Windows 10: Making a UEFI & MBR muitiboot usb

Discus and support Making a UEFI & MBR muitiboot usb in Windows 10 Installation and Upgrade to solve the problem; so i just brought a 128GB sandisk ultra usb 3.0 because as a computer tec im tired of fumbling through my tons of usb drivers to do a job. , i want my... Discussion in 'Windows 10 Installation and Upgrade' started by xdarkmario, Feb 24, 2016.

  1. Making a UEFI & MBR muitiboot usb


    so i just brought a 128GB sandisk ultra usb 3.0 because as a computer tec im tired of fumbling through my tons of usb drivers to do a job. , i want my windows installers & Linux, bookable tools and such all in one usb. so i looked into multibooting usbs and came across many tools, one being SARDU. but i need a hybird UEFI/MBR boot and my laptop doesn't support uefi & legacy simultaneously only one or the other. so using SARDU i cant see or boot from the usb unless i switch bios to legacy mode, works well because i see and can boot from all of what i have windows installers and linux distros but i have to keep switching back and forth between legacy and uefi. i was wondering if i can make the usb primarily Uefi bootable BUT also bootable for a old MBR if needed.

    :)
     
    xdarkmario, Feb 24, 2016
    #1

  2. Trouble booting MS Windows 10 from bootable media

    Thanks for your reply.

    I tried Rufus with no success. I used MBR partition scheme: BIOS UEFI-CSM with NTFS as well as MBR UEFI with FAT 32. In both cases the USB drive was not recognized in Startup Options in BIOS. I was able to install Ubuntu Gnome using USB. Thanks for
    any help.

    Doug J
     
    DouglasJohnsonWO, Feb 24, 2016
    #2
  3. suat.cini Win User
    New computer, cant boot to install Windows

    If the M/B in question is not UEFI-compliant, then USB boot disk created by Rufus will not boot. Rufus creates USB boot disk only to install OS on systems with UEFI motherboards. GPT or MBR partitioning does not matter. But M/B must be UEFI type.

    I had this experience once.
     
    suat.cini, Feb 24, 2016
    #3
  4. b1rd Win User

    Making a UEFI & MBR muitiboot usb

    Hi xdarkmario,

    I'm not sure if this what you're looking for, but YUMI is a somewhat popular one, which I found very handy.
     
  5. \yea i tried that one before but it dosent state if its UEFI compatible or not
     
    xdarkmario, Feb 24, 2016
    #5
  6. essenbe Win User
    essenbe, Feb 24, 2016
    #6
  7. I use option 2 diskpart here, http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials...e-windows.html to make my Windows 8 and 10 install thumb drives. I can use that same thumb drive to install in UEFI on my laptop or legacy on my desktop PC. I don't have to change anything on the drive to switch modes.
     
    alphanumeric, Feb 24, 2016
    #7
  8. jimbo45 Win User

    Making a UEFI & MBR muitiboot usb

    Hi there
    If you are creating either Windows or Linux install media then an MBR / UEFI system is created anyway and at boot you can choose to load the UEFI or MBR version.

    For windows 10 use the media creation tool directly -- when prompted choose USB rather than ISO.

    For Linux builds most distros come in .ISO format -- simply use RUFUS to create a bootable USB. The system will create a "Hybrid" UEFI / MBR boot system unless you specifically choose MBR or UEFI. At boot time the boot menu (at least on my laptop) will show MBR and UEFI as different boot selections.

    If you partition your USB stick into two partitions then you can have a Windows / Linux install system.

    Get into cmd mode (administrator) and use DISKPART to create 2 partitions on your USB (or even 3). What I'd recommend is say 1 partition for a Windows install system, 1 partition for a Linux install system and 1 partition for a Macrium reflect rescue system.

    If you are feeling really adventurous (and with 128 GB it should be possible) create 4 partitions and have a Linux LIVE CD on the 4th partition.
    4 Partitions are the max on the USB.

    They all need to be PRIMARY partitions.

    Cheers
    jimbo
     
    jimbo45, Feb 24, 2016
    #8
  9. cereberus Win User
    Actually this is not quite true. It's a bit more subtle than that.

    When you use the hybrid mode, it is for pcs which support csm legacy bios as well as uefi.

    It creates an mbr partitioned usb disk, but allows to install OS on a GPT drive for when using UEFI, or on an MBR drive when using legacy bios.

    The subtle point is the PC has to be capable of supporting both legacy bios and UEFI for this to work, and PC has to be put into legacy bios mode (or be able to autodetect mode e.g. if it sees an mbr usb, it chooses legacy bios).

    If the PC does not support legacy bios mode eg. tablets/hybrids often only support UEFI, then the usb stick has to be setup in gpt format for 64bit installs of UEFI at least (not sure about special case 32bit UEFI but these require special bootloaders anyway).

