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Help with Booting Windows 10 with Clover UEFI

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Check out MW Technology. He has a dual boot tutorial for yosemite and he said it would be the same for El Capitan.

Hope this helps,

TheAmazingBaboon:beachball:
 
I found a solution to this without any re-partitioning. I am assuming that this affects NTFS formatted Windows partitions as both of mine are NTFS formatted on an MBR drive and I have the same problem. This solution should work for Windows 8, Windows 8.1 and Windows 10.
[...]

As a pre-requisite, the NTFS.efi driver will need to be present in your Clover EFI/CLOVER/drivers64UEFI directory. I have seen recommendations to have HFSplus.efi or VboxHfs-64.efi there as well, but these are probably not necessary for a Windows boot from NTFS.
[...]

Hi Macintyre,
First of all, let me thank you because this stuff saved me too. Just a little thing I don't know why, but I had to put the "NTFS.efi" driver into EFI/CLOVER/drivers64 instead of drivers64UEFI directory for the thing to work. Maybe because I don't have an UEFI motherboard ? I don't know.

I now have a working OS X Yosemite (EFI) + Windows10 (MBR/NTFS) system !


The only curious thing is when I boot to Windows from Clover (manually or automatically using the OS X startup drive option), my windows cannot shutdown properly !
 
The only curious thing is when I boot to Windows from Clover (manually or automatically using the OS X startup drive option), my windows cannot shutdown properly !

Same here!

the system seems goes to Hybernation, I have to shutdown with Power Button

any help?

thank you!
 
...

Boot into Windows 8/8.1/10 and check whether a C:\EFI folder already exists. If Windows is being booted in legacy mode from an MBR, there shouldn't be one. If there is one then Windows may already be configured for UEFI boot and the partition should already be recognized in Clover. If there is no C:\EFI folder, then it is probably safe to proceed. Open a Command window with Run as Administrator. Issue the following command:[/COLOR]

bcdboot C:\Windows /s C: /f uefi

....

Now that Clover is booting our legacy partitions using UEFI, we no longer need the legacy partition entries. To tidy these up, use the Clover Configurator. Backup your config.plist, then load it in Clover Configurator. In the Gui section there are some settings under the 'Scan' heading. By default this will be set to 'Auto=yes'. Change it to 'Custom' and then check Entries and Tool. Leave Legacy unchecked. By default Clover includes all kernels so there is no need to set anything under Kernel.

This worked fine on my system and I can now boot into OSX Yosemite, El Capitan as well as Windows 10 and Windows 7 using Clover.





Macintyre solution worked perfectly thank you!!

Now I have dual boot on a Legacy Bios Gigabyte:

1 SSD with El capitan and Clover (worked flawless also before the Macintyre fix)
1 other SSD with Win10 installed as UEFI (2 partition 1 reserved 1 with system)
Booting from the first SSD with CLOVER I can boot OSX and WIN10!

have just a problem when I try to SHUTDOWN WIN10, It seems that the system goes to Sleep and NOT Shutdown
I have to manually Shutdown the system from the Button, and the WIN10 at the next boot tell me that the disk need to be repaired (it repairs and then boot fine)

any hint to solve this?

thank you very much!!
 
I found a solution to this without any re-partitioning. I am assuming that this affects NTFS formatted Windows partitions as both of mine are NTFS formatted on an MBR drive and I have the same problem. This solution should work for Windows 8, Windows 8.1 and Windows 10. It will also work for Windows 7 but requires a little extra work and access to some binaries from Windows 8 or higher.

Firstly, let me explain that ideally one would want to install Windows for UEFI boot on a GPT formatted drive. Windows will automatically create the required EFI directory structure and populate the necessary files. Clover would then automatically recognise the Windows bootx64.efi file in its expected place and the bootable UEFI Windows partitions should appear in Clover. However, as myself and evidently others have discovered, if Windows has been installed for booting from the MBR, then this file is not present and although the NTFS partitions show in Clover as legacy drives, they cannot be booted.

However, it is possible to work around this problem and create the C:\EFI directory structure and the required files post-install using the Windows bcdboot tool. It is not usually advisable to use an MBR partition for UEFI boot, but so long as the required Windows EFI files and BCD structure exist, Clover will recognise them and and boot into the Windows partition. I cannot take credit for this solution because I found it on a Linux forum where it was applied to the GRUB bootloader, but I tested it on my machine and it does also work with Clover. I will eventually convert my Windows HDD to a GPT formatted disk but for now, this appears to solve the problem for me.

