How to install Windows 8 on a Sony Laptop that doesn't have "Secure Boot" in the firmware

We are updating a Sony VAIO Laptop - Sony vaio VGN Z56GG notebook from Windows 7 to Windows 8
The following message showed up in the Windows 8 Upgrade Assistant as it checked the computer to see if it was ready for Windows 8:
"Secure Boot isn't compatible with your PC
Your PC's firmware doesn't support Secure Boot so you won't be ale to use it in Windows 8."


When I asked about this in the Microsoft forums, I got this answer:

Thank you for posting your query in Microsoft Community forum.
Based on the above description, it appears that you’re unable to install Windows 8 operating system.

Secure Boot is a prominent new security feature built into Windows 8 supported on hardware that only supports the Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI). What it does is capture a signature of the operating system so if a malicious piece of code tries to infiltrate the system at boot time, Windows will check against the signature the last time it booted up, if they don’t match up, the bad code is stopped from executing and system rolls back to a known state where there exist no modifications.

Please check with your computer manufacturer to see if they have any firmware updates that could help us to install Windows 8.​

Maybe someone here will have an idea on what I might do next. I doubt I can get Sony to write new firmware just for me, and I can't find anything about how to modify Windows 8 such that it doesn't require the Secure Boot. I have created a Support Request with Sony, but I don't have much confidence that they'll even understand the question, let alone find a solution. (Heck, until now, I never even heard of "Secure Boot", and suddenly it's a major problem....

Anyone have any suggestions?
Do I just give up, and forget about the upgrade?
It seems like there should be some way to do this......

 

I believe you can install Windows 8 regardless. A lot of people disable Secure Boot so that they can install another OS, as Secure Boot prevents booting from other media sources. So I don't see why the lack of it should make or break installation for Windows 8. The problem might be more directly related to not having UEFI support. Windows 8 doesn't seem to play nice with legacy BIOS.

What model is your laptop? Hopefully Sony support provides something useful for you!

 

It's a VAIO VGN Z56GG


Until now, I never heard of UEFI. This is something in the firmware?


Windows 8 has installed effortlessly in half a dozen computers I've helped people with, Toshiba, Dell, Compaq, Fujitsu?.... I've never had problems with the old BIOS until now, on the Sony.

The installation proceeds up to the point where the install program would access the hard disk, and give us the opportunity to partitioin/format it, or whatever - and hangs. Nothing happens after that point. No error messages, nothing. It would be great if we could use some kind of "diagnostic mode" for the installation, so we could tell exactly where it's getting stuck.

If you're right, and it does have to do with UEFI (which I'll be looking up in the next few minutes, to see what it is), is that something that can be updated or downloaded, or ????

Hmm, is this what we need to figure out how to do???

Installing Windows to an EFI-Based Computer

 

Sony has a tendency to lean towards being very proprietary in just about everything they do, so I can only imagine the conflict(s). UEFI is like EFI's younger, better looking, more athletic sibling that mom and dad favor. The machine either has the firmware or it doesn't; in which case, if it doesn't, it has EFI - the older, uglier, meaner sibling that the parents lock up in the attic somewhere out of embarrassment.

Hopefully Sony gets back to you on the firmware issue (I doubt there is an UEFI "update" though). In the likely scenario you're stuck with what you have, that link you provided is a good article on a viable workaround.

 

I think that you (and the technical article) are telling me that if the computer has UEFI we're all set, Win-8 will boot. Apparently this computer does not, and the only options are to get information back from Sony for how to add UEFI to this computer, or to fall back on the older and not as nice EFI software.

If I understand this properly, then how does a "master computer" and "you can capture the Windows image and the EFI partition image to deploy to other computers" fit in? We only have the one computer.



Let me start at the beginning..... The instructions are:

1. Install Windows by running Windows Setup from an EFI boot entry on the master computer. Use the EFI shell or the firmware’s “Boot from file” menu to launch the Windows EFI Boot Loader on the installation disk. Refer to your firmware documentation for more information.
2. From the EFI shell, select the device with the Windows installation media and start the EFI boot application. Assuming that the DVD device is fs0, use the following commands for x64-based computers:

What we normally do, is boot from the install DVD. Never having heard of EFI before last night, I have no idea how to"boot from an EFI boot entry in the master computer. I do have some friends who are smarter than me about this, and who will better understand what is going on........



Can I ask you one other question - you seem to think that this is a viable (although complicated) work-around. Are you saying that if we figure out those instructions in the link ( Installing Windows to an EFI-Based Computer), and follow them, we can get Windows 8 installed using EFI, even if Sony doesn't get back to us about using UEFI? If so, we're not "dead in the water" as I assumed earlier - we just have to work our way through this work-around.

Thanks again. Sorry I don't know enough to fully appreciate what I'm reading. My friend Syed knows this far better than I do, and I'll ask him to look it over today.






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According to Sony, your laptop has a BIOS. It would not have an update otherwise: BIOS Update Ver. R5031M3 : Download : Sony Asia Pacific

A laptop from that era is unlikely to have UEFI anyway, this only started coming into style on PCs in the last couple of years. UEFI is not your issue. Remove it from your thoughts.

The Secure Boot error you got, if you read it carefully, doesn't say Win8 won't work. It says Secure Boot won't be there. Which is 100% expected. Secure Boot is a new tech, only introduced in the last few months. Windows 8 does not rely on this to run, or else no computer pre-mid 2012 would be able to work with Win8, and that would be bad.

Your disk problem sounds like a couple of different things. Are you trying to do the install from the online installer (ie. running a setup app from inside Windows 7)? I think that thing offers to download as an ISO that can be burned to a disc or made into a bootable USB. If you have this option you may want to try it.

Worst case, in the BIOS, you can try setting the disk controller mode. There are 82 trillion BIOSs on the earth and they all word it differently, but there will be some sort of disk mode option with stuff like AHCI, Legacy, RAID.. Things like this. Set this to AHCI if it isn't already, and if it is, set it to Legacy. Don't set it to RAID.

What hard drive do you have? My other suspicion is your drive has some software layer on it for some compatibility reason and this is throwing off the installer.

 

Thanks.... I will try to answer. We tried to install Win-8 both ways, going to the DVD from Windows 7, and booting from the Windows-8 DVD directly. In both cases, the process "hung" just before it would have given us the option to format the hard drive. We tried this with two drives, the one that came with the PC, and a new, larger one. Both acted the same.

I think the next thing to do, is to try out what you suggested, the "disk controller mode". We can try the other setting (AHCI or Legacy), whichever it is not on right now.

I will check on the manufacturer of the hard drives, but one is a brand new drive we just bought, so it shouldn't have any special software layer.

I'm leaving India tonight, and heading back to the USA, but I will keep in touch with Syed, and one of us will post here as to the results of this suggestion.

Thanks again!

 

There's no issue. You can install Windows 8 on your computer, just as tens of thousands of other people have done before you. Whether or not that's a good idea, given that some people feel that Windows 8 really is not suitable for a standard computer, is a different question, however. But it will work as good (or bad) on your computer as any other Windows 8 installation.

Other than that, your installation hang is likely due to configuration issues with your hard drive/controller. Playing through the different options your BIOS offers should help.