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    How to make bootable UEFI USB drive work in Alienware?

    Discussion in 'Alienware 17 and M17x' started by funkmasterta, Sep 27, 2014.

  1. funkmasterta

    funkmasterta Notebook Evangelist

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    How do you make a bootable UEFI USB drive work in Alienware?

    I have a Windows 8.1 ISO from MSDN sha1: BC2F7FF5C91C9F0F8676E39E703085C65072139B

    And using this method with Rufus:

    UEFI Bootable USB Flash Drive - Create in Windows

    But my Alienware always says:

    Check media fail

    How do I get this to work?
     
    funkmasterta, Sep 27, 2014
    #1
  2. durpflip

    durpflip Notebook Enthusiast

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    I'm pretty sure the 17x r4 comes with BIOS and not UEFI.

    well mine did anyways.
     
    durpflip, Sep 27, 2014
    #2
  3. Spartan@HIDevolution

    Spartan@HIDevolution Company Representative

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    Here is how to create a bootable UEFI flash disk for Windows 8.1:

    [​IMG]
     
    Spartan@HIDevolution, Sep 27, 2014
    #3
    funkmasterta likes this.
  4. paradigm

    paradigm Notebook Deity

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    It does have UEFI
     
    paradigm, Sep 27, 2014
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  5. funkmasterta

    funkmasterta Notebook Evangelist

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    Thank you, this is very detailed.

    I did use all these settings when creating my UEFI USB boot disk.

    Are there any changes in BIOS that need to be done?
     
    funkmasterta, Sep 27, 2014
    #5
  6. Meaker@Sager

    Meaker@Sager Company Representative

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    You should be able to manually select which boot device you want and there will be two instances of it listed, pick the one with (UEFI) next to it.

    I know there were some windows images out there with a faulty UEFI implementation so just double check yours is fine too.
     
    Meaker@Sager, Sep 28, 2014
    #6
  7. ssj92

    ssj92 Neutron Star

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    Why don't you use the windows 7 usb tool to make the bootable usb drive? Worked fine for me.

    Microsoft Store
     
    ssj92, Sep 29, 2014
    #7
  8. Alienware-L_Porras

    Alienware-L_Porras Company Representative

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    This is the method I always use.
     
    Alienware-L_Porras, Oct 3, 2014
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  9. ssj92

    ssj92 Neutron Star

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    If all else fails, burn a dvd.
     
    ssj92, Oct 3, 2014
    #9