Samsung ATIV Book 6 OS questions

Hi all,

I bought an ATIV Book 6 several days ago. Immediately after that I replaced the stock 5400rpm with my intel 330 SSD. The stock drive is just so slow and it drags the whole performance down. With that being said, I had to install Windows 8.1 from USB stick. I disabled secure boot and switch to dual CSM and UEFI mode in BIOS. Everything is working fine. But those are the only configurations that would allow the machine to boot to windows. What if I wanna use secure boot? I tried it and it's not letting me boot with secure boot enabled. And is there anything for me to allow native UEFI to boot with my own SSD?
What would be the advantages and disadvantages of such options?

Thank you guys.

 

I wonder if this thread might have the answer to your question.

John

 

Thanks for the reply,

I think that thread's main purpose is to show how to install an OS to a new hard drive. In my case, I got everything working but it came with the cost of disabling secure boot and enabling both CSM and UEFI. I was just wondering if it is possible to have stock options like secure boot on and UEFI booting with the OS installed on my SSD instead of stock HDD.

 

Use Disk Management to check if the SSD is MBR or GPT - the drive, NOT the partition. Also see if you have an EFI/ESP partition.

If you converted the SSD to GPT before installing, Windows should be installed and running in UEFI mode and you should be able to set OS Mode Selection = UEFI OS and enable SecureBoot.

OTOH if the SSD is still MBR, Windows was installed in BIOS/MBR mode, and will never allow SecureBoot. In that case you will have to convert the SSD and reinstall if you want SecureBoot.

 

I see. My SSD was formatted as MBR and I'm not sure if it has EFI/ESP partition. There's only a system reserve partition. Is there any tool that would allow converting to GPT? I know I would need to reinstall Windows again. And if I just leave it as is, is there any downside to it? Thank you for answering my questions

 

Great, it definitely sounds like that was the problem then. Converting to GPT will wipe everything on the drive, all partitions. You have to start over after that.

You can convert the disk to GPT by opening a Command Prompt in Windows Setup (Shift-F10) then type the following commands:

DISKPART (to start the Disk Partition manager)
LIST DISK (to show all your disks. Notice which one is your HDD)
SELECT DISK 0 (assuming 0 was the number of your HDD)
DETAIL DISK (just to verify that you selected the right disk)
CLEAN (to wipe the disk)
CONVERT GPT (to convert the disk from MBR to GPT)
EXIT (to close DISKPART)
EXIT (to close Command Prompt)

After this, exit Windows Setup and turn the computer off. Turn it back on and F2 into BIOS, make sure you can see the disk under Boot Priority. This is to verify that the UEFI BIOS has recognized the GPT disk. Also in BIOS, make sure you disable SecureBoot and select OS Mode Selection=UEFI & CSM OS while you perform the installation. Of course disable Fast Boot/Fast BIOS as well (if you have that). Otherwise it won't boot your install media.

Now you should be able to re-install Windows in UEFI mode. If Windows Setup doesn't see the GPT partitioned SSD, you may have to reboot or power cycle a few times. For some reason it doesn't always pick it up right away.

After Setup, use this post as guidance for which drivers to install with SW Update and which to install manually. That's based on Win8, though, not 8.1.

When everything is running, including signed drivers and all, you should be able to choose OS Mode Selection=UEFI OS and enable SecureBoot.

If you're not fully familiar with UEFI and GPT, I highly recommend some reading first:

Understanding Disk Partitions
Windows and GPT FAQ