Accidentally installed Clover on a ML / Chameleon drive

[adamsoundSTL]

Thanks in advance to all the great help here, I've done some searching but haven't turned anything up yet exactly like what I need. Feel free to scold and point me somewhere if needed.

I had a working install with my Gigabyte GA-X79-UD5, 3930k, 32GB Corsair Vengeance, and ASUS ENGT520. Got a new drive and am attempting to have a separate SSD with El Capitan on it. See this post :: https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/bios-settings-on-existing-machine.241708/#post-1660475

In the process of trying to get the El Capitan install working, thanks to this post :: https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/guide-ga-x79-ud5-3930k-gtx-560-2gb-10-11-2.181173/ :: I accidentally installed Clover to my ML drive, NOT to the USB drive.

In the meantime I currently have El Capitan running and am continuing to follow that guide.

HOWEVER I can't seem to boot back to my original ML install.

I've downloaded Clover Configurator to the El Capitan install, and mounted the EFI partition on the ML drive, and it just has the Apple folder.

Can I delete that EFI partition safely or will that kill the ML / Chameleon install?

Is editing the BIOS my only option?

I only know as much as I know about all this stuff so apologies if it's a dumb question and thanks in advance.

 

[adamsoundSTL]

Been reading more, anything I can, and I see the "remove all clover entries" or whatever it is in my Clover boot menu. But will that scrap the Clover setup on my now successful El Capitan setup?

And, I can get in to my BIOS on my ga-x79-ud5, and see the boot priority, but not sure how/what to change there to stop it looking for Clover and just use the (previously working) Chameleon setup.

Thanks!

 

[P1LGRIM]

I've downloaded Clover Configurator to the El Capitan install, and mounted the EFI partition on the ML drive, and it just has the Apple folder.

If you installed Clover in Legacy mode the /EFI/CLOVER/ folder will be on your system drive not the EFI partition.

 

[adamsoundSTL]

If you installed Clover in Legacy mode the /EFI/CLOVER/ folder will be on your system drive not the EFI partition.

I honestly don't remember which I installed, but there was an EFI folder on the top level of that drive that I deleted hoping that would solve it.

Does / did Chameleon/Chimera use the EFI partition, or can I safely ERASE it via Disk Utility?

Somehow somewhere the mobo is looking for something on that drive that it's not finding and getting stuck.

Thanks P1lgrim!

 

[P1LGRIM]

I honestly don't remember which I installed, but there was an EFI folder on the top level of that drive that I deleted hoping that would solve it.

Does / did Chameleon/Chimera use the EFI partition, or can I safely ERASE it via Disk Utility?

Somehow somewhere the mobo is looking for something on that drive that it's not finding and getting stuck.

You can delete everything on the EFI partition if you are using Chimera.
And make sure that there is no /EFI file structure on your system disk.

Look in your /Extras folder for a file called org.chameleon.boot.plist and save a copy somewhere safe.
Run MultiBeast for El Capitan and install the Chimera boot loader only.
Copy the org.chameleon.boot.plist back to the /Extras (in case it was overwritten by the Chimera install).

Shutdown.

Make sure that you BIOS is set to boot Legacy.

 

[adamsoundSTL]

Deleted everything from the EFI partition - now selecting the ML drive in F12 menu just reverts to Clover. Used to load the attached image.

When opening MultiBeast from my El Capitan install, I only see Legacy or UEFI Clover options, no Chimera?

Pretty sure I set up the USB drive to load Clover in UEFI, not Legacy, so did I inadvertently switch my BIOS to UEFI rendering the ML install dead? Is that something I can swap easily or on the fly?

Thanks again, saving my sanity today!

 

[P1LGRIM]

Deleted everything from the EFI partition - now selecting the ML drive in F12 menu just reverts to Clover. Used to load the attached image.

When opening MultiBeast from my El Capitan install, I only see Legacy or UEFI Clover options, no Chimera?

Pretty sure I set up the USB drive to load Clover in UEFI, not Legacy, so did I inadvertently switch my BIOS to UEFI rendering the ML install dead? Is that something I can swap easily or on the fly?

Thanks again, saving my sanity today!

That's your Boot menu not your BIOS settings.

 

[P1LGRIM]

When opening MultiBeast from my El Capitan install, I only see Legacy or UEFI Clover options, no Chimera?

Try with MultiBeast Mountain Lion instead.

 

[adamsoundSTL]

Okay, got MultiBeast 5.5.5, I see the Chimera bootloaders but it's skipping the "Destination Select" pane, and only giving me the option to install on El Capitan, which obviously is not what I want to do.

Also just noting everything else along the way here.

Was comparing my backup of the ML drive to the current one, and saw there was a "boot" file on the top level now, not present in the backup. Deleted (backed up!) the file, and then when I choose the SATA PM version of my ML drive, I get the four successful boot messages (boot0 I believe) then boot1: error and it's done.

If I choose the new drive, UEFI, I get clover, and it still thinks I can "Boot macOS from Mountain Lion." selecting that gets me a grey screen with apple logo, then grey screen with the crossed out circle icon.

 

[adamsoundSTL]

This may be a dumb question but can I switch the ML install to a Clover setup easily, so that I can have both running and switch at will?