The process is actually quite simple, but before proceeding, the usual disclaimer applies. I will not be responsible for any damage caused to your system! Back up your Windows partition before proceeding and use the process at your own risk!

As a pre-requisite, the NTFS.efi driver will need to be present in your Clover EFI/CLOVER/drivers64UEFI directory. I have seen recommendations to have HFSplus.efi or VboxHfs-64.efi there as well, but these are probably not necessary for a Windows boot from NTFS.

I have a dual boot Windows setup on one HDD and OSX on another HDD. This process did not affect the MBR or the standard Windows BCD boot loader. If you have Chimera + OSX, then it will not affect Chimera either. You will probably also have the Clover bootloader configured to boot OSX or be using a bootable USB drive with Clover to boot the machine from. It is useful to have some other way of getting into your OSes. It might also be useful to have a Windows install DVD or USB drive handy just in case it becomes necessary to repair the Windows startup in the event that something goes wrong.

Boot into Windows 8/8.1/10 and check whether a C:\EFI folder already exists. If Windows is being booted in legacy mode from an MBR, there shouldn't be one. If there is one then Windows may already be configured for UEFI boot and the partition should already be recognized in Clover. If there is no C:\EFI folder, then it is probably safe to proceed. Open a Command window with Run as Administrator. Issue the following command:


bcdboot C:\Windows /s C: /f uefi

Most likely Windows is on drive C: otherwise substitute the appropriate drive letter. This command does two things: (1) Creates the C:\EFI directory structure and populates it with the appropriate files and (2) creates a BCD database for UEFI boot and an NVRAM entry for the partition.

Explanation as follows: C:\Windows - we want to boot the Windows installation at C:\Windows; /s - we want to write the EFI folder to system partition identified as drive C; /f uefi - we want to write a UEFI BCD to C:/EFI rather than an MBR BCD to C:\boot for MBR booting.


Once this has been done, there should now be a C:\EFI folder. Under this there will be a Boot and a Microsoft folder. Under Boot you will find bootx64.efi, and under Microsoft will be further boot files including the BCD. If C:\EFI has been created and populated then reboot into Clover and the partition should now appear as an EFI bootable Windows disk in Clover.

If you are dual booting Windows 8, 8.1 or 10, then other partitions can be made available to Clover in the same way by booting into the appropriate version of Windows and performing the same command, but taking care to use the appropriate drive letter for the Windows system in question. While booted into it will usually be drive C: though.

The bcd boot command in Windows 7 does not support the /f parameter so this will not work under Windows 7. However, if you have access to Windows 8 or 10, then I found that it was possible to copy the BCD tool files from the later version of Windows and use them while booted into Windows 7. I copied the following files, which are found under C:\Windows\system32 into a new folder that was also accessible to Windows 7. I guess they could also be copied to a USB drive:

bcd.dll
bcdboot.exe
bcdedit.exe
bcdprov.dll
bcdsrv.dll

Do NOT copy them into C:\Windows\system32 under Windows 7 but create a separate folder to hold them. You will need to boot into Windows 7, open a command prompt with Run as Administrator and navigate to the directory where you copied the files and execute the same command as above from that directory.

Now that Clover is booting our legacy partitions using UEFI, we no longer need the legacy partition entries. To tidy these up, use the Clover Configurator. Backup your config.plist, then load it in Clover Configurator. In the Gui section there are some settings under the 'Scan' heading. By default this will be set to 'Auto=yes'. Change it to 'Custom' and then check Entries and Tool. Leave Legacy unchecked. By default Clover includes all kernels so there is no need to set anything under Kernel.

This worked fine on my system and I can now boot into OSX Yosemite, El Capitan as well as Windows 10 and Windows 7 using Clover.






