Some kind of UEFI problem?

I have Zorin OS9 Core installed on a spare 250Gb HDD in my gaming rig. I also have a Windows 7 hard drive which is my main drive that I usually boot into. But I wanted to try out Zorin and see if I could convert to using linux instead of Windows. I have quite a few questions to post in this thread but I'll start with my glaring problem.

I'm having some real problems with some kind of... I'm not sure... conflict? When I go to turn my computer on, it will always just hang on the motherboard splash screen. That screen we've all seen, where it will tell you that you can press different keys to do different things at this time. Such as Delete to enter BIOS, F12 to select a boot device, etc. Well, it doesn't really even let you do that. You can press all that if you want, but nothing will happen. A side note, the Numlock key on the keyboard goes off at this time, and I always keep it on. Maybe the keyboard isn't functioning for some reason? Not sure if that's actually relevant here.

Anyway, the only way I can actually get the computer to boot into windows, or Zorin, is if I walk over to the motherboard, and hit the little reset button. That button that lets you reset the bios and load optimized defaults. Then, I get a little window that will let me choose to either "load optimized defaults and boot", "load optimized defaults and reboot", or "Enter setup" which I'm assuming is the bios.

So you see, every time I want to load an OS, I have to start the computer, then hit a button on my motherboard, then tell that little window that comes up to go ahead and boot, using optimized defaults. That is the only way I can get my computer started, every time. When I turn the computer off after submitting this thread, I'll have to do all that again in order to come back and check on the thread. What could be causing this? These problems didn't pop up until I installed Zorin. To me it seems like some kind of conflict between the Windows 7 bootloader, Grub, and perhaps UEFI is in there somewhere, just to mess things up even more. I looked around in my Bios to see if there was anywhere that I could completely disable UEFI and just go with legacy, but I didn't see anything. My motherboard is a Gigabyte brand Z77 motherboard. Running an intel 3570k. Graphics card is an Nvidia GTX 970, and a GTX 760 for PhysX.

Any help getting my computer to function normally would be greatly appreciated!

An afterthought:

I'm not sure if this part is related to the current problem. But I thought I'd mention it just in case. I had to solve some kind of Grub problem before I could even get Zorin to install. I had to follow this guide, and enter "nomodeset" in the right spot. Zorin would just hang up on the black cursor screen that you see for just a second before it installs. A link to the guide: (you might have to scroll down a bit to see the "nomodeset" part)

http://askubuntu.com/questions/162075/m ... 076#162076

So after "nomodeset" was put in place, wam bam Zorin would install and be able to boot. So, knowing that this was an Nvidia driver issue, booted into windows (linux doesn't have internet yet) and downloaded the driver for my 970 from Nvidia's website. I then transferred it to the Linux drive. It was a .run file, which... I'm not sure what is. Perhaps something somewhat similar to a windows .exe? Cause when I double clicked on it, it opened up this little window which I have posted below.

It ran like that for about 45 minutes, where you can see the little blue status bar below the word "Loading" in the window. I just left it alone and left the computer and went and did something else. When I came back, the little window was gone. I assumed it had finished installing the drivers. So I rebooted Zorin, and... well now I'm not sure what to do. I don't even know where to go to see what video driver is running for the 970. Also, Zorin is still sluggish and somewhat slow to respond.

If I had to guess, I'd say that the video driver didn't get implemented. All of the animations for the windows opening, are still slow and sluggish and even choppy sometimes. It doesn't look like that video driver is working. Again I haven't a clue as to whether this is somehow related to the boot problem.

any way you could flash the BIOS?

Well I can boot into windows, with some effort. So yes, I'd say that I probably could flash the bios.

