Contribute
Register

Dual Boot Windows & Mac OS in Clover - EFI issues

Status
Not open for further replies.
Joined
Jul 23, 2012
Messages
89
Motherboard
Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UP5-TH
CPU
Intel Core i7-3770K
Graphics
NVidia GeForce GTX 750 Ti (EVGA)
Mac
  1. iMac
Hey all, ever since I switched to Clover, my Mac OS runs beautifully, but the only problem is the dual boot into Windows. I have been scouring these forums and guides but can't seem to find anything that quite works. I knew my way around Chameleon pretty well, but am new to Clover. Maybe there's a thread or guide I'm just not finding here. If anyone could point me in the right direction, I'd appreciate it.

[checkbox] Mac OS (El Cap) boots great (and much faster than Chameleon)!

But when I try to boot Windows, it fails. Here's hopefully all the pertinent info.
  • For Windows, the only Clover boot option is Legacy mode, even though the drive is GUID partition scheme. If I choose this option, it hangs on black screen with blinking cursor.
  • The drive is GUID, and has the identifier disk5 (so disk5s1 is the EFI partition, and disk5s2 is the Microsoft partition), but if I try to mount this drive in Clover Configurator, I get an error: Unexpected disk identifier: disk5s1.
    • If I continue, it mounts an EFI partition, but it is empty.
    • From what I've been reading, shouldn't the Clover install have put boot stuff onto that partition?
    • I'm a bit scared to copy or install stuff onto that partition manually, because of the error message.
  • If I unplug my Mac drives, of course, it boots right into Windows.
  • I've tried various configurations in my BIOS — UEFI only, UEFI and Legacy — which makes no difference.
  • I've also tried removing and reordering the boot options in BIOS, which makes no difference.
  • On my main Mac OS disk (disk0) I did install the NTFS UEFI driver.
Any thread links or suggestions are welcome.

Thanks everybody.
 
First determine if you installed Windows Legacy Mode or UEFI mode. From your description it is installed Legacy and UEFI CLover will not boot Windows Legacy.
Open terminal, type diskutil list and hit enter. Post pic of results.
 
First determine if you installed Windows Legacy Mode or UEFI mode. From your description it is installed Legacy and UEFI CLover will not boot Windows Legacy.
Open terminal, type diskutil list and hit enter. Post pic of results.

Hi Going Bald, thanks for your reply. The drive in question is now disk3 (it moved for some reason):

/dev/disk2 (internal, physical):
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: GUID_partition_scheme *1.0 TB disk2
1: EFI EFI 209.7 MB disk2s1
2: Apple_HFS System Backup 250.0 GB disk2s2
3: Apple_HFS Users Home Folder Ba... 749.7 GB disk2s3
/dev/disk3 (internal, physical):
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: GUID_partition_scheme *500.1 GB disk3
1: EFI EFI 209.7 MB disk3s1
2: Microsoft Basic Data 499.9 GB disk3s2
 
Partition.jpg
 
Last edited:
When you boot Clover, at the OS selection screen what icons do you see for Windows? There should be at least 2, maybe 3. When you hilite the Windows icon, how is each one labeled? One of them should be something like Boot Microsoft EFI Boot Manager from EFI - this is the one that boots Windows.
 
When you boot Clover, at the OS selection screen what icons do you see for Windows? There should be at least 2, maybe 3. When you hilite the Windows icon, how is each one labeled? One of them should be something like Boot Microsoft EFI Boot Manager from EFI - this is the one that boots Windows.
That's what I was expecting too, but I only get one option, and it's Legacy (something like Boot Windows in Legacy Mode).
 
That's what I was expecting too, but I only get one option, and it's Legacy (something like Boot Windows in Legacy Mode).
How did you do the formatting on the Windows drive? Did you use a drive formerly formatted for OS X? List your steps to format the drive.
 
How did you do the formatting on the Windows drive? Did you use a drive formerly formatted for OS X? List your steps to format the drive.
I erased it in Mac OS (Diskutil - GUID scheme, Windows FAT format).
Then ran Windows installer, formatted again, and installed using Windows installer.

Before doing all this, I had tried to convert the partition scheme on the existing install (using the steps in the guide), but couldn't get an EFI option (as now), and the Legacy option didn't work (as now).
 
I erased it in Mac OS (Diskutil - GUID scheme, Windows FAT format).
Then ran Windows installer, formatted again, and installed using Windows installer.

Before doing all this, I had tried to convert the partition scheme on the existing install (using the steps in the guide), but couldn't get an EFI option (as now), and the Legacy option didn't work (as now).
Aha!! Now we know: the UEFI partition was never part of the Windows installation and the Windows partition is a hybrid GPT+/MBR partition created with selection of MSDOS FAT format.

Erase the Windows partition OS X Extended Journaled. Then delete it. Extend your OS X partition to include the free space. Reboot. Launch Disk Utility, select the OS X drive, click on the + box to add a partition for Windows, sized how you like, name it, format it Mac OS X Extended (Journaled). Install Windows UEFI on this partition and it will be bootable from Clover UEFI.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top