I would like to try this as I have my OS X install on my main SSD (which I finally got working with no problems) and Windows 7 Pro installed on a second SSD. I had the Windows SSD unplugged when I installed OS X, and because of my motherboard (apparently) I had to follow WonkyDonkey's guide here in order to be able to boot from the SSD without needing the Unibeast USB plugged in. This works great and I'm glad I found WonkeyDonkey's solution to booting off my SSD, but when I plugged in my Windows 7 SSD and booted I'm greeted with a Clover splash screen that gets stuck saying ".....scanning entries....." - I can't do anything except power off. And the thing is my UEFI doesn't recognize my Windows 7 SSD as a bootable device. Selecting boot options only lists the Clover UEFI (what I did following WonkeyDonkey's guide). So I can't even boot into my Windows drive, even with my OS X drive removed I get no boot options at all. Would Macintyre's method work for me here? In a perfect world I'd like to have OS X and my Windows drive show up in Clover bootloader, with a default boot into OS X after 5 seconds. That way I can simply restart and select Windows when I need Windows for whatever reason. I messed around with my UEFI and Clover settings once before and ended up undoing everything I did following WonkeyDonkey's guide, so I had to start over and reinstall OS X and everything, and I'd prefer to not have to do all that again lol (although I did make a Carbon Copy this time of my OS X drive as soon as I got everything working). I'm pretty sure my Windows SSD is MBR - also I have no problem upgrading to Windows 10 because I was thinking of doing so anyway - if that at all helps with compatibility/ease.

I was thinking, what if I wipe my Windows SSD, boot my machine with a Windows 7 (or 10) USB installer and install Windows to the second SSD - then just follow what you wrote in the long post I quoted here?

Update: I made a Windows 10 install USB, booted directly into it (bypassing Clover and its scanning entries hang up) with my Windows 7 SSD installed. Followed the Windows 10 Install, reformatted my Windows 7 drive and installed Windows 10 on it. Upon completion Clover shows both SSDs and I can reboot into the other OS with no problems at all! Perfect set up. I wanted to post in case others experience a similar issue - this is how I was able to resolve it after following WonkeyDonkey's ASRock EFI fix when your HDDs/SSDs no longer show up in your UEFI setup.
 
Last edited:
So first I tried following this guide to convert my Windows 10 legacy installation to UEFI:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1eXD30Fox4

Basically, it involved converting the partition table from MBR to GPT and then creating an EFI partition. It worked perfectly if I booted using F12, but I still couldn't boot from Clover. I'd get the spinning loading graphic for a few seconds, and then the screen would go blank.


Next, I tried Mcintyre's solution:

I found a solution to this without any re-partitioning.

Unfortunately, that made no difference. I still get the spinning loading graphic for a few seconds before the screen goes blank. :banghead:

Anyone have any other suggestions?
 
Does this method work if I installed El Capitan first, then partitioned the 1 and only SSD for Win10 be installed on? I switched to legacy mode to get over "the selected disk has an mbr partition table" problem. So now it would only boot into Win10 if Bios is Legacy since Clover doesn't have the EFI entry to use. If boot into Win10 and run the commands, would it wipe out current clover EFI entries?

The directions says to specify "C:", which could mean a disk or a parition. If I specify "C:" right now under Windows 10, it's just the Win10 partition, the EFI directory that exist under clover isn't visible. Since I only have 1 drive, is there anything from the direction that need modification?

*edit* I did run the command and Clover now shows an extra entry for Windows 10, but when I tried to boot into it, I got a Recovery screen where Windows is complaining that file \windows\system32\winload.efi is missing so it couldn't boot.
 
Just wanted to thank Macintyre for his elegant solution! I now have an MBR Windows 10 set up to boot from Clover. In my case, I didn't realize I had to reassign the nvdrv=1 in the Clover Configurator - and was having problems after running through the process. All is good now. I suppose the recommended approach to working with Clover Configurator (newbie here) is to configure it and save the config.plist to your /EFI partition - then *reload* it when making additional modifications. Correct?

Forgot to add: I'm running both Windows 10, El Capitan 10.10.4 and they are on separate volumes.
 
I found a solution to this without any re-partitioning. I am assuming that this affects NTFS formatted Windows partitions as both of mine are NTFS formatted on an MBR drive and I have the same problem. This solution should work for Windows 8, Windows 8.1 and Windows 10. It will also work for Windows 7 but requires a little extra work and access to some binaries from Windows 8 or higher.

Firstly, let me explain that ideally one would want to install Windows for UEFI boot on a GPT formatted drive. Windows will automatically create the required EFI directory structure and populate the necessary files. Clover would then automatically recognise the Windows bootx64.efi file in its expected place and the bootable UEFI Windows partitions should appear in Clover. However, as myself and evidently others have discovered, if Windows has been installed for booting from the MBR, then this file is not present and although the NTFS partitions show in Clover as legacy drives, they cannot be booted.