I'm guessing that would help. Just check the website of your manufacturer (or your motherboard if it is 3rd party) to find out what kind of BIOS you need. Also while flashing if you have a UPS i would definitely use it. Also PLEASE try to secure the plugs well. If you have to plug it in to the wall instead of the power strip that's ok. And be careful not to kick the wires I'm being so picky because if you screw you're motherboard's a paperweight. Be very sure to follow the manufacturer's instructions *carefully*

Wish you success

I'm guessing that would help. Just check the website of your manufacturer (or your motherboard if it is 3rd party) to find out what kind of BIOS you need. Also while flashing if you have a UPS i would definitely use it. Also PLEASE try to secure the plugs well. If you have to plug it in to the wall instead of the power strip that's ok. And be careful not to kick the wires I'm being so picky because if you screw you're motherboard's a paperweight. Be very sure to follow the manufacturer's instructions *carefully*

Wish you success

Ok so let me see if I understand the gist of what you're saying.

What you're saying is, that my motherboard's bios may benefit from an update, that may resolve some of these issues I'm seeing. That sound about right? If that is the case, I'd like you to take a look at this page. I guess there could have been more fixes than they listed, but I'm not sure. I have the F18 bios, and both of the bios' after that are beta bios'. I'd just like to get your take on that before I go ahead and do it. (correct mobo revision already selected)

http://www.gigabyte.com/products/produc ... =4441#bios

I'm guessing the BIOS is corrupted. so it's ok if you chose the same f18 BIOS.

I'll go ahead and reinstall the F18 bios, as per your recommendation. Won't hurt to try and see.

However to me, this feels more like some kind of conflict between the Windows Bootloader, and Grub. Perhaps I have Grub setup incorrectly? Currently I'm having to operate in the "nomodeset" configuration of grub, just to get Zorin to boot because I have no video driver. I looked for the right nvidia driver in the synaptic package manager, but I can't figure out which one to actually download and install. There are quite a lot, and none of them are worded in a manner that's easy to understand.

Can anyone post up, word for word, which driver I should download and install for my GTX 970 card from the synaptic package manager? Or even the Zorin app center or whatever they call it.

@bennylava: I wish you success in your BIOS flash!

As for drivers can i have the exact make and model of video card?

Yes the video card is an Nvidia GTX 970.

you can download the driver from http://us.download.nvidia.com/XFree86/L ... 361.42.run
that is for 64 bit.
32 bit would be http://us.download.nvidia.com/XFree86/L ... 361.42.run

Hope this helps!

To be honest, the best method of a 2 drive install is to disconnect the Windows Drive whilst installing Zorin to the second drive - I always had success installing from the live desktop and clicking on the install to hard drive - never had success in using the installer straight off. I would also put EasyBCD on your Windows Drive so that you can amend the mbr of Windows 7 to pick up the Zorin drive that way. Would be surprised to find a Windows 7 rig with UEFI on it.

Yeah I got it all installed. Thanks again.

Does anyone happen to know how to make the start menu in Zorin larger? And indeed, all of the text in zorin larger. I sit back a bit from my computer, also I'm running in 2650x1440p. So that probably made things even smaller. It would really help me out if I could increase the size, and text of all the menus.

Well I know you can change the icon size in the program list, not sure about the overall size. right click the start menu and hit preferences. You should get this image:

note: this link may expire after a while!

Thanks. Well changing the color of the start menu helped a little bit.

Do you know how to make the mouse larger?

Also, make the window borders transparent and the window control buttons (in the top right of every window) larger?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yxfa2fXJ1Wc for mouse cursor.

Thanks. I got to the part where he opened the "dconf editor", but it seems we don't have that in Zorin. I wonder why they didn't just put this into zorin by default? Along with the ability to change the start menu size, and the window transparency, overall font size of everything, and the window control buttons. Everything is tiny.

Again I'm using 1440p monitor, so that is probably why. But they seemed to have skimped out on controls for us higher resolution people.

