# Dual booting FreeBSD 10.1 + Windows 8.1 using GPT



## AngryWolf (Mar 18, 2015)

Hi,

Formerly a Windows 7 with regular partitioning scheme (MBR) did not cause such a headache as it does now.

I got a UEFI BIOS with a typical Windows 8.1 installation, plus FreeBSD 10.1 from a standard FreeBSD GPT installation.

However, I can't find a way to make dual booting work. I can successfully boot either operating system by their own boot loaders, but they just don't know about each other. I also tried EasyBCD without success.

Could you please help me? I'm up for any solution.


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## protocelt (Mar 18, 2015)

Do you have both operating systems installed on their own separate disks? Most UEFI systems have a built in boot device menu you can usually access with one of the function keys (my computers use F8) after post to choose the disk you want to boot from. It's what I use to boot Windows 8.1, Linux and FreeBSD and find it far more simple than trying to muck about with boot loaders. If your using only one disk it becomes more complicated. In that case I think sysutils/grub2 would work but I've never set that up myself.


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## AngryWolf (Mar 18, 2015)

Hi,

No I tried to install both systems on the same disk.

But sounds like a good idea to put FreeBSD to a separate disk. My UEFI BIOS does have a boot selection menu thing I just didn't know if I could also access it with F8.

Thanks for the quick response!


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## AngryWolf (Mar 18, 2015)

Okay, I got the second HDD, installed FreeBSD on it, reinstalled my broken Windows 8.1 on the first HDD, then I could just switch between the two HDDs in the UEFI boot menu which can be brought up during computer start by pressing F8. Wonderful!

By the way, I found out that if I disabled Fast Boot in the BIOS, Windows 8.1 no longer treated the HDD as GPT, but as MBR. This can be easily noticed because in the MBR case you'll only see an extra "System Reserved" partition, while in GPT mode you will see 3 extra partitions. Maybe by disabling the fast boot I wouldn't have needed the extra HDD, but no problem, this way I don't have to give up fast boot after all, plus, got more HDD space.


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## korino (Apr 8, 2015)

Here is my experience. All depend from motherboard.  I have  both systems (Windows+ FreeBSD) on one HDD (HDD in GPT).
FreeBSD was installed via UEFI version. Simple installation on UFS  and did not use any type of bootloaders!
My motherboard can load FreeBSD if I am pressing F8.  And the Windows booting is default (do not need to press any buttons).
My motherboard is the A88XM-A-ASUS-FM2+.  It works only when the HDD is GPT.  And standard bootloader from FreeBSD didn't working. I see F1-F2-F3 and pressing F1 loads Windows. And that's it, FreeBSD does not =)
So try to not use any type of loader and just install FreeBSD and try F8.
For me it helps.


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