However, it is possible to work around this problem and create the C:\EFI directory structure and the required files post-install using the Windows bcdboot tool. It is not usually advisable to use an MBR partition for UEFI boot, but so long as the required Windows EFI files and BCD structure exist, Clover will recognise them and and boot into the Windows partition. I cannot take credit for this solution because I found it on a Linux forum where it was applied to the GRUB bootloader, but I tested it on my machine and it does also work with Clover. I will eventually convert my Windows HDD to a GPT formatted disk but for now, this appears to solve the problem for me.

The process is actually quite simple, but before proceeding, the usual disclaimer applies. I will not be responsible for any damage caused to your system! Back up your Windows partition before proceeding and use the process at your own risk!

As a pre-requisite, the NTFS.efi driver will need to be present in your Clover EFI/CLOVER/drivers64UEFI directory. I have seen recommendations to have HFSplus.efi or VboxHfs-64.efi there as well, but these are probably not necessary for a Windows boot from NTFS.

I have a dual boot Windows setup on one HDD and OSX on another HDD. This process did not affect the MBR or the standard Windows BCD boot loader. If you have Chimera + OSX, then it will not affect Chimera either. You will probably also have the Clover bootloader configured to boot OSX or be using a bootable USB drive with Clover to boot the machine from. It is useful to have some other way of getting into your OSes. It might also be useful to have a Windows install DVD or USB drive handy just in case it becomes necessary to repair the Windows startup in the event that something goes wrong.

Boot into Windows 8/8.1/10 and check whether a C:\EFI folder already exists. If Windows is being booted in legacy mode from an MBR, there shouldn't be one. If there is one then Windows may already be configured for UEFI boot and the partition should already be recognized in Clover. If there is no C:\EFI folder, then it is probably safe to proceed. Open a Command window with Run as Administrator. Issue the following command:


bcdboot C:\Windows /s C: /f uefi

Most likely Windows is on drive C: otherwise substitute the appropriate drive letter. This command does two things: (1) Creates the C:\EFI directory structure and populates it with the appropriate files and (2) creates a BCD database for UEFI boot and an NVRAM entry for the partition.

Explanation as follows: C:\Windows - we want to boot the Windows installation at C:\Windows; /s - we want to write the EFI folder to system partition identified as drive C; /f uefi - we want to write a UEFI BCD to C:/EFI rather than an MBR BCD to C:\boot for MBR booting.

Once this has been done, there should now be a C:\EFI folder. Under this there will be a Boot and a Microsoft folder. Under Boot you will find bootx64.efi, and under Microsoft will be further boot files including the BCD. If C:\EFI has been created and populated then reboot into Clover and the partition should now appear as an EFI bootable Windows disk in Clover.


If you are dual booting Windows 8, 8.1 or 10, then other partitions can be made available to Clover in the same way by booting into the appropriate version of Windows and performing the same command, but taking care to use the appropriate drive letter for the Windows system in question. While booted into it will usually be drive C: though.

The bcd boot command in Windows 7 does not support the /f parameter so this will not work under Windows 7. However, if you have access to Windows 8 or 10, then I found that it was possible to copy the BCD tool files from the later version of Windows and use them while booted into Windows 7. I copied the following files, which are found under C:\Windows\system32 into a new folder that was also accessible to Windows 7. I guess they could also be copied to a USB drive:

bcd.dll
bcdboot.exe
bcdedit.exe
bcdprov.dll
bcdsrv.dll

Do NOT copy them into C:\Windows\system32 under Windows 7 but create a separate folder to hold them. You will need to boot into Windows 7, open a command prompt with Run as Administrator and navigate to the directory where you copied the files and execute the same command as above from that directory.

Now that Clover is booting our legacy partitions using UEFI, we no longer need the legacy partition entries. To tidy these up, use the Clover Configurator. Backup your config.plist, then load it in Clover Configurator. In the Gui section there are some settings under the 'Scan' heading. By default this will be set to 'Auto=yes'. Change it to 'Custom' and then check Entries and Tool. Leave Legacy unchecked. By default Clover includes all kernels so there is no need to set anything under Kernel.

This worked fine on my system and I can now boot into OSX Yosemite, El Capitan as well as Windows 10 and Windows 7 using Clover.



when i type "bcdboot C:\Windows /s C: /f uefi" it says there is a failure when copying files, any ideas on why this is happening?
 
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