Guide: Multibooting UEFI on Separate Drives

[schlosrat]

Thanks GB. I looked there but was somewhat intimidated by 3665 pages on that thread - a lot to search! I may go back, but in the mean time I did manage to get a little further on my own.

Digging around a bit more I noticed the https://dortania.github.io/OpenCore-Install-Guide/extras/kaslr-fix.html#prepping-the-bios section and took a look there. Freeing up some ram with the following BIOS changes got me unstuck, at least for quite a ways.

CSM Support: [Enabled] -> [Disabled]
Above 4G Decoding: [Disabled] -> [Enabled]
Software Guard Extensions (SGX): [Software Controlled] -> [Disabled]
LEDs in System Power On State: [On] -> [Off]
Legacy USB Support: [Enabled] -> [Disabled]
Internal Graphics: [Auto] -> [Disabled]

Given that the previous settings worked when booting 10.15.4 with Clover, I'd guess that the Monterey install just needs more RAM space and so was sensitive to this where Catalina wasn't.

That got me through a series of five reboots, where all needed to boot from the OC Monterey install USB to the OC picker.

1. Install macOS Monterey (option 3 for me)
2. macOS Monterey (option 4 for me)
3. macOS Monterey (option 4 for me)
4. macOS Monterey (option 4 for me)
5. WSD500 (option 4, again - this time to boot Monterey for Post Install stuff)

The first time through, like a n00b, I just did the install over my previous copy of 10.15.4 on WDS500. That got it to boot up to a Monterey login screen on boot 5 above with my user name, but it hung after that because I hadn't cleared out the Clover crap from S/L/E and L/E.

The second time through, I opted to erase WDS500 using Disk Utility from the Monterey installer prior to installing. Clean sheet, can't go wrong with that, right?

That got me to the Monterey post install where I found I would freeze at about 30s into it. On the plus side it was seeing my wifi card and network! On the minus side, no matter what I did I couldn't get far before it would freeze.

Turning back to the troubleshooting guide again I found that, although I didn't have a NullCPUPowerManagement kext to remove, I did see Kernel -> Force -> Emulate was set to False, so I switched that to True and gave it another go.

Now it seems I get even less far, and I get stuck with the Apple logo and the progress bar a bit more than 1/2 across. Is this possibly the https://dortania.github.io/OpenCore...e-issues.html#macos-frozen-right-before-login issue? I'm running a Coffee Lake CPU on a fairly modern MB with 2021 FW, so it seems unlikely, but maybe?

 

[schlosrat]

Another theory is perhaps I need to erase my NVRAM again from the OC Picker. What I've been doing is booting from my SSD (which has Clover and the working copy of 10.15.4 I'm using now to write this), researching the issues and making changes to the /EFI on the USB, then booting from the OC Install USB and picking option 4 (WSD500) to try to get Monterey to run. Am I hosing my NMRAM each time I boot with Clover to a working system?

Also, Clover is still in the /EFI for both the SSD and the WSD500 drives. Should I copy the /EFI folder from the OC Install USB to the WSD500's /EFI? I think if I do that I'd still be able to use BIOS to pick the SSD and get the system up to a working state while I pound on the config.plist, etc. to get things working on WSD500.

 

[Going Bald]

Another theory is perhaps I need to erase my NVRAM again from the OC Picker. What I've been doing is booting from my SSD (which has Clover and the working copy of 10.15.4 I'm using now to write this), researching the issues and making changes to the /EFI on the USB, then booting from the OC Install USB and picking option 4 (WSD500) to try to get Monterey to run. Am I hosing my NMRAM each time I boot with Clover to a working system?

Also, Clover is still in the /EFI for both the SSD and the WSD500 drives. Should I copy the /EFI folder from the OC Install USB to the WSD500's /EFI? I think if I do that I'd still be able to use BIOS to pick the SSD and get the system up to a working state while I pound on the config.plist, etc. to get things working on WSD500.

Remove everything from the EFI partition on the target drive.

 

[schlosrat]

All set with oc and Monterey booting from the NMVe SSD! Well, almost all set. Need to map USBs, but otherwise it’s working.

I’ll be looking to get Windows on the other SSD next.

 

[schlosrat]

OK, boot order questions...

I've created my Windows install media using the latest Win 11 ISO downloaded from MS and a working hypothesis that I'll be able to boot with an exFAT formatted USB. If that doesn't work, I'll go back and use one of the various guides to split the install.wim file and use FAT32. Either way, I've either already got or can get to a bootable windows USB with Win 11.

