Issues with High Sierra: Windows EFI, macOS Not Updating (Loop)

[Aup808]

Hey everyone,

Motherboard: Z68XP-UD4 (U1L BIOS, UEFI)
CPU: Intel i7-2700k
Graphics: GTX 1050 Ti SC

In my current setup, I have two SSDs (one which has my macOS partition on it, and one that has my Windows partition), and a few HDDs (one is a shared "Data" drive where I keep all my documents and files between the two operating systems, one is a "Media" drive that's specific to music/movies, and one is a "Backup" drive for a Mac and Windows backup, although it hasn't been updated in a while). A few days ago I went and upgraded my Windows 7 partition to Windows 10 (by doing a completely clean install; wiped the whole Windows SSD and installed Windows 10). That went successfully except I'm trying to not have Windows Boot Manager always take over in the boot, but I figured it was time to upgrade my Yosemite macOS into High Sierra (with Clover) so I can use Clover to configure the boot menu.

For the High Sierra install, I wiped my macOS partition completely with the Disk Utility and proceeded through the install as normal. I even unplugged all the other drives EXCEPT the macOS SSD, except now when I try to boot, Windows (I think) is still trying to sneak in there. At first, I get the "Recovery" screen (shown below), and when "attempting" again, I can see another recovery message where it's trying to load the Winload.EFI.





I tried to hit F12 at the startup to go to the Boot Menu and I'm seeing a lot more "options" that I thought would be there. I see my High Sierra USB (which has a UEFI version and a non-UEFI version), two Mac OS X's, my SSD drive, and the Windows Boot Manager. If I try to go through the USB, I sometimes get this boot0 error (shown below).





Otherwise, the first Mac OS X leads me to the Clover Bootloader where a ton of other options are there. I also see my macOS, and clicking on that loads into High Sierra, BUT when I go to install the 10.13.6 update from the App Store and I go to restart, it doesn't seem to register and I'm back on my older High Sierra version and I need to install 10.13.6 all over again.





Below are the list of Clover boot options I'm seeing:

• External: Boot macOS Install from Install macOS High Sierra
  • (This is my Corsair USB)
• NTFS: Boot Microsoft EFI Boot from EFI
  • (I think this is the problem; I'm not sure how this is still here even after I did an Erase with Disk Utility. Any way to delete this?)
• HFS: Boot FileVault Prebooter from Preboot
  • (Is this something with High Sierra?)
• HFS: Boot macOS Installer Prebooter from Preboot
  • (I am not sure where this came from)
• HFS: Boot macOS Install from High Sierra
  • (I believe this is just my Corsair mounted in my High Sierra)
• HFS: Boot macOS from High Sierra
  • (I assumed this was my normal macOS, but every time I try to install the 10.13.6 update and it restarts, I click on this and I'm still on the older version)
• RECOVERY: Boot Recovery from Recovery
  • (Is this from the UniBeast USB?)

So, I think the main three questions I have:

1. Anyone know how Windows Boot Manager and the Windows EFI managed to get on my drive, AFTER wiping it and even when unplugging my SSDs? Did Windows sneak itself on there during the install, and if so, how do I get rid of it? Should I wipe my drive and try again, and what can I do to ensure Windows is completely off my macOS SSD? Or is there something I need to do by plugging my Windows SSD back in and configuring something there with Windows Boot Manager?
2. Will fixing the first problem above fix the "update" loop problem I have where every time I go to install 10.13.6 and go to macOS, it doesn't seem to register it was updating? Or is that something separate?
3. Can someone shed some light on the other boot options I'm seeing and if that's normal from the USB and/or High Sierra install? I opt'd in to do the APFS, but for some reason I'm only seeing HFS; not sure if that's normal or not.

Any help would be appreciated; please let me know what other information you need from me to help assist. Thank you so much!

 

[Aup808]

As an update, I plugged into my Windows SSD and took a look at Disk Management.

• Disk 0 (My macOS SDD): Seems the 200MB EFI that I'm seeing is the Windows Boot EFI. Since the Mac Disk Utility didn't delete that, do I need to use diskpart on Windows to completely wipe that SSD and try to install High Sierra again?
• Disk 1 (My Windows SSD): Windows 10 (C:\) is my normal Windows; I tried making a 100MB EFI image (more details on that here: https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/issue-creating-windows-10-boot-partition.268600/), but that didn't really seem to work. The 473MB OEM Partition I think is a Windows recovery; does anyone know if Windows 10 normally creates a recovery around that size? If so, I'll keep it, just would love to figure out how to rename it (since every option is grayed out for me and I don't think diskpart has a command to rename partitions).
• Disk 2 (My "Data" HDD): This seems normal but the 328MB GPT Partition is off to me; anyone know what that would be, and is it save to try to use diskpart to have the other Data (D:\) take it over?
• Disk 3 (My "Backup" HDD): I need to fix this in the future once I have working SSDs.
• Disk 4 (My "Media" HDD): This looks normal (and doesn't have the weird GPT Partition like my Data HHD does).

Again, if anyone can assist on next steps with the Windows EFI partition and how to ensure I can clean up my partitions a bit here so that Windows Boot Manager doesn't overpower Clover, that would be great.

I'm also a little worried that if I use diskpart to wipe Disk 0 completely (and try to start from scratch again), then I'm not sure how Windows 10 will boot up if I delete that.

 

[Going Bald]

If your Mac OS drive was connected while you were installing Win10, there is a chance that the Win10 installer put the windows manager boot files in your Mac OS SSD EFI partition. This is not really a problem, but is more than likely why you are still seeing the Boot Win EFI from EFI icon.

Since you are so confused and are having such a problem, suggest you see the Installing UEFI on separate drives guide pinned to the start of this forum. If you follow the guide exactly you should be able to overcome these problems.
Given the state of your SSDs with multiple attempts, suggest you use clean all command in Windows diskpart to reset the drives back to all zeros.