Issue Creating Windows 10 Boot Partition?

[Aup808]

Hey everyone,

I've run into a bit of an issue, and I have read similar folks running into same issue but I think I am missing a crucial step to fix this and I cannot figure out where.

I run Windows and Mac on two separate SSDs, and recently I upgraded my Windows 7 partition to Windows 10 using an installation USB. Everything went smoothly, except now I am forced to use the Windows Boot Manager (versus going into Chimera bootloader and trying to select the Windows SSD/partition). When I do change my BIOS setting to use the Mac SSD (to load into Chimera), I see the Windows 10 partition but clicking on it gives me the BCD error.

Looking into some of the other threads, it seems I need to create a boot partition, which I am in the process of doing. I ran CMD in Windows 10 and typed in "bcdboot C:\Windows /s C: /f uefi", which now I have an EFI folder in my C:\ drive with the boot EFI. I also looked at my disk management and saw two different partitions; my Windows 10 partition (the Healthy NTFS) and an unnamed OEM partition (which I believe is just the recovery that Windows 10 created). Following this thread (https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/...cy-windows-install-to-uefi-for-clover.126201/), I created a 100MB FAT32 B:\ partition so I can make that my bootable partition, but when doing the "bootrec /fixboot" step, bootrec seems to be not recognized as an internal/external command. I can confirm in my System Information that BIOS mode is UEFI (not Legacy), so I'm hoping this should be easy to create a bootable partition that Chimera can successfully load into, but I'm not sure what simple step I'm missing here.

Can anyone provide insight on what crucial step I'm missing, or did I skip something early on?

System information:

Motherboard: Z68XP-UD4 (U1L BIOS)​

Graphics: GTX 1050 Ti SC​

My Mac SSD is currently on Yosemite with Chimera (but not able to boot in, due to https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/yosemite-install-boot-issues.268464/). I do plan on upgrading to High Sierra/Clover, once I can figure out how to boot into Yosemite. ​

​

Please let me know if you need additional information or screenshots. Thanks!

 

[vulgo]

I ran CMD in Windows 10 and typed in "bcdboot C:\Windows /s C: /f uefi"

/s specifies the system partition i.e. its normally an EFI partition as it needs to be read by firmware. However some EFI firmware come with an NTFS driver.

when doing the "bootrec /fixboot" step, bootrec seems to be not recognized as an internal/external command.

If you want to use your 100MB partition for Windows Boot Manager EFI files and it is assigned the letter B: the command is

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

And if Windows 10 is booting from EFI loader it will have already installed this loader on an existing EFI partition, maybe on your macOS drive. Once you have done bcdboot for the B: partition and it is booting, you can remove the EFI folder from your C: drive and the Microsoft folder from /EFI on any other partitions.

Using the /s flag should guarantee that Windows will be directly bootable from the /EFI/BOOT/BOOTX64.EFI path, visible in firmware settings as "UEFI OS: Specific partition"

And be aware that Chameleon is not a native EFI loader like Clover or the Windows boot loader you are trying to install, mixing BIOS/EFI loaders is not the best way.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/wi...sktop/bcdboot-command-line-options-techref-di

 

[Aup808]

Thanks for your reply @vulgo ; I read through your article and tried the "bcdboot C:\Windows /s B: /f UEFI", and while it said it was successful, it still didn't show up on the bootloader. Just last evening I attempted to upgrade my Yosemite/Chameleon to High Sierra/Clover (to take your advice on not mixing EFI loaders), and I'm running in a few additional issues with Windows EFI (as I think it made a partition on my macOS drive, which I know you mentioned before). I'm trying to clean that out while getting the 100MB partition I have to work.

 

[Aup808]

@vulgo , here is my CMD command prompt. It says it created the boot for WIN10 BOOT, but when I click on it from the Clover bootloader, nothing happens. Is that because I need to delete the other "EFI" 200MB volume and delete the EFI folder from C:\Windows first?

 

[Aup808]

Or would the "safer" route be to take off all my partitions, reinstall Windows 10 on just the Windows SSD I have and force the EFI partition to be placed on the same volume? I would like to NOT do that (not trying to redo the installation work), but if that's the "easier"/better method to ensure this works, I am happy to do that.

 

[Going Bald]

Or would the "safer" route be to take off all my partitions, reinstall Windows 10 on just the Windows SSD I have and force the EFI partition to be placed on the same volume? I would like to NOT do that (not trying to redo the installation work), but if that's the "easier"/better method to ensure this works, I am happy to do that.

You do not need volume 3 Win10Boot partition. Delete it. Volume 2 in your Windows C and contains the boot files - see the info column of your CMD window.
Did you have CSM disabled in the BIOS? Early 68 series boards had a bug ridden UEFI implementation and your Win10 may have installed with the Win10 boot files in the EFI partition - mount the EFI partition and check it. If it is empty, then possible updating Chameleon/Chimera will allow it to see the Win10 boot files.

I would advise just using clean all command in diskpart to reset the SSD to factory state and when the clean completes, create 1 volume for the entire SSD and format it NTFS. Exit diskpart and the CMD window. Reboot to BIOS and make sure CSM is enabled (should be under the Boot tab). You can then install Win10 to the SSD and it should install Legacy mode, putting the boot files in the root where Chimera can see them.

 

[Aup808]

Hey @Going Bald , thanks for the suggestion. I want to go for your suggestions of starting fresh; clean my two SSDs, and use my two install USBs (Win10 and High Sierra) to start from scratch, based on your guides. I deleted the Volume 3, as you suggested. I also went to clean Disk 0 (just so that's totally clean with no Windows/Mac files), but I got an interesting error:

• Clean is not allowed on the disk containing the current boot, system, pagefile, crashdump, or hibernation volume.

So, I want to have that clean (and without any Windows EFI files) so when I reinstall Windows on the current SSD, I can make sure the EFI file is on that SSD drive. However, I cannot clean Disk 0, and I don't want to go through the Windows 10 setup and have it inject the EFI file on Disk 0 (which apparently it needs to be attached at the moment in order to boot Windows). What is the correct way to go about this?

Thanks!

 

[Going Bald]

Hey @Going Bald , thanks for the suggestion. I want to go for your suggestions of starting fresh; clean my two SSDs, and use my two install USBs (Win10 and High Sierra) to start from scratch, based on your guides. I deleted the Volume 3, as you suggested. I also went to clean Disk 0 (just so that's totally clean with no Windows/Mac files), but I got an interesting error:

• Clean is not allowed on the disk containing the current boot, system, pagefile, crashdump, or hibernation volume.

So, I want to have that clean (and without any Windows EFI files) so when I reinstall Windows on the current SSD, I can make sure the EFI file is on that SSD drive. However, I cannot clean Disk 0, and I don't want to go through the Windows 10 setup and have it inject the EFI file on Disk 0 (which apparently it needs to be attached at the moment in order to boot Windows). What is the correct way to go about this?

Thanks!

Boot the Win10 install USB, shift+F10 will open a command window. You can then clean the SSD with diskpart.