Tried to install steam OS, now system is busted

[Alex Neiman]

So I was trying to build a steam machine, and for reasons unknown the keyboard did not work during BIOS. So what I decided to do was to use my regular PC running windows 7 to put steam OS on a hard drive. However, the computer is a different architecture and a different system so it would not have worked. Anyways, the bootloader is messed up on my main PC and now it will not boot. It won't enter the operating system, and won't enter bios set up or boot menu (it just kind of sits there). How do I reconfigure the system so that it will boot into Windows?

MSI 970a Krait SLI
AMD FX 8320 Black Edition
2x4GB DDR3
1TB HDD
Gigabyte GeForce GTX 950

 

[photonboy]

1) getting into the BIOS has nothing to do with any OS you may have installed.

It's either a major hardware issue, or the KEYBOARD press isn't registered (bad keyboard, bad USB port, or it's a wireless keyboard).

2) What do you mean by "it just kind of sits there"?

3) I suggest you:
a) unhook cables from HDD and SSD's (from rear of drive) and any other non-essential things like USB drives/printer/mouse, then
b) see if you can enter BIOS
c) if not, try a different USB slot (top one usually), and a different Keyboard

4) Once you can boot into the BIOS we need to sort out your bootloader:

a) insert ONLY the Windows drive and see if it works (I don't know where the bootloader is)
b) if the Windows drive won't boot, then you will want to REPAIR that with a Windows Install disc. Lots of help online, but you'd probably start with fixing the MBR.

Here's how: http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/32523/how-to-manually-repair-windows-7-boot-loader-problems/

Other:
You could also upgrade to Windows 10 (which is free until July 29th) which will also repair your installation.

a) download and run the MS media creation tool: https://www.microsoft.com/en-ca/software-download/windows10
b) create a DVD or USB version
c) will create both HOME and PRO options but choose the one that matches your W7 version when installing

c) make sure ONLY the W7 drive is attached
d) boot to W10 install
e) choose W10 Home 64-bit if applicable

f) choose to keep all programs and files
(you could install this to a new SSD if you wanted but it's a hassle for most people to reinstall programs, though you can keep all your Steam games. Just keep the "Steamapps" folder and move that to a Steam folder you create on the HDD but I don't want to get too confusing).
g) do NOT enter a key (which you won't have) just SKIP that part. MS will recognize your W7 install and assign W10 a key automatically.

h) test everything.
i) if working fine you can go into "cleanup files" and delete the W7 "OLD" folder which will take up a lot of space.

 

[photonboy]

STEAMOS install:
Valve says it requires UEFI mode so you'd want your Windows version to be UEFI as well, otherwise you'd have to keep changing the BIOS settings every time you boot into one from the other.

If you don't have UEFI support on the motherboard then SteamOS may not work at all.

If you can support it then I'd:
a) install SteamOS with only the target HDD installed, then
b) modify the Linux bootloader to add the Windows OS drive, then
c) make sure the Linux HDD is the first drive in the BIOS boot order.

It's not a good idea to install SteamOS with other drives attached. I'm not an expert on this, but this is my current advice.

Other:
I played around with SteamOS for a while then gave up. About 25% of my games where listed in Linux, most of those got roughly 70% the FPS, and of those several had issues.

Torchlight 2 for example needed advanced shadows (or similar) disabled or it stuttered ( so no cloud shadows).

Also, I installed W10 accidentally without UEFI support (it's very, very confusing on how to do this for some motherboards). i did have W8 done properly so not sure what happened. Anyway, as said I had to install SteamOS using UEFI so I had to keep going into the BIOS to change back to UEFI. I didn't use a bootloader for that reason.

I am going to reinstall SteamOS in about six months to see what driver and other improvements will happen. Hopefully other people get WINE support working somehow that can integrate with Steam because Valve is NOT supporting it possibly due to legal issues.

You can add WINE yourself in the desktop but it's still too much hassle to mess around with.