How to run bootable media on Asus S550CM ultrabook while preserving existing pre-installed Windows 8?

Question

I recently bought an Asus S550CM ultrabook with Windows 8 pre-installed on it. However, I need to also install Fedora 19 beta on the same machine simultaneously as a dual boot option for my work, which involves quite a bit of cross-platform testing.

I had setup & used similar dual boot configuration for my laptops earlier when I had Windows Vista and then Windows 7 with various iterations of Fedora OS, without any trouble.

This time I'm unable to set up a dual boot configuration with Windows 8 and Fedora as I'm unable to boot from any kind of bootable media (USB/DVD) even after I set up Boot device priority to access USB first, then DVD, and then the Windows Image and finally I disabled Secure Boot. I'm however, unable to locate any options for enabling Legacy Boot on the BIOS. The BIOS shows my USB device's name as [UEFI:Sandisk16GBVolume].

I want make a backup/recovery disk for my existing Windows 8 and then set up a dual boot configuration without erasing the existing installation, to be able to resume my work on my day job. I didn't receive any backup/recovery disk with the ultrabook, hence re-installing Windows is not an option for me.

In this situation, how can I install Fedora on my Asus S550CM ultrabook while keeping the existing pre-installed Windows 8 intact?

Solution 1

At the end of the day simply hitting the 'ESC' Key during boot did the trick!! Steps:-

1. Once the laptop is switched on, press the 'ESC' Key.
2. Select Boot media.
3. Do whatever you want to do!

That's it!! Done!! :D

Solution 2

Hit F2 before the Asus logo appears during boot. Find the following two settings and set them accordingly:

• Security > Secure Boot Control: Disabled
• Boot > Launch CSM: Enabled

Select 'Save & Exit' from the menu. Upon restarting, hit F2 again to enter the BIOS and set your boot priorities.

Comments

[Samie Bencherif]

I wanted to the same thing when I got my ASUS. I guess there's something weird about the ASUS BIOS because I found that it didn't seem to be as simple as it should have been. In the end I decided to start using Virtual Box instead of dual-booting. It's a little weird at first but you get used to it. I think that it would be better to do it that way. That's just my opinion though.