Also, when I changed my theme to Zorin black, there seems to be some kind of weird reflection above the start menu. Now, earlier I was playing around with the settings trying to get Zorin to look and be like I needed. And I came across some setting that I can't find now for the life of me. It had something to do with Icon reflections. I was messing with the setting, and looking for instantaneous effects. Couldn't see any. But now I have this start menu icon bothering me. Does anyone know where to find this menu so I can turn it off? A pic of the problem is posted below. Look in the bottom left hand corner of the pic.

If you had watched and listened carefully, quidsup explained that you have to open a terrminal and enter:

Code:

sudo apt-get install dconf-tools

This will place 'dConf Editor' in your 'System Tools' area of the Menu.

As for your reflection issue, could it be this setting?:

(You get to it via right-click the AWN Panel and Preferences, then select the 'Advanced' Tab)

Going back to your fonts issues, if not installed open a terminal (Ctrl+ Alt+ T) and install 'gnome-tweak-tool':

Code:

sudo apt-get install gnome-tweak-tool

This will add 'Tweak Tool' under Menu | System Tools | Preferences.

Thanks! For some reason I was not able to find that again for the life of me.

I can't remember who I was talking to... but do you know how to turn the window borders clear, and enlarge the size of the window control buttons? The "close window" button, the minimize window button, and the expand button are all pretty small for me.

Hi, the Window Control Buttons cannot be resized due to implementation of GTK 3.10 - only editing themes apparently can change things:

https://askubuntu.com/questions/475651/ ... s-in-unity

As for transparency of window borders "clear" - if you mean none at all then it is in Compiz - I covered this in another post but can't remember where.

I have Zorin OS9 Core installed on a spare 250Gb HDD in my gaming rig. I also have a Windows 7 hard drive which is my main drive that I usually boot into. But I wanted to try out Zorin and see if I could convert to using linux instead of Windows. I have quite a few questions to post in this thread but I'll start with my glaring problem.

I'm having some real problems with some kind of... I'm not sure... conflict? When I go to turn my computer on, it will always just hang on the motherboard splash screen. That screen we've all seen, where it will tell you that you can press different keys to do different things at this time. Such as Delete to enter BIOS, F12 to select a boot device, etc. Well, it doesn't really even let you do that. You can press all that if you want, but nothing will happen. A side note, the Numlock key on the keyboard goes off at this time, and I always keep it on. Maybe the keyboard isn't functioning for some reason? Not sure if that's actually relevant here.

Anyway, the only way I can actually get the computer to boot into windows, or Zorin, is if I walk over to the motherboard, and hit the little reset button. That button that lets you reset the bios and load optimized defaults. Then, I get a little window that will let me choose to either "load optimized defaults and boot", "load optimized defaults and reboot", or "Enter setup" which I'm assuming is the bios.

So you see, every time I want to load an OS, I have to start the computer, then hit a button on my motherboard, then tell that little window that comes up to go ahead and boot, using optimized defaults. That is the only way I can get my computer started, every time. When I turn the computer off after submitting this thread, I'll have to do all that again in order to come back and check on the thread. What could be causing this? These problems didn't pop up until I installed Zorin. To me it seems like some kind of conflict between the Windows 7 bootloader, Grub, and perhaps UEFI is in there somewhere, just to mess things up even more. I looked around in my Bios to see if there was anywhere that I could completely disable UEFI and just go with legacy, but I didn't see anything. My motherboard is a Gigabyte brand Z77 motherboard. Running an intel 3570k. Graphics card is an Nvidia GTX 970, and a GTX 760 for PhysX.

Any help getting my computer to function normally would be greatly appreciated!

I am guessing you put the 'spare drive' into the machine at the time of installing Zorin? That is, the drive was not already in the machine?
Just a guess, the BIOS screen maybe prompting to 'add' the drive or to save it in the configuration, or accept the changes save and reboot. So that it is not detected as 'changed hardware' each boot.
If you disconnect the 250GB drive from the computer does it boot normally into windows? Maybe need to let it boot first then shut down to test this!


