In my previous attempt to install Ubuntu, I was halted in my tracks because I couldn’t enter the BIOS. Since then, I have acquired a wired keyboard and felt everything was going to work out; but if you’ve read any of my other posts I’m sure you know this saga was far from over.

First I discovered that my BIOS Mode is set to “Legacy” instead of “UEFI”, which is why my UEFI option is not available in the advanced startup settings. But in order to change to UEFI I would need to (you guessed it) enter the BIOS. So now with my wired keyboard it should work out fine right?

No. Of course not. I tried different button combinations. I tried changing the USB plug I was using on the motherboard. I tinkered with this more than I really should have, until I consulted the great Internet and found how to reset my CMOS and then PROBLEM SOLVED! I’M IN THE BIOS!!!

And now that I’m in the BIOS I have discovered that I actually need to convert to UEFI by using a Windows program. So all of this was literally for nothing……………………….and somehow I ended up booting into Ubuntu. 0_0 So yeah, I’m completely out of my element.

I decided to just keep pressing on with the installation process, but when I got to the part where I needed to allocate space to install Ubuntu I realized I don’t have nearly enough space partitioned for it from my main SSD. I booted up Windows and spent a half hour or so freeing up more space to save me from having to buy another SSD.

And after ALL THAT, guess what??? WINDOWS ONLY RECOGNIZES UP TO 4 PARTITIONED DRIVES AND THEY TAKE UP 3 OF THEM IMMEDIATELY WITH WINDOWS. 0_0

I guess it’s time to buy another SSD.

While I wait for it to come in I’m going to convert my Windows drive from legacy boot to UEFI since it’s faster and more secure, plus it’ll supposedly allow more than 4 partitions to a drive. So maybe I just threw a few hundred dollars out the window for nothing. WE’LL SEE!

In order to convert to UEFI, I’ll need to use the MBR2GPT disk conversion tool by booting into something called Windows PE (WinPE). I looked up a useful Youtube video and it honestly looks fairly straightforward. Although you’d think it would have mentioned HOW to get into that, but it doesn’t so I guess I’ll have to google to figure that out next.
After some googling, I figured out I had to download and install the Windows Assessment and Deployment Kit (ADK) and the Windows PE (WinPE) add-on. After that, I needed to install the WinPE to a USB driveby running the Deployment and Imaging Tools Environment in administrator mode and entering a few commands.
copype amd64 C:\WinPE_amd64
MakeWinPEMedia /UFD C:\WinPE_amd64 P:
And now I’m ready to restart the computer and boot into the newly made Windows PE!

Once I got into Windows PE I just entered the commands the video above specified and everything worked like a charm! After I booted back into Windows, I held the Shift key when I clicked “restart” and the UEFI options were finally available under advanced options!

I then followed the steps in the article How To Install Ubuntu Alongside Windows 10 and everything worked just fine. So yes, I DID just throw money out the window on the new SSD. But it’s not all a loss, I think I’ll do a triple boot by putting a Mac OS on its own separate SSD, because when I built this computer I ensured all parts would be Hackintosh compatible!

But for now, I’m going to go ahead and try to install tensorflow-gpu and continuing on with this Neural Networking project! Oh yeah, and I’m finishing this post from my new Ubuntu OS!!!!
