BootIt UEFI Restoring IFW Partions

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kmac
Posts: 11
Joined: Mon Feb 15, 2021 6:23 am

Re: BootIt UEFI Restoring IFW Partions

Post by kmac »

One other thing I've noticed is that sometimes when I'm in BIU and make changes I get an "Unable to open BOOTIT.DAT" and a "start_image() returned Aborted" error message on the blue background of BIU
TeraByte Support
Posts: 3596
Joined: Thu May 05, 2011 10:37 pm

Re: BootIt UEFI Restoring IFW Partions

Post by TeraByte Support »

That is some BIOSes will lose or don't have the ability to remount the file system after its kicked off the partition. So if you do an operation where UEFI is kicked off, but it doesn't remount itself, you'll get that message when that file is needed.
kmac
Posts: 11
Joined: Mon Feb 15, 2021 6:23 am

Re: BootIt UEFI Restoring IFW Partions

Post by kmac »

This is where I'm at now.

-I have 3 working W10 partitions on NVME drive.
-I boot my machine and BIU boots up. It has 3 menu items. Each boots to a different W10 partition.
-I click the 1st boot menu, it loads and runs fine. If I restart, BIU will load back up like it should. If I select the same boot menu item, it will continue to work correctly. On restarts, BIU will fire up. As long as I only select the same menu item.
- If I choose a different boot menu item, that item will boot, but on a restart, now the BIOS boot option #1 will change from Bootit UEFI to Windows Boot Manager.

This same behavior happens for each boot menu item. Say I fix the BIOS boot option to BootIt UEFI. Restart. Now no matter what boot item I select, on restart if I only keep selecting that same boot item, BIU will continue to fire up. But as soon as I change it to another boot item, the BIOS will change back to Windows Boot Manager.


Bizarre, but it's what's happening. I don't know what else to try.
TeraByte Support(PP)
Posts: 1643
Joined: Fri Aug 12, 2011 12:51 am

Re: BootIt UEFI Restoring IFW Partions

Post by TeraByte Support(PP) »

Does the BIOS retain a list of previously booted UEFI items? They may be in the Boot tab/section, for example. ASUS boards have it in the advanced mode on the Boot tab listed as Boot Option Priorities (Boot Option #1, Boot Option #2, etc.). If your board has it, try disabling/clearing all of them out except for BIU. In other words, make BIU the only boot item. I've seen this issue on several of my boards. Seems like when the list reaches a large number it stops working. It may also help to disable Legacy/CSM booting.
Bob Coleman
Posts: 785
Joined: Fri Aug 12, 2011 5:58 pm

Re: BootIt UEFI Restoring IFW Partions

Post by Bob Coleman »

I know it's not much help, but I had similar behavior on a traditional hard disk. I finally gave up, converted the disk from GPT to MGR and installed BIBM. Everything has worked well since.

Edit: Of course that should be MBR, not MGR.
Last edited by Bob Coleman on Sat Feb 20, 2021 8:03 pm, edited 1 time in total.
kmac
Posts: 11
Joined: Mon Feb 15, 2021 6:23 am

Re: BootIt UEFI Restoring IFW Partions

Post by kmac »

Thanks for the reply Bob.

Yea, I hear you. I've considered it, but I haven't thrown in the towel yet.

I did re-hook my SATA SSD(and took out the NVME) just to see if I would get the same behavior on the SATA SSD as on the NVME SSD. Nope, I can bounce around and select any boot menu item I want and the BIOS/UEFI won't change the boot options.

However, I then re-unhook the SATA SSD and put only the NVME SSD back in. And again, if I only keep selecting the same boot item, BIU will come up on a restart. But like before, if I select another boot item that option will boot, but when I restart, BIU is bypassed because now Windows Boot Manager is the #1 Boot option in the BIOS/UEFI.

So, it at least seems like it might be NVME and BIU having an issue working together. I wonder if other have similar problems with NVME.

I will say, the difference if boot speeds between the NVME and SATA SSD are very noticeable. I want to stick with it for the speed
Brian K
Posts: 2213
Joined: Fri Aug 12, 2011 1:11 am
Location: NSW, Australia

Re: BootIt UEFI Restoring IFW Partions

Post by Brian K »

kmac,

I wonder if this would work for you? Have the ESP (hence BIU) on the SSD instead of the NVMe drive. Keep all your OS on the NVMe. You would probably need to do BCD Edits on each OS to get them to boot.

>> "I wonder if other have similar problems with NVME"

No problems with my NVMe drives and BIU. Although I did have to disable Fast Boot in the BIOS to enable the second NVMe to be seen after a restart. It was OK after a Power off.
kmac
Posts: 11
Joined: Mon Feb 15, 2021 6:23 am

Re: BootIt UEFI Restoring IFW Partions

Post by kmac »

Thanks Brian,
That's a great idea. I'm going to think about doing that. Only problem would be I'd be messing up my now "sorta working setup". I'd have to uninstal BIU on the NVME so that I don't have 2 BIU installed. Then set up boot items for the NVME partitions on the SATA SSD. And hope it works.

I gotta think about it. I really can't afford to run into another issue if I try it. I'll let you know if/when I do.

Thanks for the idea.

I
Brian K
Posts: 2213
Joined: Fri Aug 12, 2011 1:11 am
Location: NSW, Australia

Re: BootIt UEFI Restoring IFW Partions

Post by Brian K »

kmac,

It sounds simple. You don't need to create new Boot Items.This is what I'd do.
Create a backup image of the NVMe ESP
Uninstall BIU
Delete the ESP
Connect the SSD
Delete the SSD ESP using a BIU boot disk
Restore the ESP image to the SSD
Reinstall BIU (probably necessary)
If your Boot Items don't boot, do BCD Edits.

If you don't like the result you can restore the ESP image to the NVMe
TeraByte Support
Posts: 3596
Joined: Thu May 05, 2011 10:37 pm

Re: BootIt UEFI Restoring IFW Partions

Post by TeraByte Support »

if you have an option to boot a drive, the drive the EFI System partition is on, that is another option rather than the different boot items like "BootIt UEFI", the BIOS may boot the disk option more consistantly.
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