Video driver, have you tried: clicking the Zorin menu, system tools, preferences, additional drivers? It will take a minute or so to update then you should have some options available. Select the driver you want and 'apply changes'. Again it will take some time to download and install the driver maybe 5 or more minutes. It will likely be on "Using X.Org X server -- blah blah" by default.

I have Zorin OS9 Core installed on a spare 250Gb HDD in my gaming rig. I also have a Windows 7 hard drive which is my main drive that I usually boot into. But I wanted to try out Zorin and see if I could convert to using linux instead of Windows. I have quite a few questions to post in this thread but I'll start with my glaring problem...

I am guessing you put the 'spare drive' into the machine at the time of installing Zorin? That is, the drive was not already in the machine?
Just a guess, the BIOS screen maybe prompting to 'add' the drive or to save it in the configuration, or accept the changes save and reboot. So that it is not detected as 'changed hardware' each boot.
If you disconnect the 250GB drive from the computer does it boot normally into windows? Maybe need to let it boot first then shut down to test this!


Video driver, have you tried: clicking the Zorin menu, system tools, preferences, additional drivers? It will take a minute or so to update then you should have some options available. Select the driver you want and 'apply changes'. Again it will take some time to download and install the driver maybe 5 or more minutes. It will likely be on "Using X.Org X server -- blah blah" by default.

Yes that is correct, I put the spare drive in the computer and then installed Zorin on it. And you are also correct again, when I take the Zorin drive out, Windows will boot normally and there isn't any problems.

However, what you said about the bios prompting me to 'add' the drive... I am not sure where I can go to see this message. I have not seen anything like that, yet. What happens when I put the Zorin drive in, is that the computer will simply never boot anything, and will lock up, on the motherboard splash screen. So it locks up, when you have the option to press Delete to go into Bios, or press F12 to see a boot menu, etc. I am sure you are familiar with all of that. Anyway, it locks up there and simply will not do anything else. You can press all the buttons you like, but nothing will happen. I have to press the cmos reset button on the motherboard. And then, I can go into the bios, set everything back to Legacy, and finally it will let me boot into Zorin. But it will allow this once, maybe twice. Then the settings go back to "UEFI and Legacy", and the computer just locks up on the motherboard splash screen again. As opposed to being set to "Legacy only" which makes Zorin boot normally.

Fortunately when I remove the Linux drive, the computer functions normally and will just boot into W7 without any problems.

Also, this might clear some things up. Here are the pics of my settings. Perhaps upon seeing them, you can tell me what they should be set to. (the CSM support is set to "Always")

So the issues didn't just arrive with Zorin alone but also with the new Drive?

I checked your mother board on the gigabyte site and it is some kind of "Dual BIOS' UEFI as best I can tell.
I don't know what all this means but can you see that the problem may also be another drive/boot device/MBR/Grub etc, I don't have UEFI myself so not sure!
Example, what would/did happen when/if you put the new drive in without an 'Operating System' on it? Can you put another Drive in without problems, that is a new/blank drive with no Operating System?
Can you see where I am going with this, you made multiple changes at one time but perhaps assume Zorin is the issue. Just trying to slow it all down for trouble shooting
I suspect that the combination of the new Drive and Zorin OS installed on it is like a double edged sword so to speak, that the BIOS/UEFI boot sector and perhaps another Drive added to the system at the same time.
As Swarfendor437 mentioned earlier about disconnecting the Windows Drive to install a second OS.

So what happens if you remove the Windows Drive?

I can sort of see where your at but its a little hard to explain it all so I am hoping you can get the general idea of what I am talking about, just trying to help, my very limited UEFI knowledge (almost none) and not being there with you if you know what I mean. Hope this helps give some ideas for trouble shooting. Regards.