I've got two SSDs, a SanDisk SDSSD240 (which I want to have Windows on), and a Samsung WDS500 NVMe. The WDS500 has OC 0.8.3 on it's EFI and Monterey (12.6) on the rest. That part is working great and I don't want to touch it. The SDSSD240 has an EFI partition with Clover and Catalina (10.15.4) on it. Currently, I can pick either of these disks in my BIOS and I'll either get Clover and can boot Catalina, or I get OC and can boot Monterey.

Whenever I go into my BIOS boot options screen (press F12 during POST), I'm greeted with a list of viable options, and the SDSSD240 is invariably on top, the WDS500 is next, and the USB is last. The odd thing here is that when I go into my BIOS settings (press Del during POST), I see that I've set the boot order to be 1. WDS500, 2. SDSSD240, 3. USB

Looking back at https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/guide-multibooting-uefi-on-separate-drives.198869/post-2246853 It seems like I'll want SDSSD240 to be first during the Windows install and any time I'm doing a Windows update. It seems no matter what I set my boot order to be in the BIOS I'm currently getting this, so I'm a bit concerned that once I'm done I'll be stuck with a system that always wants to default to booting the SDSSD240.

Q1. Should I change BIOS boot order to list SDSSD240 as option 1 prior to installing Windows?
Q2. If I'm somehow stuck with the boot order regardless of my BIOS settings, can I have OC on the EFI partition of SDSSD240 with Windows installed on it? Maybe it won't matter which disk is first so long as OC comes up and I can pick the drive (OS) to boot.

EDIT: A quick experiment shows that my BIOS is honoring my boot order preference if left to boot normally. For some reason, SDSSD240 always shows up first in the F12 Boot Menu, but that doesn't seem to interfere with what happens when I don't go into the BIOS Boot Menu.

 

[schlosrat]

Well, that did not go as planned...

I think I may have configured my target disk (SanDisk SSD) incorrectly.

I used Disk Utility in Monterey to "format the drive single partition GUID/Mac OS Extended (Journaled)" as indicated in the first post in this thread. Then I booted into the Windows 11 USB and attempted to follow the process here (https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/guide-multibooting-uefi-on-separate-drives.198869/post-2246924). That did not go so well, but ultimately I *thought* got to where I was going.

The list of disks I saw using diskpart was like this:
Disk 0, 3726GB (a 4TB SATA drive I use for data storage), GPT
Disk 1, 7452GB (an 8TB SATA drive I use for data storage), GPT
Disk 2, 223GB (the SanDisk SSD I want to install Windows on), GPT
Disk 3, 465GB (the Samsung NVMe I DONT want to touch), GPT
Disk 4, 15GB (I assume this is the USB install disk), GPT
Disk 5, 4657GB (an external USB drive I happen to have attached), GPT

For me, the target drive was disk 2, so I selected that disk, then proceeded to try to follow the commands in the post linked above with the problems and "solutions" noted below.

1. The "convert gpt" command failed with a message indicating the selected disk "is not MBR formatted". I hoped this meant that I just didn't need that step, so I pressed on.

2. My target disk was already fully allocated with two partitions, so I couldn't create new ones unless I deleted the existing ones first. Since the EFI partition I found on disk 2 was 200mb, and the guide called for using 300mb, I figured I might as well. That seemed to go OK, so I formatted the 300mb partition FAT32, and the 223GB partition as NTFS.

At that point, I thought I had what I should have for my target disk in terms of partitions and formats, so I pressed on with the custom Windows install targeting disk 2. Naturally, Windows warned me I'd lose whatever was on there and that it may need to create more partitions.

I got stopped pretty quickly after that though with a message that "Windows could not prepare the computer to boot into the next phase of installation. To install Windows, restart the installation.

I suppose the good news here is that even with all the horsing around I did deleting and creating partitions, formatting things, etc. I managed to not touch the Monterey disk and am safely booted back to that now.

Should I be doing something differently to prep the SanDisk SSD for Windows in Disk Utility? Or should I follow different steps in diskpart?

 

[Going Bald]

OK, boot order questions...
Q1. Should I change BIOS boot order to list SDSSD240 as option 1 prior to installing Windows?
Q2. If I'm somehow stuck with the boot order regardless of my BIOS settings, can I have OC on the EFI partition of SDSSD240 with Windows installed on it? Maybe it won't matter which disk is first so long as OC comes up and I can pick the drive (OS) to boot.

1. Yes, make the Windows target drive first in BBS while installing Windows.
2. BBS boot order in BIOS overrides other settings to boot order, so whatever drive you set as first will boot first unless it has no boot files on it.
3. Settings in OC will allow you to boot Windows from the OC pick screen. A little research will show you how.

