Power up boots directly to Windows

[operadude]

@Falcon Here's your Motherboard Manual:

https://dlcdnets.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/ ... 0M-A%20D3

Your "BIOS", according to the manual pictures, is what ASUS calls "UEFI-BIOS"-- so, supports UEFI and ("Legacy") BIOS. To get into UEFI/BIOS (from the manual):

2.2 BIOS setup program
Use the BIOS Setup program to update the BIOS or configure its parameters. The BIOS screens include navigation keys and brief online help to guide you in using the BIOS Setup program.

To enter BIOS Setup at startup:
Press <Delete> or <F2> during the Power‑On Self Test (POST). If you do not press <Delete> or <F2>, POST continues with its routines...

See this part of the manual:

2.6 Advanced menu
The Advanced menu items allow you to change the settings for the CPU and other system devices.

==> To switch between UEFI and "Legacy" BIOS, you will do so in this "Advanced Menu" area! So, you will need to get to the "Advanced Menu" section first!

After that, within the Advanced Menu (also called "Advanced Mode"), there will be a section called "Boot". See this from the manual:

2.8 Boot menu
The Boot menu items allow you to change the system boot options.
Scroll down to display the other BIOS items.

So, in "Advanced Menu/Mode", click-on the "Boot" section. Within the "Boot" section of "Advanced Mode", on the left-hand side, all the way at the bottom, there is a setting called "CSM" (Compatibility Support Module). This CSM setting, if selected, is what allows you to boot into strictly ("Legacy") BIOS mode, and NOT, I repeat NOT, UEFI mode. But you do want UEFI mode, so..., click-on that CSM button, and make sure that it is DISABLED. In other words, you DO NOT WANT CSM turned on or activated. You want that off, or disabled, so that your computer will then boot into UEFI mode

It might have been turned-on by default, or maybe Windows 7 changed it for you, without asking you, of course! In any event, it seems clear from the bottom of your QSI that you are booting in BIOS (Legacy) mode, and not UEFI, even though at the top of your QSI, it looks like the motherboard supports UEFI!

And, as others have already pointed-out, you have a mish-mash of GPT and MBR drives, but that is a more complicated (for me) issue, and I would follow-up with @fehlix after switching your boot process to UEFI.

I'll try to get a pic of that manual, but I found it online, and have the link at the top of this post.

Really hope this helps (HTH)

And...

UEFI/BIOS Selection Pic (from the manual):




EDIT:

Remember to SAVE YOUR CHANGES before or at Exit !!! :

2.10 Exit menu
The Exit menu items allow you to load the optimal default values for the BIOS items, and save or discard your changes to the BIOS items.

So, when done, switch from the "Boot" sub-menu in "Advanced Mode" to the "Exit" sub-menu, and click "Save Changes and Reset"

[Falcon]

Operadude,

I must have looked at that boot menu 15 times this morning and I didn't see the option to disable CSM. So now it is disabled. I booted the Live USB drive and it took a couple of minutes before it displayed the user logon screen, which is kind of unusual. I opened MX Tools and selected Boot Repair. Then I reinstalled the GRUB boot loader in ESP mode and that completed successfully. Then I ran the Repair GRUB Configuration operation and that completed successfully, also. Then I rebooted the computer and everything is back to normal.

I can't figure out how I missed the CSM disable option on the BIOS boot menu, but stranger things have happened. Thank you to you and Fehlix and everyone else who helped with this problem.

[operadude]

Operadude,

I must have looked at that boot menu 15 times this morning and I didn't see the option to disable CSM. So now it is disabled. I booted the Live USB drive and it took a couple of minutes before it displayed the user logon screen, which is kind of unusual. I opened MX Tools and selected Boot Repair. Then I reinstalled the GRUB boot loader in ESP mode and that completed successfully. Then I ran the Repair GRUB Configuration operation and that completed successfully, also. Then I rebooted the computer and everything is back to normal.

I can't figure out how I missed the CSM disable option on the BIOS boot menu, but stranger things have happened. Thank you to you and Fehlix and everyone else who helped with this problem.

@Falcon

Great Job

P.S. Remember to mark as: [SOLVED]
--> Pick the post that you think solved your issue, and then click the check-mark (kind of a "v") on the upper right-hand-side of that post. That will mark your thread as "[SOLVED]", indicating that that post was the one that did it for you (sorry about the "that that"!). Marking "Solved" is just good Forum form-- say that 10 times fast!.

Oh, yeah...

P.P.S (I always wrote P.S.S., but now that seems wrong!). Anyway:

Maybe follow-up with @fehlix about managing the mix of GPT and MBR drives. Maybe it's just not an issue anymore, but you might want to check, so as to prevent any future problems. Above my paygrade, and that "cat" (pun intended) is WAY OUT OF MY LEAGUE

[Falcon]

Thanks, Operadude

When this problem showed up a couple days ago, CharlesV suggested that I run Boot Repair and reinstall GRUB. I did that, but when I did the reinstall, I specified MBR, rather than ESP. That may have been where the problem began. Hopefully, everything is fixed now.

[j2mcgreg]

@operadude wrote:

Your "BIOS", according to the manual pictures, is what ASUS calls "UEFI-BIOS"-- so, supports UEFI and ("Legacy") BIOS.

With the introduction of UEFI along side Windows 8, "Legacy" was reinterpreted to mean that a user could roll back to Windows 7 specifically. The CSM module built into UEFI is an MBR emulator that facilitates this regression. CSM was not meant or designed for use with Linux and an MBR install and doing so will render a computer increasingly erratic.
Rule of Thumb
If the target computer shipped with Windows 7 or earlier, you should do an MBR install. However, if it had Windows 8 or later or has a UEFI bios you should do a UEFI install.

[CharlesV]

Just a note - it is a great idea to save your working QSI to backups or another computer, so that you can refer back to it if you need more info formation ( like if your install is mbr or efi ).

This can also help if you need to identify parts, or configurations of that machine too.

[Falcon]

Thanks for the extra info, everyone. I'll definitely save the QSI onto a backup drive.