Member Avatar for lewashby

I just purchased a new ASUS desktop with a 1TB HD loaded with Window$ 8. I plugged in my two linux drives (OS & home DIR) but the screen was black and nothing would show up, I removed them again and now Windows is starting up again. Any ideas?

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— the symptom (black screen only when the extra Linux disks are attached) usually means the motherboard firmware or the way the drives present their boot data is interfering with the normal boot path. , and pointed at firmware and drive-configuration issues; below are concrete, safe diagnostics and fixes that were not yet detailed.

First do simple isolation tests to see what the hardware actually sees. With the Linux disks attached, boot a Linux live USB and run these commands to inspect devices, partitions and UEFI boot entries:

lsblk -f
sudo parted -l
sudo blkid
sudo efibootmgr -v
dmesg | tail -n 200 | grep -i -e efi -e grub -e mmc

If the Linux disks do not appear in lsblk or parted -l, try different SATA ports/cables and check power connectors (a faulty cable or marginal PSU can cause a complete hang). If they appear but have no EFI system partition or familiar bootloader files, the firmware may be trying to boot them first and failing.

Other checks to try next:

  • Boot with only one added disk at a time to identify which drive triggers the problem.
  • Try the motherboard firmware’s alternate boot mode (legacy/compatibility) if present to see if detection/behavior changes.
  • Verify the SATA controller mode (AHCI vs RAID/Intel RST). If the board uses a vendor RAID mode, the controller can hide drives from alternate OS boot paths; switching modes requires care on an existing Windows install.

If the drives are detected but the system still won’t boot, update the motherboard firmware and use a rescue/live environment to repair or reinstall the Linux bootloader into the correct EFI system partition (or use the Boot-Repair utility). If firmware options are restricted by the vendor, consult the ASUS support pages for that exact model before proceeding.

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Member Avatar for Begginnerdev

Check the configuration of the drives. Check master/slave status in bios and on the drive.

Member Avatar for mike_2000_17

Go in the bios menu, and disable the "secure boot". It is a Microsoft-controlled "feature" to boot only "approved" operating systems, in other words, it's to prevent you from not using the Windows installation that came with the computer. The good news is, you can disable it, it's required by law to be possible to disable it.

There are probably instructions out there for your brand / model. But usually, it should be quite easy to find once you are in the bios menu (see example), which you can access by following these instructions.

Oh, and my condolences for having to deal with Windows 8, I can't imagine the pain you are going through.

Edited by mike_2000_17 because: condolences
Member Avatar for rubberman

If this is an ARM computer you will not be able to disable the Win8 secure boot, but will need to install a secure boot-enabled Linux. There are a few, but it is still a WIP (work-in-progress).

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