[SOLVED] CSM keeps ENABLING ITSELF & DRIVE NOT CONVERTING in GPT!!!

[OMGiTxREALHASSAN]

I'm trying to install WINDOWS 11 and I've successfully enabled FTPM but because of CSM keeps enabling itself after reboot I even exit with the OPTION "SAVE AND RESTART" and because of it I can't enable SECURE BOOT.

I have another problem I've tried complete format multiple times on my boot drive with disk part and converted it to GPT and says "SUCCESSFULLY CONVERTED TO GPT", but when I check in DISK MANAGEMENT it show that the drive is MBR.

SYSTEM SPECS:

CPU : RYZEN 5 3600
MOBO: GIGABYTE A320M-S2H V2
RAM: GSKILL AEIGIS 2X8GB 3200

Edited: BIOS VERSION: F51

 

[OMGiTxREALHASSAN]

Well...you'll see this first thing I hope.

Before start, just reset CMOS. Put it in an 'out-of-box' condition so we know nothing there is causing any problems.

Running DISKPART only go through the CLEAN without a CONVERT, then EXIT. It will be CLEAN of any partitions and in a RAW state so not recognized by Windows. Go into Disk Manager and you'll see it as an UNKNOWN disk. Right click on the left box at the lower section and select to INITIALIZE then be sure to tick the GPT radio button.

Once done with that, remove your USB with WinPE on it and boot the system into BIOS and be sure it's set to UEFI mode but change nothing else. Then put in the USB drive with your Windows installation media and reboot; it should automatically go into setup on the installation media. When installing select the options for creating new partitions as needed (of course). It should set up for a UEFI install. Once set up, confirm it's GPT by booting to Windows and going into Disk Manager and right clicking on the left box of the drive.

I'll definitely give it a try but there's no option in my BIOS for BIOS MODE how do I change it to UEFI?

 

[OMGiTxREALHASSAN]

when you ran mbr2gpt, did you run validate first?

mbr2gpt /validate

as if it passes, then you just run

mbr2gpt /convert

and it should convert disk. then you set up bios to be UEFI.

I don't know how it can switch back to MBR after this step but you not only one I seen recently who said that.
Do you have more than 1 drive? take out all others except C drive and try. it could be a boot partition is on another drive as well. that could confuse things.

Yeah! I'm also very confused I did everything in order as you said and I only have one drive.

 

[SkyNetRising]

I'll definitely give it a try but there's no option in my BIOS for BIOS MODE how do I change it to UEFI?

Can you show photos of BIOS screens of your pc? - with csm/uefi settings.
(upload to imgur.com and post link)

 

[OMGiTxREALHASSAN]

Can you show photos of BIOS screens of your pc? - with csm/uefi settings.
(upload to imgur.com and post link)

Here you go, My BIOS .

 

[Colif]

I'll definitely give it a try but there's no option in my BIOS for BIOS MODE how do I change it to UEFI?

its actually called CSM, and if you look at the picture you uploaded it shows its enabled.

CSM Support
Enables or disables UEFI CSM (Compatibility Support Module) to support a legacy PC boot process. Enabled

• Enables UEFI CSM. (Default) Disabled
• Disables UEFI CSM and supports UEFI BIOS boot process only.

page 28 here - https://download.gigabyte.com/FileList/Manual/mb_manual_a320m-s2h-v2_e_v1.pdf

if you want to make sure you are using UEFI only, disable that. But if windows still thinks its MBR it won't boot.

you can't swap between UEFI BIOS and BIOS as its the same thing

Explanation of terms:

Spoiler

UEFI - Unified extensible Firmware Interface

If your PC is less than 11 years old, you have a UEFI bios now

In 2006 or so Intel decided the bios as it was at time was too limited and needed to be replaced so that it supported newer technologies as they were invented
By about 2009 a consortium of hardware makers had combined to create UEFI standard

Old bios were limited,

• they didn't know what a mouse was for, so everything was keyboard driven
• they weren't expandable, everything had to fit in a small amount of memory
• they only supported Master Boot Record (MBR) which can only have 4 partitions per drive (there are tricks to get around this) and max drive size is 2.2 tb

UEFI bios overcame all the limitations of legacy bios (as it came to be called)

• it supports mouse, it has a GUI so it looks better than previous bios could
• Its expandable, it can be added to to grow as new hardware is created.
• UEFI supports MBR & GPT Drives

CSM is the UEFI BIOS emulating the old style bios boot method.

 

[SkyNetRising]

Here you go, My BIOS .

Change CSM support to disabled;
Save changes;
Reboot, go into BIOS again (you'll have Secure boot option available now),
Go into Secure Boot submenu and set Secure boot to enabled.

 

[drea.drechsler]

Change CSM support to disabled;
...

Nothing back from OP lately, so yeah, that seems right. But according to his thread title it's re-enabling itself. What could cause that?

 

[SkyNetRising]

But according to his thread title it's re-enabling itself. What could cause that?

Could be some issue with BIOS.
May be necessary to update to latest version.

 

[drea.drechsler]

....
May be necessary to update to latest version.

Which is a good idea anyway as it's probably going to be one that's better for Win11 compatibility and should have UEFI enabled by default as MS wants.

 

[OMGiTxREALHASSAN]

Could be some issue with BIOS.
May be necessary to update to latest version.

My Bios Version , there 's only 1 update after that and its doesn't seem very important update to me, I'm not installing this because I live in a country where Electricity a huge pain in the A#S. I once tried to update BIOS of my workstation LENOVO S20 and ELECTRICITY went out, you know what would've happened after that it never got fixed and I had to threw it in the garbage bin.

