | | SATA Mode | AHCI (not RAID/Optane) | Windows 7 struggles with Intel RST VMD drivers. |
