RehabMan
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- May 2, 2012
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This method for converting a legacy Windows install to UEFI works. There may be simpler methods.
This is all on the Probook 4530s.
Here's what I did:
- took the EFI/Microsoft directory from my 4540s running UEFI mode Win8.1 via Clover (copied to USB)
- mounted EFI partition on my 4530s, copied Microsoft directory into EFI
- loaded Ubuntu from USB
- used gparted in Ubuntu to make a simple change, forcing pure GPT. I had Linux on here, so I removed the linuxswap partition, then added it back. That's enough to force conversion to GPT and discarding the hybrid
- rebooted into Clover
- Windows shows up as a possible entry
- attempted to boot it, received errors from the Windows bootloader about a 'missing device'. This is expected, and results from bad BCD data.
- booted into Win8.1 recovery environment and edited BCD by setting device/osdevice entries with BCDEDIT
- rebooted into Clover.
- Windows still there...
- attempted to boot it, no errors this time just a reboot!
At this point it is setup to work, assuming that the Win8.1 UEFI loader can load Win7. Obviously it can't, or at least not with that BCD configuration. At this point, I figure it is worth switching to Win7 UEFI boot loader components.
Note: If you had copied a setup from Win8 and applied it to Win8 (or 8.1) it would work. Or if you had copied a setup from Win7 (UEFI) to Win7, it would also work. My two stage process was just because I was mixing Win8.1 into Win7.
- booted into OS X and mounted the EFI partition
- copied the Win7 UEFI components to the proper places in EFI/Microsoft. (usb)efi\boot\bootx64.efi -> bootmgfw-orig.efi, (usb)\bootmgr.efi->bootmgr.efi (not sure that's even used)
- rebooted into Clover
- selected my Win7 partition from Clover
- success!
Side note: Of course, this breaks my nightly backups as WHS2011 does not support GPT/UEFI setups. Probably time for me to upgrade to WHS2012 anyway...
This is all on the Probook 4530s.
Here's what I did:
- took the EFI/Microsoft directory from my 4540s running UEFI mode Win8.1 via Clover (copied to USB)
- mounted EFI partition on my 4530s, copied Microsoft directory into EFI
- loaded Ubuntu from USB
- used gparted in Ubuntu to make a simple change, forcing pure GPT. I had Linux on here, so I removed the linuxswap partition, then added it back. That's enough to force conversion to GPT and discarding the hybrid
- rebooted into Clover
- Windows shows up as a possible entry
- attempted to boot it, received errors from the Windows bootloader about a 'missing device'. This is expected, and results from bad BCD data.
- booted into Win8.1 recovery environment and edited BCD by setting device/osdevice entries with BCDEDIT
- rebooted into Clover.
- Windows still there...
- attempted to boot it, no errors this time just a reboot!
At this point it is setup to work, assuming that the Win8.1 UEFI loader can load Win7. Obviously it can't, or at least not with that BCD configuration. At this point, I figure it is worth switching to Win7 UEFI boot loader components.
Note: If you had copied a setup from Win8 and applied it to Win8 (or 8.1) it would work. Or if you had copied a setup from Win7 (UEFI) to Win7, it would also work. My two stage process was just because I was mixing Win8.1 into Win7.
- booted into OS X and mounted the EFI partition
- copied the Win7 UEFI components to the proper places in EFI/Microsoft. (usb)efi\boot\bootx64.efi -> bootmgfw-orig.efi, (usb)\bootmgr.efi->bootmgr.efi (not sure that's even used)
- rebooted into Clover
- selected my Win7 partition from Clover
- success!
Side note: Of course, this breaks my nightly backups as WHS2011 does not support GPT/UEFI setups. Probably time for me to upgrade to WHS2012 anyway...