Unable to remove BootItBM; Unable to install BIU

[dnlathrop]

I have an older computer that supports UEFI. I had BootItBM installed and booting Windows 7 and Linux Mint in legacy BIOS mode.

I want to install a newer version of LInux Mint but it requires UEFI and will not install its loader without an EFI partition.

I removed all partitions from the drive and created a GPT partition table, then created a 100MB EFI (fat32) partition.

I attempted to install BootItUEFI from a USB stick booting in UEFI mode but the installation fails with the message:

Unable to open BOOTIT.DAT.

After pressing the Enter key, the message

start_image() return Aborted.

appears briefly and the machine restarts.

I attempted to install BootItBM from another USB stick booting in legacy mode but its installation fails with the messages:

BootIt EMBRI 4.00
BootIt EMBRI 4.00
EMBRM Load: EMBR is missing or is an unsupported version!
System Halted!

I am stuck. I cannot install any flavor of BootIt and apparently some remnant of BIM remains that I cannot remove.

Does anyone have any suggestions? I would like to install BIU if possible.

[TeraByte Support]

you should use chgdtype.tbs script to change from (E)MBR to GPT. How old is the system?

Also, you're probably booting the hd and not the boot media.

[dnlathrop]

The system has an Asrock H67M motherboard that is about 15 years old.

I am fairly certain the USB stick media is being booted. By pressing F11, I bring up the BIOS boot menu, which shows the internal drives and the USB stick. Two choices are available for the USB stick -- either legacy or UEFI. If I select the wrong mode (legacy for the BIU installer or UEFI for BIM installer, the booted program informs me the wrong mode was used.

Does this answer the question which media is being booted or does a question remain?

I installed Linux on the system in its current state. Following the message

Failed to open \EFI\ubuntu\ - Not Found.

the grub boot menu appears normally and the OS will start OK.

I should add something that may help understanding the mess I am in. The BIOS boot menu shows five items when a USB stick is not inserted:
3 internal hard drives,
an optical drive, and
the word "ubuntu" which is the only item that can boot. All others report a missing EMBR if a boot on them is attempted.

[Brian K]

dnlathrop, you could run this as a test. To see if Mint works in your UEFI system.

In BIBM make sure your chosen HD is a GPT disk. Delete all partitions on that HD except the MSR.
Disconnect all other HDs. Only have the chosen HD connected.
In the BIOS, set it for UEFI. Disable CSM.
Install BIU from boot media. This will create an EFI system partition. BIU will now boot from the HD.
Create a Linux Native partition for Mint.
Boot Linux Mint Media and install Mint to the above partition using the Something Else choice. Select the EFI System partition for the Boot Loader install.
All OK?

[TeraByte Support]

The ones that say "Missing EMBR" are booting in legacy mode since the drive is now GPT. You can put in a standard MBR via View MBR, it would just try booting whatever the active partition is.

To get BootItBM to install, you'd have to convert the drive type back to (E)MBR. You'd probably want to chose the partition manually so it goes to the same place you expect.

For BIU, it should boot the same as before, you may want to recreate the boot media. You may want to get rid of the EFI System partition you created?