IFW and multiple Windows partitions

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hitekguy68
Posts: 3
Joined: Sun Jan 03, 2021 8:38 pm

IFW and multiple Windows partitions

Post by hitekguy68 »

I have used BootIt NG and BM and Image for Windows for years, all on legacy BIOS. I have always kept multiple copies of Windows on the drive, and would backup my main Windows partition and restore elsewhere and have no problems.

I built a new PC and decided to embrace the UEFI situation. I bought BootIt EUFI and read many posts in the forums.
So I installed Windows 10 on a GPT drive, installed Bootit. All is well. I copied my main Windows partition and pasted it to unallocated space, making sure to check “add to boot menu”. Each Windows item (we will call them C1 and C2) boot fine, and they are hidden from each other. No problems there.

Where it falls apart is when I restore an image of C1 to C2, something I have done countless times in previous versions. When I select C2 from the boot menu, Windows starts “Preparing Automatic Repair”, eventually creates another RE partition, and fails to repair Windows. I can do another copy/paste of partitions and get it back working (although each time it adds another Microsoft.00x folder in the EFI partition).

I scoured the forums, but no mention of this exact issue. I did find and try the “change GUID” during restore but that didn’t help.
I can backup C2 and restore it to the same partition with no problems, it’s just when trying to restore a C1 backup to the C2 partition it fails.
Brian K
Posts: 2214
Joined: Fri Aug 12, 2011 1:11 am
Location: NSW, Australia

Re: IFW and multiple Windows partitions

Post by Brian K »

hitekguy68,

Can you do a BCD Edit before trying to boot the restored OS?
hitekguy68
Posts: 3
Joined: Sun Jan 03, 2021 8:38 pm

Re: IFW and multiple Windows partitions

Post by hitekguy68 »

I did a BCD edit and changed Menu-Device and OS Device from unknown to point to the correct partition and it booted fine.

My question is : How did it change? I restored the OS partition, not touching the EFI partition.

I am glad this works, although it adds an extra step that I didn't have to do before.
hitekguy68
Posts: 3
Joined: Sun Jan 03, 2021 8:38 pm

Re: IFW and multiple Windows partitions

Post by hitekguy68 »

I did more research and experimenting, and found that adding UseTargetGUID=1 to the IFW.ini and BootIt.ini files solved my problem.

I am happy I installed an M2 NVMe drive, because I can image the drive in 30 seconds with IFW. IFU takes 7 minutes, not sure why.
Bob Coleman
Posts: 785
Joined: Fri Aug 12, 2011 5:58 pm

Re: IFW and multiple Windows partitions

Post by Bob Coleman »

hitekguy68 wrote:

> I am happy I installed an M2 NVMe drive, because I can image the drive in
> 30 seconds with IFW. IFU takes 7 minutes, not sure why.

It's been common knowlege for a while that IFD is slow compared to IFL and probably IFW. For whatever reason that is, maybe the same is true of IFU, but I don't really know.
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