    So it is not 100% possible to have an all purpose USB stick.
     
    cereberus, Feb 24, 2016
    #9
  10. jimbo45 Win User
    Hi there

    OK I could stand corrected here since my laptop supports both BIOS and Legacy --so it does work on my system -- HP laptop.

    When you press ESC at boot to get the boot menu you'll be presented with a whole slew of the boot systems - 1 for the MBR and one for the UEFI giving 8 choices for the USB stick plus whatever other boot devices - external HDD's, notebook internal Hard drive etc.

    I haven't got any UEFI only devices to test this on - but the principle should be the same --just have two sticks- one all purpose and another UEFI only.


    Cheers
    jimbo
     
    jimbo45, Feb 24, 2016
    #10
  11. cereberus Win User
    Yeah - Not sure I would bother with a hybrid though. KISS principle - one for legacy bios, one for EUFI, then no confusion.

    Also my bios is somewhat limited - you have to manually select UEFI or BIOS, so it is more hassle changing mode than simply using correct stick.
     
    cereberus, Feb 24, 2016
    #11
  12. As for me I tried to install multiple oses on my flash drive using sardu but looks like sardu does not apply the uefi files as it says it does. The efi folder and boot folder are empty. So I'm looking for a grub bootloader that is both uefi and can not windows as well.
    If perhaps do anyone of you know a real uefi multi bootloader?
     
    xdarkmario, Apr 4, 2018
    #12
Thema:

Making a UEFI & MBR muitiboot usb

Loading...
  1. Making a UEFI & MBR muitiboot usb - Similar Threads - Making UEFI MBR

  2. Stuck in MBR in UEFI, please help

    in Windows 10 Software and Apps
    Stuck in MBR in UEFI, please help: Hello, my boot situation is a disaster. I’m running Windows 10. I was on the 500mg Samsung SSD over SATA and I’m pretty sure it was BIOS/MBR. I wanted to clone to a new NVME drive, the Samsung 2TB seen in the images. I’m on a Z87 board so I did the AMBIOS hack to add the UEFI...
  3. MBR bootable usb in UEFI!

    in Windows 10 Gaming
    MBR bootable usb in UEFI!: Hi my name is Ahmed Malick,A moment ago I changed from Legacy mode to UEFI mode so I've Windows 10 bootable MBR USB, will it work on UEFI or need to convert USB to GPT?...
  4. MBR bootable usb in UEFI!

    in Windows 10 Software and Apps
    MBR bootable usb in UEFI!: Hi my name is Ahmed Malick,A moment ago I changed from Legacy mode to UEFI mode so I've Windows 10 bootable MBR USB, will it work on UEFI or need to convert USB to GPT?...
  5. MBR bootable usb in UEFI!

    in Windows 10 Installation and Upgrade
    MBR bootable usb in UEFI!: Hi my name is Ahmed Malick,A moment ago I changed from Legacy mode to UEFI mode so I've Windows 10 bootable MBR USB, will it work on UEFI or need to convert USB to GPT?...
  6. Hybrid (UEFI / MBR) ISO's -- UEFI BOOT (CSM)

    in Windows 10 Installation and Upgrade
    Hybrid (UEFI / MBR) ISO's -- UEFI BOOT (CSM): Hi folks recently I couldn't get some newer iso's from UUPDUMP to boot using RUFUS V 10 to create bootable usb sticks when these isos are HYBRID boot (i.e they can boot either MBR or UEFI). However changing the BIOS options to enabling UEFI boot (CSM module) as well as UEFI...
  7. MBR TO GTP AND DOS TO UEFI

    in Windows 10 Installation and Upgrade
    MBR TO GTP AND DOS TO UEFI: recently upgraded hard drive to 1 TB on a dell inspiron 1525. I need to do 3 things. update DOS when i dont have the power requirements 0% not 10% as required. Trying to create a bootable usb has proven more difficult than i imagined to "forceit"; with the new HD, i NEED...
  8. MBR to UEFI conversion

    in Windows 10 Network and Sharing
    MBR to UEFI conversion: When attempting to convert my 500 gb Western digital Black from Win 10 version 1909 MBR to UEFI using Microsoft's recommended procedure I keep getting, during validation attempts, the error message that the disk cannot be validated for conversion, and file size is 512 bytes....
  9. UEFI or MBR ?

    in Windows 10 Installation and Upgrade
    UEFI or MBR ?: I 'm making a bootable usb flash drive with Rufus to install Windows 10 as a dual boot with Windows 8.1. When I installed my new video card I had to disable safe boot and enable legacy support in the bios. When I make the bootable flash drive should I choose UEFI or MBR? 1969
  10. MBR/UEFI issues

    in Windows 10 Installation and Upgrade
    MBR/UEFI issues: My motherboard is UEFI compliant, however it was set up in MBR mode, I'm now receiving messages from Microsoft saying my PC will not be updated after 10 April because it is not set up in UEFI mode. I understand that to set up in UEFI mode all data on HD will be lost. I...