 

[schlosrat]

Remove everything from the EFI partition on the target drive.

OK... I did delete the old partitions, create new ones, and formatted them. I'd have thought that left them pretty much blank.

Let's back up a sec. I'm concerned I've gotten something wrong here and would like to confirm the general procedure.

Given I have OC/Monterey on the WSD500, I'd like to have Windows on the SDSSD240, and I also have two SATA drives in the mix (for data), would this process be about right?

1. Boot to Monterey on the WSD500
2. Using Disk Utility, partition the SDSSD240 with a 300MB FAT32 partition and the remainder in a mac format (may not matter which type as we'll fix this in the Windows install)
3. Configure BIOS to boot SDSSD240 as the first option
4. Boot to the Windows Install Media (USB)
5. Use diskpart to delete the second partition on SDSSD240 and create a new partition there. Format the new partition NTFS
6. Install Windows with a custom install targeting the SDSSD240
7. Profit.

Q1: Obviously, step 7 is optional and pretty much unlikely, but otherwise does this sound OK?

The last time I tried this diskpart showed my disks to be in this order:
Disk 0, 3726GB (a 4TB SATA drive I use for data storage), GPT
Disk 1, 7452GB (an 8TB SATA drive I use for data storage), GPT
Disk 2, 223GB (the SanDisk SSD I want to install Windows on), GPT
Disk 3, 465GB (the Samsung NVMe I DONT want to touch), GPT
Disk 4, 15GB (I assume this is the USB install disk), GPT
Disk 5, 4657GB (an external USB drive I happen to have attached), GPT

Q2: Do I need to open my case and disconnect the 4TB and 8TB data drives before starting the Windows install? Will it matter if my target disk is not 0? I'd rather not have to do that, but it's certainly something I can do.

EDIT: Hold the phone! I just mounted the EFI from SDSSD240 and it had a whole mess of Apple crap in it! How is that even possible? I used diskpart from the Windows install USB to delete, re-create, and format that partition! Well, now that junk is gone and I'm off to give this another shot!

 

[schlosrat]

Rats! That did not help. Got stuck in the exact same place...

I'm reformatting the Primary partition with a low-level NTFS format now and will follow with a low-level format of the EFI partition just for good measure. Maybe that will help? Really not certain...

EDIT: and... that didn't help either. I got a bit further when I used the Windows installer to delete the Primary partition and then aimed at the 223 GB unallocated space. That was really showing some promise as it copied files into it - doing its thing, but ultimately got stuck at the exact same error message, just further along progress bar-wise.

Stumped. What am I doing wrong here, @Going Bald?

 

[Going Bald]

Rats! That did not help. Got stuck in the exact same place...

I'm reformatting the Primary partition with a low-level NTFS format now and will follow with a low-level format of the EFI partition just for good measure. Maybe that will help? Really not certain...

EDIT: and... that didn't help either. I got a bit further when I used the Windows installer to delete the Primary partition and then aimed at the 223 GB unallocated space. That was really showing some promise as it copied files into it - doing its thing, but ultimately got stuck at the exact same error message, just further along progress bar-wise.

Stumped. What am I doing wrong here, @Going Bald?

Procedure is wrong.
1. Boot Mac OS.
2. Format Windows target drive as if you were going to install Mac OS. Shutdown.
3. Boot Windows install media.
4. At the partition to install screen select the Mac OS partition and click delete. This should leave you with the EFI partition and the rest of the disk is free space. Select free space and click continue to install Windows. The only reason for doing it this way is to have the EFI partition as the first partition on the Widows drive instead of the 3rd partition as the Windows installer creates it. With the partition already installed Windows will use it rather than creating a new one. You could also use Diskpart to wipe the drive and create a new partition EFI of at least 200MB if you wanted to do it that way instead. Windows installer will create and format any partitions it needs to complete the instal.

So far as the other drives go, if you can guarantee the boot system of the motherboard sees the Windows target drive before the data storage drives you can leave them connected. I would recommend that you disconnect them and, if possible, disable the M.2 NVMe drive in BIOS. You can re-enable it after Windows is installed. This prevents the Windows installer from installing any files on the other drives. The installer is stupid - it will put the partitions and files it creates on the first drive it sees in the BIOS, regardless of the drive you select to install on. For instance, if you have a motherboard with physical slots S1, S2, S3, S4 and you attach data drives to S1 and S2 and then install Windows on a drive connected to S3, Windows installer will put 3 partitions (Winre tools, Windows reserved and another I forget the name of right now) on the drive connected to S1 instead of S3 because S1 is the first drive the BIOS recognizes and the Windows OS on S3.