Windows 10: I have EFI System partition on both HDD and SSD. Which one do I use in BIOS as Windows Boot...

Hello! So I ordered a pre-built PC 2 years ago and installed Windows myself. I installed it on my SSD, so Windows have always been on my SSD and I had great startup time. Today, when I checked storage, advanced storage settings and disk and volumes, I saw FAT32 EFI system partition needing full repair. So I conducted research online and I tried repairing using cmd etc but it didn't work. So I decided to use AEOMI 3rd party tool to clone the EFI system partition to my SSD. It worked and it also repaired the one in HDD as well. So now I have two EFI's, one in SSD other one in HDD. I guess my PC

:)

 

Switching Windows Boot Manager from HDD to SSD

(1) It is the EFI partition that holds the boot files including the BCD (Boot Configuration Data). The BCD tells the boot process which Windows partition to boot to. It looks like you set the BIOS correctly to boot using EFI (& its BCD) that is on the SSD. However, that is a clone of EFI on the HDD -- which loads the Windows partition that is on the HDD. You need to alter the SSD's BCD to boot to the Windows partition that is on the SSD. Let's see your BCD...

(a) Type CMD into Search, & click Run as Administrator.

(b) Enter the following commands...

BCDEdit /Enum All <<<Show the BCD

DiskPart <<<Enter DiskPart

List Vol <<<List the Volumes

Select Disk 0 <<<Focus on the HDD

List Part <<<List its partitions

Select Disk 1 <<<Focus on the SSD

List Part <<<List its partitions

Exit <<<Exit DiskPart

Use Ctrl-A & Ctrl-C to copy, then post it to us. We can adjust it manually.

(2) It might be as Paloma suggests, that disconnecting the HDD will cause the BCD (on the SSD) to self-adjust. Windows might do an automatic Startup Repair. But I hope it also gets the Recovery partition right.

(3) I guess you want that D: partition. So, after all is well with the SSD, you may plug the HDD back in. But it will be best to delete its EFI, Windows & Recovery partitions. Just keep D:.

 

[SOLVED] Windows System Backup USB Restore is Not EFI Bios compatible.

original post here:

Redirecting

answers.microsoft does Not allow to Edit title or post after x months...

Anyway....

found a solution...

problem was that Win8.1 was originally installed in a BIOS board from 2010, X58 chipset,

that does Not have EFI.

EFI became popular in 2013

EFI is required for large 8TB drives,

booting from M.2 NVMe....

EFI is a must have...

there is an EFI emulator bootloader for older boards, but thats another story...

BIOS board boots to USB emulator, and from USB EFI emulator boots to M.2 NVMe drive with EFI boot partition.

problem was that my Win8.1 was installed in a BIOS machine, and had BIOS only Boot partition.

Windows8.1 allows to install Bios, EFI or Both in Boot partition.

when moving Windows to a new drive using the Windows USB Recovery tool,

does Not allow to move,

IF Windows USB Recovery is booted in a EFI machine, and the source Windows HDD has BIOS boot partition.

Easy fix...

boot Windows USB Recovery in a BIOS machine or New machine in Legacy BIOS mode,
if moving windows from hdd to another hdd or ssd

or...

boot Microsoft Recovery USB in any machine EFI or BIOS,

go to command line,

list, select and delete the BIOS boot partition only, in Diskpart

it´s less than 500MB size, usually 1st on the drive, easy to see...

leave the other large partition untouched,

create a New boot partition to replace the deleted boot partition, with

option /EFI or /ALL "Bios+EFI"

/ALL does Not seem to work in MacPro 4,1 5,1 2009 2010 2012

need to do more tests.

Mac has EFI, but Windows boots ok with a Bios Boot partition.

Anyway...

Old HDD with New EFI boot partition, does Not boot in old BIOS board.

requires EFI usb boot emulator.

or...

a New board with Native EFI support.

old boards can boot much faster with NVMe

using EFI boot emulator,

and moving Windows8.1 to M.2 NVMe drive

with a M.2 to PCIe card from startech, abracon, syba, owc, sonnet, highpoint, etc....

1600MB/s speed minimum, with TLC or MLC, Not QLC

2500MB/s if PCIe card has a chip AS####

card with chip is much more $$$,

standard PCIe to M.2 is less than $30usd.

with chip it´s from $200usd. to $1000usd.

depending on the amount of M.2 slots on the card:

2xM2 or 4xM2, 8xM2

if PCIe v3.0 or PCIe v4.0

etc...

HDD with Windows8.1x64 can be moved to a New SSD or M.2

using the Microsoft USB Recovery tool very safe..

M.2 NVMe drive requires to delete the old Bios boot partition and create a New EFI boot partition.

DONE..

P.D.

Legal OEM Windows, can only be activated 1x time...
Boxed Full Retail version or Microsoft Store Purchased full virtual full license
can be moved as many times as you want..
can be Re Activated unlimited times in different boards, 1 at a time,
but Only with different Hardware.
cannot be forced to be Re Activated with same Hardware.
unless you Change Product Key in System,

risking Windows install.

required steps:

Windows System Image Backup & Restore works flawless, BUT... Not easy...