OK, UEFI was first introduced with the introduction of Windows 8 and the BIOS of the time only gave you an 'either/or' scenario - if you wanted to boot into Windows 8 you had to have UEFI enabled to read the BIOS key that comes with Windows 8 - If you wanted to boot into Windows 7 or a different OS you would have to disable UEFI and select 'Legacy' mode. So if you have a mix of OS's you should have the UEFI/Legacy mode enabled I suspect. I was not aware that such options were available until the screenshots were posted above. What you have to remember is:

Windows 8 has a hidden 'Power Setting' and if this is not turned off (it puts Windows 8 HDD into a 'sleep' state for quicker boots and that is what UEFI looks for) it will prevent booting of the non-UEFI drive period. You also have to turn 'fast boot' off which I think may be in the BIOS (I don't tend to buy branded PC's I build my own then add the OS afterward and I haven't built a rig since UEFI boards came out.

So the issues didn't just arrive with Zorin alone but also with the new Drive?

Well if I format the drive and take Zorin off, then there are no problems. It just boots straight into windows 7. And you can see the drive in windows 7, and format it or store stuff on it or do whatever you want with it. So I don't think its the drive itself. It was once I put zorin on the drive, that I started having all the problems.

As Swarfendor437 mentioned earlier about disconnecting the Windows Drive to install a second OS.
So what happens if you remove the Windows Drive?

Pretty much the same behavior. It will boot a couple of times into zorin, and then it will just lock up on the motherboard splash screen. Its hard to describe because its a roll of the dice. It may decide to load up the blue grub menu, when you can select zorin. But most of the time, it just locks up on the motherboard splash screen. But even if you do get lucky and it goes ahead and loads up the grub menu, odds the next time you turn the computer off, its just going to lock up.

Windows 8 has a hidden 'Power Setting' and if this is not turned off (it puts Windows 8 HDD into a 'sleep' state for quicker boots and that is what UEFI looks for) it will prevent booting of the non-UEFI drive period. You also have to turn 'fast boot' off which I think may be in the BIOS (I don't tend to buy branded PC's I build my own then add the OS afterward and I haven't built a rig since UEFI boards came out.

I am using windows 7. From my understanding though, UEFI actually came out in 2002, but didn't get potent until recent years. Also there seems to be (if what I've read is correct) some form or fashion of UEFI settings that you can choose, when installing windows 7. Perhaps newer versions of windows 7 default to using UEFI upon installation, and that is my problem. Cause I didn't click "customize" or anything like that, when I installed windows. I just let it go with the quick route, where you don't get to pick anything. Maybe I could have selected "legacy" if I had chosen to customize the install. Not sure.

OK, I don't know either but now you have mixed it up a bit and more info is coming to light.
Incidentally, I have just build an new PC and this is my first 'test drive' of it so I may well end up in the nut house with....It has UEFI etc so I may well encounter issues also as I intend to Dual Boot windows 10 on two different drives.
I am wondering if the Drive that you have Zorin on might have some issues, flaky hardware or such but from what you have mentioned it sounds like you can read and write from it ok!
I think that there might be an option to install Zorin in some sort of UEFI mode or such because I did have a play around with something a while ago but can't recall what where who etc.
Is reinstalling Zorin an option for you at this stage?
Have you tried the Easy BCD thing that Swarfendor437 mentioned previously.
How do you select what OS/Drive to Boot from? Via Grub or choose the boot device in the BIOS?

Also did you get the GTX 970 drives working/installed?

Hi MBMz10, The UEFI thing you speak of is Rufus:

http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/15 ... ndows.html

Yes, that was it

I think that there might be an option to install Zorin in some sort of UEFI mode...

I'll look for it upon reinstall.

Is reinstalling Zorin an option for you at this stage?

Yeah its an option, and I'm going to have to. I somehow managed to break zorin (i guess) because it locked up in the middle of me playing with Firefox settings. Trying to get the Firefox menus and text to be bigger by default. Since that lockup, my Zorin install hangs up on boot. First it displays the 4 little blue spheres that tells you its loading. Then they turn orange, and stop, and it gives some error message. It never loads past that anymore. But I have since wiped the drive.

