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My laptop is Acer Aspire 4750G, running Windows 7 SP1 Ultimate. A year ago, I've successfully dual-booted Ubuntu 15.04 with Windows 7 SP1 Ultimate. This week, I tried to update the Ubuntu 15.04 with 16.04 LTS, but it gave me "Force UEFI Installation" window. I shook it off and just went ahead and ignored the window.

At the end of the installation, instead of successfully installing, it gave me grub-efi-amd64-signed failed installation /target/ error. So now I couldn't boot on both OS, and decided to do the bootrec /fixmbr command through my Windows 7 installation disc. The Windows 7 is back, but not my Ubuntu though.

Now, I tried to install Ubuntu 16.04 again. But now, when booting through my Ubuntu LiveUSB, I don't see the menu that has "Try Ubuntu", "Install Ubuntu", and "Memory check" at all -- but I can still press the arrow keys and the enter/return button, as if the menu is invisible. I could boot up into the LiveUSB Ubuntu, too. But when I try to install Ubuntu, it's still give me the "Force UEFI Installation" warning, and when it's at the end of the installation, I still got the grub-efi-amd64-signed failed installation /target/ error.

Also, when selecting the boot device, I only have a single choice for the USB, which is the name of the pendrive itself. When I try it on my Asus laptop, it gives two of the same device, but one has UEFI before the name and one hasn't.

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  • Most Windows 7 systems are BIOS on MBR partitions. The normal UEFI install is on gpt partitioned drives and has a separate ESP - efi system partition. If you convert a BIOS/MBR Windows system to gpt partitioning you will break it. Windows 7 can be installed in UEFI mode from flash drive. You just need to be sure to boot Ubuntu installer in BIOS boot mode from flash drive to have it install in BIOS boot mode.
    – oldfred
    Feb 3, 2017 at 15:12
  • @oldfred Since I still got the "Force UEFI Installation" window I might need to try to reinstall Windows 7 in UEFI mode, just like you said. The problem is Acer laptops (confirmed with another Acer laptop I own) don't show whether if I'm booting the pendrive in UEFI or not through its boot selection. On Asus laptops, like I said, it's shown before the device's name. My best bet is that if I change the boot order of the pendrive to the top on an Acer, it might be starting in UEFI, since now I can see the grub menu of Ubuntu. I'll see if Windows 7 installs in UEFI by that way.
    – Anton Rizky
    Feb 6, 2017 at 13:32
  • Acer with UEFI has unique requirement of enabling supervisory password in UEFI and from UEFI enabling "trust" on the .efi boot files in the ESP - efi system partition. Also make sure you have newest UEFI from Acer. Some older versions had issues, and posts for those mention downgrading UEFI. But newest works per newer posts. askubuntu.com/questions/627416/… User who converted Windows 7: ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2304736 and: askubuntu.com/questions/860729/…
    – oldfred
    Feb 6, 2017 at 15:00

1 Answer 1

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Ironically, I myself have discovered the way to fix the first problem about the invisible menu: Instead of using the F12 (The button for Acer laptops to choose boot device), change the boot device order via the BIOS menu. Now the menu will show, but in the black-and-white style instead of the one that has the Ubuntu logo graphics. I have yet to try and actually install Ubuntu, but it still gives me the "Force UEFI Installation" after the "install third party software" window.

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