Requires:
1x USB drive 2GB or more 4GB, 8GB, maybe 1GB works.
1x HDD empty Backup drive: 1TB 2.5" 5400rpm works ok SATA-III or USB3.0
1x Empty New Target Disk: my case was: Seagate ST1000LM049 2.5" 1TB 7200rpm.
1x source system disk, my case: WD 500GB 2.5" 7200rpm.

Source hdd must be removed Before booting from USB Windows Restore boot drive.

to create the Backup of Windows,

to create the USB recovery drive

W8.1:

click:
Control Panel / System Security / File History / System Image Backup / Create a System Image Backup
to 1TB or more external USB3.0 HDD formatted in NTFS.

them click:

Restore / Create a Restore USB drive.

in a empty USB 1GB or more drive / pen / usb stick.

Limits:

1. if Source hdd with Windows was installed in a BIOS board,

USB System Restore Does Not work in EFI Board.

Option A)

find an old BIOS board with SATA-III 6Gbps

to do the transfer from HDD to SSD only, No M.2.

or...

Option B)

Diskpart in USB recovery command line

list, select and delete the BIOS boot partition, 500MB size or less

do Not Clean the HDD, i repeat:

do Not type Clean, Never,

Clean will erase everything.

after deleting the old Bios Boot partion,

create a New partition with /EFI or /ALL "EFI+BIOS dual boot"

2. Target disk must be disk0 = you need to move sata cables turned off or Bios options, reboot as needed,

thats why source HDD must be removed before, and is better to backup windows to external USB3.0 drive.



3. Target disk must be: Clean,

> Diskpart in command line from USB Windows Recovery drive.



4. Target disk must be selected before executing: Clean command.

> Diskpart list disk
select disk0
list partition
select partition 1
list volume
Clean
exit

Option B:
EaseUS Migrate OS feature from Partition Master 15.0 looks easy,
but Not Free $$$.
looks more simple,

probably has same Bios / EFI problem,
Does Not require USB drive and 1x extra Backup HDD.
*More Risky.

Haven´t tested.

EaseUS Disk Copy is very bad, but Partition Master 15.0 is very good,

better that Windows Disk Management.

gparted usb boot drive nor windows usb recovery drive is Not required to Clean drives "hidden partitions".

the only strange thing is that NTFS formatted with Gparted has smaller hidden system files 100MB, vs. Partition Master 15.0 NTFS formatted drive has 200MB hidden system files..
maybe gparted creates an older NTFS version.

Conclusion;
Windows8.1x64 is working flawless now,

Long Live Windows8.1x64

there are YouTube videos explaining how to create a EFI boot partition using the Windows USB recovery drive.

in command line.

 

UEFI boot options disappeared from BIOS; now getting reboot and select proper boot device

In short, I need to get the system/BIOS to allow UEFI booting of the SSD.

Computer started up today with default BIOS settings.

• Only SSD 1(Windows boot) and SSD 2 were listed in BIOS; HDD 1 and HDD 2 were not visible
• System would not boot. Gave the 'reboot and select proper boot device' message
• Boot menu has no UEFI/EFI (or Windows Boot Manager) entries anymore

I went into Partition Magic/Gparted and confirmed :

• All drives are still showing
• All drives' data is in tact [EFI volume/partition is still listed (and can be browsed/files accessible)]

Gparted print out (note dev/sda2 apparently that is normal behavior) :

/dev/sda1 (locked) EFI System Partition--Fat32--/media/sda1--100.00mb--46.81MiB--53.19MiB--boot,esp
/dev/sda2 (exclamation mark) Microsoft reserved partition--unknown file system--no mount point--128.00MiB--unused spaced--msftres
/dev/sda3 basic data partition--ntfs--/media/sda3--118.58GiB--70.78GiB--47.80GiB--msftdata
/dev/sda4--ntfs--/media/sda4--450.00MiB--327.71MiB--122.29MiB--hidden,diag



As I am able to boot Windows installation from USB, I tried the standard startup repair. It said it was not able to fix any problems.

Next I tried to repair the EFI with Diskpart in the shell:

• sel vol 1 (note that Diskpart states EFI partition is 'hidden')
• assign letter=z:
• cd /d z:\EFI\Microsoft\Boot\
• bootrec /fixboot
• bcdboot c:\Windows /l en-us /s vz /f ALL

It completed all tasks successfully. Unfortunately that did not work.

Other things I have tried :

• Removing CMOS battery and replacing with a new one - my HDD started showing up again after doing this.
• Using the old MBR commands(in hopes it would force the Windows startup repair to recognize and fix a problem)

bootrec /fixmbr
bootrec /fixboot
bootrec /scanos
bootrec /rebuildbcd​

• Loaded BIOS 'optimized'/defaults (the system did this already once before, hence why I am in this situation, though doing it manually seemed like an option worth trying. Note that after doing this and restarting the system, HDD's stopped showing again)
• Removed new CMOS battery and left it out of the system for thirty minutes
• Formatted EFI and msftres partitions, then rebuilt the EFI boot records

In summary, am looking to force the BIOS to see the EFI partition on the SSD boot drive, as it is not an option any longer.