Have you tried the Easy BCD thing that Swarfendor437 mentioned previously.

Not yet but it looked like it was some form or fashion of a mac thing, even though it may work just fine for me. But how is it different from grub? Isn't it just another bootloader? Where exactly does it fit in to the whole process?

How do you select what OS/Drive to Boot from? Via Grub or choose the boot device in the BIOS?

Well right now, I don't cause it just boots straight into W7. But for the very limited time that it worked correctly, I used grub. Here's how I wanted things to work. I wanted to be able to walk into my computer room, and hit the power button on the computer. Then, I wanted grub to show up, and give me the option to select which OS that I wanted to boot into. Which it did, when it worked, and didn't just lock up on the motherboard splash screen. But 98% of the time, just to get it to display the grub menu, I was going to be hitting the cmos reset button and tell it to "reboot using optimized defaults". Then it would finally allow me to load up the grub menu, AFTER I told it to use the Zorin drive first. I had to select that drive from the little boot menu that you can get upon startup of the PC, if you hit the F12 key. There were actually a variety of ways I could boot up, and none of them desirable.

Also did you get the GTX 970 drives working/installed?

Yeah I found an odd little window that I can get into via a little icon in the bottom right hand corner of the Zorin desktop. I don't have Zorin installed right now, so I can't name what it was, but it was some kind of "upgrade" or updates thing. It was also weird and somewhat inefficient in the way that it worked. It named the driver you used now, and showed a couple of other drivers above the one you had. You would select the highest one, install it, reboot, and then more options would be there, I did this until the window finally displayed the latest and greatest driver from Nvidia, which IIRC is 361.45. Then I installed that one, and I was up to date. I really wished that the updates or upgrades window was merged in with the Software center. As well as the package manager, and just have different tabs for each so the user is aware that they're different things.

Imho Zorin should mimic android and benefit from its success in this way. Just have everything all completely centralized like the play store is. After all zorin does seek to make the transition from windows easier, and centralization would go a long way towards that. Just my .02

Regarding EasyBCD. When you install a second OS (Zorin in this case, with Win 7 currently installed), Grub will search for other Operating Systems and add them to its list of bootable OS's. I think at this point it overwrites Windows Boot Loader so that if you now remove Zorin OS or disconnect its drive, the Windows MBR (master boot record) will fail to load windows leaving you with no working PC.
By disconnecting the Windows Drive from the machine when installing grub/Zorin you avoid this problem (and other 'accidents'), but now have to choose the OS that you want to boot in the BIOS (hardware, drive 1 2 3 etc) or it will 'default' to its first choice of disks and if a boot loader is found your in luck.

Enter EasyBCD ( http://neosmart.net/EasyBCD/ ), so now boot Windows and run EasyBCD let it find your Linux Distro, choose you default OS and other boot options and you are good to go. This way either drive could be removed from the machine and you can still boot the other Drive/OS. I have it set up like this on my laptop, only difference is that its all installed on one drive. When I installed Linux on it I made a small partition of about 350MB and told the Linux installer to put GRUB on this partition, then my /Home and swap etc.
Only thing I don't like about this method is that the machine boots almost into Windows before EasyBCD OS choice screen appears, then if I choose Linux it shuts down and reboots to Linux, including the grub screen, so its a little slow but works and has some redundancy built in if a drive should fail or such. Now if I wanted to I could just delete all the Linux Partitions from it and Windows will still boot, which is why I did it this way on this machine.

My personal preference is to use Grub Customizer ( https://launchpad.net/~danielrichter200 ... customizer ). I install each OS on its own drive separately (just that drive connected to the PC) then reconnect all the drives, configure the BIOS to boot my main Drive First, run Grub Customizer on my main OS/drive and configure the boot sequences, time outs, background images etc that way. Now just choose an OS from the Customized boot screen or let it boot the default one. I'm fairly sure that doing it this way also leaves the windows MBR intact but don't quote on this, meaning I could remove the main OS/Drive and Windows would still boot.