 

[OMGiTxREALHASSAN]

Change CSM support to disabled;
Save changes;
Reboot, go into BIOS again (you'll have Secure boot option available now),
Go into Secure Boot submenu and set Secure boot to enabled.

I've tried it already but it keeps getting enabled always, maybe that's because of my drive format and I tried multiple softwares and methods to convert the drive format and they show that my drive is successfully converted but it doesn't.

Tell me how do I upload videos here so I can show you everything that's happening with me.

 

[drea.drechsler]

...
Tell me how do I upload videos here so I can show you everything that's happening with me.

You'd post it on a video sharing site...like YouTube or Vimeo...then put a link in here.

The latest BIOS is probably the one that's needed as it would be the one where they're prepping for Win11 which requires UEFI mode on by default.

NVM, it looks like the latest for that board is F51...released back in Aug of 2020. Gigabyte's not too interested in getting that board ready for Win11 it seems.

 

[Colif]

The bios updates for Win 11 are mostly just changing defaults, the features (mostly) exist already. ops bios has tpm under Trusted Computing on Peripherals tab, so should be able to enable it in there.

Steps to enable (all AMD-based Gigabyte mobos) Secure Boot. Make sure fTPM is enabled. Make sure CSM is disabled. In Secure Boot, select custom under Secure Boot Mode, Select Restore Factory Keys, Say YES to reset without saving.

When BIOS restarts, access BIOS and change Secure Boot Mode back to Standard and then Yes to restart without save.

@SkyNetRising What does the mbr2gpt process do? Its clearly not removing MBR if drives can boot from it still, so what is it dong exactly. I assumed it made an EFI as how else does it boot as GPT?

 

[drea.drechsler]

The bios updates for Win 11 are mostly just changing defaults, the features (mostly) exist already. ....

There's been precious little but speculation, but that's what I figured was the case.

If OP's BIOS kept reverting CSM to ENABLED when he DISABLED I thought having it DISABLED by default would help.

 

[SkyNetRising]

@SkyNetRising What does the mbr2gpt process do? Its clearly not removing MBR if drives can boot from it still, so what is it dong exactly. I assumed it made an EFI as how else does it boot as GPT?

Mbr2gpt converts drive partitioning scheme from MBR to GPT (without data loss) and it creates new EFI System partition for bootloader.
There's quite a list of requirements for it to work properly. So - in some non standard situations you couldn't even use it.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/deployment/mbr-to-gpt

 

[Colif]

i thought you might have known more than whats on the MS website. thanks anyway.

@drea.drechsler CSM is already disabled by default.

 

[OMGiTxREALHASSAN]

You'd post it on a video sharing site...like YouTube or Vimeo...then put a link in here.

The latest BIOS is probably the one that's needed as it would be the one where they're prepping for Win11 which requires UEFI mode on by default.

NVM, it looks like the latest for that board is F51...released back in Aug of 2020. Gigabyte's not too interested in getting that board ready for Win11 it seems.

I'll post a video later in the morning because I've my little cousins over my house and they want to play games.

 

[Colif]

so you don't get any errors if you type

mbr2gpt /validate /disk:0

As its meant to tell you then if it won't work.

I haven't had to run it myself. At this rate a clean install would be faster

 

[SkyNetRising]

In this screenshot you can see, that drive has been converted to GPT already.
First boot option is showing "Windows Boot manager". This is available on GPT disks only.
There's no need to use mbr2gpt again. It's not even possible to use it on disk, that is GPT already.

Here you go, My BIOS .

 

[drea.drechsler]

CSM is already disabled by default.

So they're only defaulting Safe Boot and fTPM to enabled by default with the BIOS updates?

 

[Colif]

IN some cases they adding the FTPM/PTT options to BIOS but mostly its just changing defaults.

 

[drea.drechsler]

In this screenshot you can see, that drive has been converted to GPT already.
First boot option is showing "Windows Boot manager". This is available on GPT disks only.
There's no need to use mbr2gpt again. It's not even possible to use it on disk, that is GPT already.

Therefore...OP could proceed to clean installing windows on his drive, selection options to delete all existing partions if necessary, and it will set up for UEFI mode operation...correct or no?

 

[OMGiTxREALHASSAN]

In this screenshot you can see, that drive has been converted to GPT already.
First boot option is showing "Windows Boot manager". This is available on GPT disks only.
There's no need to use mbr2gpt again. It's not even possible to use it on disk, that is GPT already.

No No No, that wasn't my DRIVE, I borrowed it from my friend he has the same DRIVE as mine and his drive was already in GPT format from the day he bought it. I borrowed it to confirm if he was lying to me about that his DRIVE is GPT since the day he bought it. BecauseI thought there's something wrong with my drive, I've tried everything and every process shows that my drive is now successfully converted to GPT but when I boot into windows after WINDOWS installation it shows under DISK MANAGEMENT that the drive format is still MBR.

Don't worry guys, I'll upload a VIDEO on YOUTUBE and share it with you to show you everything.

 

[SkyNetRising]

but when I boot into windows after WINDOWS installation it shows under DISK MANAGEMENT that the drive format is still MBR.

Can you show screenshot of that?
(upload to imgur.com and post link)

 

[OMGiTxREALHASSAN]

Can you show screenshot of that?
(upload to imgur.com and post link)

Yeah, Gimme some time, I'm a little busy today. I'll upload a complete VIDEO of the issue.