Guide: Multibooting UEFI on Separate Drives

[humble12]

I followed this guide closely, but have run into an issue. When I select the "Boot Microsoft EFI boot from EFI" option in Clover, Windows starts to boot (I see the booting circles at the bottom of the screen), but then my screen goes black and Windows never loads. My Mac installation works perfectly when booted from Clover.

If I use boot device selection from BIOS and choose my Windows drive, my Windows installation boots fine. Its only when I try to boot through clover.

I do find it interesting that the Boot options available in Clover are:
1. Boot Windows from
2. Boot Windows from
3. Boot macOS from Mac
4. Boot Recovery from Recovery HD
5. Boot Microsoft EFI boot from EFI

The first two are exactly the same and don't list anything after "from." I always select option 5, it starts to boot, then my screen goes black.

Things to rule out:
1. I formatted my Windows drive first in OSX, and made sure to keep the EFI partition when using windows installer.
2. I made sure CSM was enabled when installing my Windows partition in BIOS.
3. Using Clover Configurator, I installed NTFS x64 driver.
3. MSINFO32 lists "Bios Mode: UEFI" in Windows.

System Info:
Motherboard: GA-Z87X-OC
Processor: i7-4770K @ 3.50
RAM: 32 GB
Video: GeForce GTX 1060

Any help or thoughts?

Thanks!

 

[1amBulletproof]

Hello! And thanks in advance for any help provided. I realize we all have busy lives...

TLDR: If you install linux EFI on a separate drive from the Mac/Clover efi, how can you get Clover to recognize the linux install? Details on how this happened and what I've tried are below and in the attached photos.

I installed Centos on a 3rd drive in addition to my already-working-clover hackintosh which has MacOS High Sierra and Windows installed on separate drives. I followed your guide precisely when installing Mac & Windows, but failed to do-so for CentOS as I could not find how to put the bootable files on a separate disk. From some basic googling, I think this may NOT be an option for CentOS. I was therefore forced to install them on my 3rd, separate, drive (i.e. NOT in the same EFI partition as my MacOS/Clover installation). As expected, Clover does not see/recognize the CentOS installation, although it boots just fine if you manipulate the BIOS to make the ssd w/ CentOS highest boot priority.

I have reinstalled CentOS several times, occasionally trying to make my own partition scheme or use other methods to install the EFI information alongside my EFI but nothing has worked so far. Attached are photos showing the modified CLOVER config.plist, MacOS EFI partition directory contents (including the CentOS folder I added) AND the disk's on my hackintosh.

QUICK UPDATE:
Still not working. I tried a few things, including moving directories around a bit. I captured the directory hierarchy regarding my MAC EFI partition and my CENTOS EFI Partition hoping it would make what needs to be done obvious? As you can see I have copied the "centos" sub directory from the CENTOS EFI PARTITION to the MAC EFI PARTITION. This did not work. Also, for second reference I have captured the relevant part of my config file here.

 

[Rocco97]

because when I go to install Windows this tells me that it can not be installed because the disk does not have an NTFS partition?

 

[Feartech]

because when I go to install Windows this tells me that it can not be installed because the disk does not have an NTFS partition?

yes, Windows needs a NTFS partition to install windows
you would have to delete the partition for windows to create a NTFS partition

 

[nicksoph]

I want to have a system that will boot to windows unless a particular usb drive is installed in which case it will boot to osx. Im thinking I can do this by having two physical drives and clover as a usb boot drive.
Intended method- Windows installed on one drive as if it was the only OS, then boot from unibeast and install OSX onto the other drive, once installed copy the config.plist back to the usb and set it to boot OSX by default. Set the USB as the first boot device and the windows drive as 2nd.
Any comments on the process appreciated.

 

[ThrasherOSX]

Follow the instructions to dual boot, in clover set the windows drive to be the one that loads by default, no USB sticks required for normal operation. When you want to boot OSX just select it in the boot loader.

 

[nicksoph]

Thanks Thrasher but want it to use the method mentioned.

 

[ThrasherOSX]

Thanks Thrasher but want it to use the method mentioned.

I gotta believe that your introducing variables in an already difficult environment, with the USB stick as a boot drive. Another alternative, install as instructed for dual boot. Get everything working with clover/osx etc. Boot to bios and change boot drive to the windows partition, it acts like Clover/OSX doesn't exist, if you want OSX enter bios and change to OSX partition.

 

[nicksoph]

Thanks Thrasher but want it to use the method mentioned.

 

[ThrasherOSX]

Thanks Thrasher but want it to use the method mentioned.

LoL, So last shot, not trying another, but you will have a USB stick built for the install that has clover on it.

1) Install as required for dual boot per guide on seperate drives.
2) Set BIOS to boot from USB as first
3) Set BIOS to boot from Windows Drive as Second
4) Set BIOS to boot from OSX Drive as Third
5) I would probably copy EFI folder from the working dual boot setup to the USB EFI once I was sure everything was working (kexts, configs, USB, etc)

When you want to use clover to to boot into OSX insert USB stick, select your OSX drive (you should be able to set this in config file on USB Stick) as the boot partition. I would think this could work, although I have not tested myself.