See above, you could also try Rufus.

But I suspect that you have some issue with BIOS/UEFI or Windows it's self still...
Have you tried resetting you BIOS/UEFI ? This is a question not a recommendation at this stage.

Regarding your 2 cents worth, I put it down to the 'learning curve' of a new thing, Linux in this case but it could be a new TV or car, just takes time to get used to what things do and where/how you do them. I had many frustrations and failures when I first started used Linux (Linux Mint 15 about 3 years ago) including coming home one night and being greeted by some grub not found and not being able to boot Linux. Fortunately I had all my data on another Drive (backup backup backup) and just re-installed/copied data and away I went. Then I learnt that I could have booted from the installation DVD and re-installed Grub in a few minutes, we live and learn.
But I would say to you hang in there because it is worth it, Linux is awesome in my opinion, not 'perfect' but awesome none the less. Having just built a new PC the other day with one of these UEFI BIOS things in it my learning curve is about to take off again. At this stage I just put my Linux drive from the old machine into the new one and it booted and works fine, try doing that on a Windows machine. I will do a clean install when Zorin 12 (16.04) is released but just knowing that it would most likely work made me smile.
Give your self the time it takes to work through these frustrations and issues and you will never look back, just forward with a big grin. Ah the FREEDOM OF LINUX

Just found this on youtube about EasyBCD https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxepmtjmilQ

Done a little differently than what I have but may suit your need. Its Windows 10 and Linux Mint and shows a few UEFI settings as well.

Or try reinstalling Windows 7 in Legacy mode and follow my EasyBCD video tutorial here:

https://vimeo.com/110085401

Just found this on youtube about EasyBCD https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxepmtjmilQ

Done a little differently than what I have but may suit your need. Its Windows 10 and Linux Mint and shows a few UEFI settings as well.

I went ahead and watched the tutorial but one thing I wasn't quite sure of... do you have to use a partition on a windows drive? Or can you just use a different hard drive?

I went ahead and watched the tutorial but one thing I wasn't quite sure of... do you have to use a partition on a windows drive? Or can you just use a different hard drive?

No, I don't think so.
Pretty sure you can install Grub on the Zorin Drive, that is, just install Zorin and Grub on its own drive (even disconnect Windows Drive from PC while installing Zorin/Grub) then reconnect/Boot Windows, run EasyBCD from WIndows, add the Zorin partition to it, configure to your requirements and enjoy.

I think from memory that in the tutorial he even let Linux Mint 'overwrite' the windows MBR (did not disconnect the windows drive so to speak), then did some sort of repair to it using EasyBCD as he installed both OS's on the same drive.
I even wonder if the way he did it, that is let Linux Mint overwrite the MBR then 'restore/repair' it might have some benefit for UEFI set ups....but not really 100% sure about this, but I did note it!
Note this was Windows 10 and Linux Mint but I think it should still work the same for Windows7/Zorin.

No, you don't have to have GNU/Linux on the same drive as Windows - in fact if you can afford a separate drive it is the best way to configure a mixed OS environment.

Matthew Moore did a very good tutorial on dual booting Windows 8 with MInt which is what I based my tutorial video on.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlTgaWs9BD0

The difference with his video and mine is that he was doing both OS installations from scratch - mine takes it from a pre-installed OS and adding GNU/Linux on the same drive - but the process is equally valid for installs on two separate drives as MBMz10 has pointed out - drives are labeled as: 1st drive - sdaX, 2nd drive sdbX - if you partition manually you can then readily identify what is what by their sizes, so in Zorin we would have say:

1. Primary Partition, formatted to 'ext4' marked as '/' (to indicate root system partition) and size of 30720 Mib (= 30 Gb)

2. Extended Partition - format the END of this as 'swap area' of 4096 Mib (4 Gb) and whatever is left in front of it, format to 'ext4' and mark as '/home' - this will be where all your personal stuff is kept and also any dummy windows drive under .wine is kept for Windows applications.

