[Solved] May have deleted EFI on HD

[faquichu]

Hi,

I had a dual boot on two separate SSDs. I often had trouble switching between Windows 7 and Sierra. I recently re-installed my Windows 7 but may have inadvertently deleted the EFI partition on my Sierra SSD. I can boot using my USB key but I go into a boot loop when I try to use the USB's EFI to boot from my SSD. I don't know how to capture the verbose logging on startup so that would be helpful to know. Can someone provide instructions on how to do this? Anyone have any idea how to determine if I did delete my EFI? Is there a way to recover deleted files? What is the file format of the EFI because I likely formatted it NTFS.

Thanks a bunch,

 

[BreBo]

I don't know how to capture the verbose logging on startup so that would be helpful to know. Can someone provide instructions on how to do this?

Boot your system in Verbose Mode and post a picture of your screen when it freezes/hangs.

How to Enter/Edit Boot Flags in Clover

What is the file format of the EFI because I likely formatted it NTFS.

FAT32 partition

 

[faquichu]

Thanks for the info. See attached. Here is my boot log. I have removed my video card but no help. I am attaching 1 file. It hung at a few places during boot and then continued until the final reboot. I can post earlier screenshots if necessary.

 

[faquichu]

I found a zip file of a backup of a previous version of my EFI partition. How would be the best way of copying the information to it? My Windows 7 SSD boots. Perhaps I could copy it that way. Should I be able to mount my EFI partition using DISKPART and do some copying from within Windows?

 

[faquichu]

Well I tried formatting the EFI partition as FAT 32 using Windows 7. Not sure that I used the correct Allocation unit size (2048 bytes).

When I copied over the files using Windows 7 from my backup to the EFI partition it asked if I want to copy the files without encryption. It also said that I was copying a file to a destination that did not support encryption.

When I rebooted, I got the message (or continued to get since I got this message when I tried to boot without my USB key) "Reboot and Select proper Boot device or Insert Boot Media in selected Boot device and press a key".

 

[faquichu]

Boot your system in Verbose Mode and post a picture of your screen when it freezes/hangs.

How to Enter/Edit Boot Flags in Clover



FAT32 partition

Thanks for the reply. If you have time, can you look at the posts above?
Thank you!

 

[faquichu]

I managed to repair my EFI partition. I followed the instructions here:

http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/57597/how-to-fix-broken-efi-partition

After cloning the USB partition to my SSD, I then copied over my backup files that I had previously. It was not my most recent backup and this may be why my computer is still stuck in a boot cycle.

Can someone please advise?

 

[faquichu]

I plugged my video card back in and plugged in all my other hard drives and DVD drive and then it suddenly booted!!!