Railworks America

Hey all! I finally got a new computer! I don't have the list of specs available at the current moment, but it's pretty sweet! BUT. I ordered it to come with with windows 7, and instead, I unboxed it to have pre-installed Linux CentOS 6.5. And I have no way to revert it to Windows 7! I've tried with a disc, and the BIOS is not recognizing the disc as a bootable drive. What the heck is going wrong? I can't change it at all.

Thanks!

Why don't you do something logical and send it back and tell the dealer to do it right? Unless you have a spare copy of Windows7 you can't really fix this. Or did they send you a Windows7 disk?

They didn't send me a disk. It's going to be a major pain to send it back. I was hoping there would be another option.

Have you read this? http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/wind ... bbe1673d08 Google "cannot boot into windows after Linus CentoS install"
Should be fixable but I agree with what Buzz says.
pH

@ Peter. That link is not really what's going on with Nate's new PC. I was trying to help him (Steam chat) Saturday afternoon but was also getting ready for work. So kinda mis-communicated, which didn't help. Was looking to help him today but never connected.

Anyways, here's his new board: http://www.gigabyte.com/products/produc ... 288#manual I had downloaded the manual to try and help. As he said, Win 7 was supposed to be installed, but instead the PC has this "CentOS" installed. Nate does have a Win 7 install DVD, BUT, the issue is trying to change the boot drive from the hard drive to the DVD drive. P.32 of the manual shows the Startup screen for the board. F12 gives the Boot Menu, which does not show the DVD drive as a bootable device, and DEL does not enter BIOS (screen should look like p. 33) So there appears no way to change boot order.

What I was going to suggest Nate do today is to open the side cover and see if the DVD drive is actually connected to the motherboard. If it is, I don't see why it can't be selected as the boot drive. Maybe a CMOS clear, but then again, Nate's not a geek like we are.

@ Nate: if you still can't change the boot order, then that CentOS may have somehow locked the BIOS. It is a freeware version of Linux Red Hat Enterprise, for server use, and very well may be "built" for unattended installation. If you still want to try and get this new beast up and running, it's gonna take some swapping of drives from the old PC into this one, so at this point you may want to send it back. (or find a local tech)

Oh, one big thing we never did get to yesterday was if Nate was seeing the same pages in his manual that I was seeing from Gigabyte's website. I was telling him, "OK. p.32, p.33" etc, but not sure it's the same. That's the mis-communication.

Contact him on FaceBook. He's on there about 20 hours a day.

buzz456 wrote:Contact him on FaceBook. He's on there about 20 hours a day.

LOL, sorry, not gonna happen. I don't have, and don't want, a Face Ache account. (no offense meant to those that do have one) Don't tweet either.

I'll try to hunt him down for you then since you do not avail yourself of them. I don't tweet either but I find Facebook nice for communicating with my far flung extended family.

CentOS is freakishly hard to install. I am surprised they used that flavor of linux at all since there are smaller, much more easier to install flavors which you can install and be happy to work with windows.

If the source of strangeness is related to the CentOS, could a new install of Mint, Ubuntu etc, get him to something that would allow a parallel install of Windows?
If you have to deal with Linux, may as well do a dual boot system.
Did anyone try unplugging the CD drive and restarting, then shut down, plug the SATA cable back in and restart to see if the drive would be recognized? Try a different SATA port?
Could the CD/DVD drive need a non standard Linux driver to be recognized?
Could the CD/DVD drive be on a separate SATA controller than the main chipset, and therefor need a separate SATA controller driver, than the one built into the Intel chip? My MSI board is that way. IE it needs a separate driver for an additional 4 SATA ports, in addition to the six controlled by the Z77 chipset.

Maybe just format the drive?

I agree, they should fix it.

Once Win 7 is installed and Linux is gone, this will be a nice PC. Specs look really good. It's just getting BIOS to see the DVD drive (and BIOS should not need drivers for that, otherwise you couldn't install and O/S from a disk). Best thing is to wait and see if Nate reports back with any news.

arizonachris wrote:Once Win 7 is installed and Linux is gone, this will be a nice PC. Specs look really good. It's just getting BIOS to see the DVD drive (and BIOS should not need drivers for that, otherwise you couldn't install and O/S from a disk). Best thing is to wait and see if Nate reports back with any news.

Generally what you say is true Chris, but If that CD drive's SATA cable is plugged into an auxiliary SATA controller, that might be a problem. If that is the case, it might be as simple as plugging the drive into the primary SATA hub that is controlled by the Intel chipset.

The reason is this. The auxiliary SATA controller will need drivers that are not installable until the OS is installed first. An example being my Asmedia SATA controller on my MOBO.
The primary SATA controller will be controlled by the Intel chipset, and will work temporarily off the BIOS drivers. Although, the Intel chips also need specific drivers installed into the OS after installing the OS, for optimized efficiency.
He may also need Intel Rapid Storage Technology drivers. Almost all Intel setups are now AHCI, and that needs the IRST drivers. Most people think a PC only needs the IRST drivers for Raid, but they are necessary for several of the modern drive management modes.

Plus... He doesn't have the average setup. He has the "E" extreme version, which means it's a four channel setup for memory etc, not dual channel. (That last one makes me wonder if that's actually the problem.) Maybe most Linux distros don't even support the 4 channel "E" CPUs.

Hey guys! Been really busy the last few days and haven't really been online anywhere. Looks like some good suggestions! I'll look into all of them. Hoping it's just a loose wire.

Ericmopar wrote: *snip*
Plus... He doesn't have the average setup. He has the "E" extreme version, which means it's a four channel setup for memory etc, not dual channel.

Woah, didn't even notice this fact. They did send the wrong PC. I should have looked closer at that board's specs. (I was focusing on the BIOS ) 8 RAM slots? 4 channel RAM? Server O/S? It's a server. May not even have a DVD drive installed.

Send it back, Nate. Call them, they need to pay for the return and expedite delivery on the PC you ordered. Like Mike D said, (and what Eric inferred) this will never work right for what you want it to do. I'll presume that this builder is getting grief from the company they sent your PC to by now. Make it a double whammy. (tell them you'll destroy them on Face Book if they don't get things right, and quick!)

Ok. Sending this thing back is going to be a royal pain in the @$$. lol But, such is life. Thanks guys!