Now as for GRUB, on sdbX - the second drive - is where you should place it so it does not interfere with your Windows mbr on sdaX - "More cheers, less tears"!

Well I bit the bullet and installed Windows 10 onto the new PC with the UEFI (BIOS). Remember that Zorin 11 is already on its own drive with grub etc working fine. I disconnected the Zorin drive for the Windows installation. I disabled fast boot and changed settings to 'Legacy' where I could and turned off secure boot also I think.

First thing I noticed is that Windows 10 would only install in UEFI mode on these systems, tried making new non UEFI USB stick. I proceed nervously hoping it wouldn't lock me out of the system or some such disaster. Windows installed and booted OK, loaded drivers from mother board disk (windows couldn't access internet without this???) configured it up a bit and then reconnected the Zorin drive.

Currently with the UEFI/BIOS settings as they are the machine boots into Zorin by default, runs as it did before. To boot into windows I need to enter UEFI/BIOS and select something along the lines of "UEFI Windows Boot Manager". Then it boots Windows and all is fine here as well. Defaults back to Zorin for next boot.

I tried running EasyBCD from windows but the Grub/Linux settings were greyed out, maybe because its on ext4 partition that Windows is unable to see however I have used EasyBCD before and not had this issue (non UEFI system), and tried to configure Grub from Linux (Grub Customizer) to no avail also. Its a stand off and neither side is backing down.

I have some more testing to do and may yet attempt to install a 'test' of Zorin 11 on the Windows drive and see what happens. And/or Zorin in UEFI mode which I think I can do using 'Rufus' or maybe without it, maybe I will try Manjaro as I booted a USB live session and think it had UEFI mode on it also.

I just thought I would share the experience thus far for others. It will take me a little while to get my head around this new technology but so be it.

This is a link to an article on the Arch Linux site regarding UEFI and Linux/Windows dual booting, https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Du ... th_Windows

Hoping that this might assist you bennylava or at least you know someone else is having similar issues, maybe not as bad as yours but similar.
Was considering if this warranted a new thread but posted here for bennylava's benefit mainly.

I will have more on this in time.

HI, the main issue as I see it is that Zorin does not have a UEFI iso, unlike Ubuntu (http://news.softpedia.com/news/how-to-d ... 0635.shtml). You have to create a usb stick using Rufus which I have already posted a link to!

On the issue of UEFI Stallman points out the fact that UEFI is proprietary and the Free Software Foundation were annoyed with both Ubuntu and Fedora for creating 'shims' to get the OS to work with UEFI - Good luck!

Well I booted a USB stick with Zorin OS 11 in UEFI mode, all other drives disconnected, and installed it on the same drive as Windows 10.
I created a small partition of 350MB for the 'efi' bootloader a / for the system and a swap. Zorin installed and upon reboot gave the the option to boot Zorin or Windows from the Zorin grub screen. Pleasantly surprised about how easy that was. Some other install videos I watched, after my install, showed putting the Linux efi/grub on the same partition as the Windows 'efi' and seemed to work the same, I haven't tried that yet.

Other than the USB media being created as a UEFI boot (Rufus) it wasn't really that much different than what I was used to doing.

I think Stallman is starting to go a little crazy myself. Maybe we could install our open source software on on open source hardware Richard! We still live in the same world as 'Windows' and sometimes just need to get things done, if I could play the games I want to on Linux I wouldn't be typing this right now. I was under the impression that the UEFI standard was originally Intel or MS but now it is some sort of 'organisation or foundation' or such that anyone could join and co-develop, that is not proprietary in that sense. Not owned/controlled by a corporation. See here http://electronicdesign.com/dev-tools/1 ... about-uefi. My 2 cents worth.

Yes there is GNU/Linux specific hardware but it is very slow:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0f3YX2CCIX8

If I had to choose, there can only be one winner for me:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1RsvEm7UrU