Rough Time with BootIt UEFI and Windows 10

User discussion and information resource forum for BootIt Bare Metal and BootIt UEFI
Frederick R
Posts: 2
Joined: Mon Mar 25, 2019 11:23 am

Re: Rough Time with BootIt UEFI and Windows 10

Post by Frederick R »

Almost forgot; have only one Bootable USBFD connected when Installing the Windows OS!
Damion888
Posts: 22
Joined: Mon Sep 14, 2015 7:00 pm

Re: Rough Time with BootIt UEFI and Windows 10

Post by Damion888 »

Frederick, thanks for the insight. I'll review the settings you've pointed out this weekend when I try again.
I'm pretty certain I've broken at least one of "those rules" and definitely, I consistently had two USBFD's at all times: BIU and W10.
Thanks!
Damion888
Posts: 22
Joined: Mon Sep 14, 2015 7:00 pm

Re: Rough Time with BootIt UEFI and Windows 10

Post by Damion888 »

Part One of Saturday BIUFest
Made a backup of M.2 to borrowed 500GB from work.
Booted from that drive to make sure I had a working backup.
Took 2x to get the settings right for the copy to be bootable.

Changed BIOS settings and only had one Bootable USB in at a time. All other drives disconnected. 1 USB and 1 HDD/SSD/M.2

1. RAID Mode disabled. SATA mode is AHCI, not RAID.
NVMe RAID Mode is also disabled.
2. USB Configuration
a. Legacy = Enabled
b. XHCI Hand-off = Enabled
c. Secure Boot (in Boot/Secure section of BIOS) = Other OS

Going in!

Installing BIU
Deleted all partions with Partition Work first
Rebooted
BIU with all defaults reboots
Go into maintenance

EFI System 400 MB and that's all there is
Resizing to 1024

It's at this point that there's "deja vu all over again" as this is exactly where I was at multiple times before, and Windows wouldn't install correctly.

If I now boot up Win10 Install from flash drive it's likely to just do all the things it's done before and fail.

How do I create your suggested paritions (below) using BIU and Windows Installer install into that #4 partition (before, the Windows installer would say that it couldn't install into a partition that I had previously made for it:

1. Recover: 499MB
2. EFI System: 1024MB (it's done and created by BIU)
3. MS Reserved: 16MB
4. Win10: 60GB

I'm going to see what happens again. Worse thing I guess is it creates all it's things and doesn't boot. I may have to go in and change Secure Boot back to Windows from Other OS.

I could just copy the partitions over from my bootable back-up SSD. But, then how do I configure things to work with those partitions, since my originals will have been in a different order.

This seems like a lot of work to do to use the more modern UEFI as opposed to going with RAID instead of AHCI and changing whatever other BIOS settings move away from GPT and then use BIBM and go old skool which has never failed me.

It won't hurt to learn something new and wrassle with the grizzly, but "hay vale la pena??" is it worth the trouble?

Okay, just before I'm going to install Win10, my selected boot devices are roughly:

CD
M.2 SSD
BootIt UEFI on M.2 SSD
UEFI OS on M.2 SSD
Flash Drive UEFI
Flash Drive PMAP

I wonder if that's where Windows gets *choked* up. It will go through the whole installation from the boot media, all the way until it gets to the checklist; finishes the checklist and then immediately errors saying that it can't reboot.
Damion888
Posts: 22
Joined: Mon Sep 14, 2015 7:00 pm

Re: Rough Time with BootIt UEFI and Windows 10

Post by Damion888 »

Hah!
This time it booted.
I don't really know what, if any BIOS changes were made. Each time I went over things and did a reboot it didn't note any changes. But, there were a couple.
Definitely different was only having one USB Bootable Flash drive in at any time.
Still, not convinced that that made a difference to Windows installer thinking it couldn't reboot.
Nonetheless it's working. I'm finishing set-up now and did re-enable BIU.
Haven't checked the partitions yet, or did your 1, 2, 3, 4 drive set-up and order.
Damion888
Posts: 22
Joined: Mon Sep 14, 2015 7:00 pm

Re: Rough Time with BootIt UEFI and Windows 10

Post by Damion888 »

Right now the drive partitions are:
1. EFI 1024MB
2. MS Reserved 16MB
3. OS 60GB

Is there a regular MS process that I can trigger to create the Recovery partition? What exactly is in that. I guess I'll have to look it up :) Google!

So, what if I update the OS folder with all the updates and base software I want. Shrink it down to only have 5-10GB extra space. Then want to copy that to a new OS folder and expand that to be a more workable size for an OS partition for myself, at least 200GB? How would I do that? Just like I used to with BIBM? Just make the partition. Make the Boot item in Boot Edit, et voila! Doesn't there need to be something happening in that EFI partition, or BIU handles all of that like BIBM used to do?
Damion888
Posts: 22
Joined: Mon Sep 14, 2015 7:00 pm

Re: Rough Time with BootIt UEFI and Windows 10

Post by Damion888 »

I remember seeing some things in other's posts and things have to point back to the Boot File...bootmgfw.efi. Just use the same one for either W10 installation?
Will Win11 create it's own? Will the set-up be smart and use the drives same EFI folder? I guess I'll just have to experiment a bit :D :D :D
Brian K
Posts: 2214
Joined: Fri Aug 12, 2011 1:11 am
Location: NSW, Australia

Re: Rough Time with BootIt UEFI and Windows 10

Post by Brian K »

Damion888 wrote: Sat Feb 26, 2022 8:11 pm Right now the drive partitions are:
1. EFI 1024MB
2. MS Reserved 16MB
3. OS 60GB
Perhaps not strange but I always get a RE partition when I first install Win10 or 11. Using the method I outlined. I assume your recovery files are in the C: drive. Try....

reagentc /info
Then want to copy that to a new OS folder and expand that to be a more workable size for an OS partition for myself, at least 200GB?
BIU makes it easy.
Partition Work, select the OS partition, Copy, select Free Space, Paste, Make sure you select "Add to Boot Menu" on the next window. A boot Item will be created.
Will Win11 create it's own?
Are you planning to upgrade Win10 to Win11 or do a fresh Win11 install?
Damion888
Posts: 22
Joined: Mon Sep 14, 2015 7:00 pm

Re: Rough Time with BootIt UEFI and Windows 10

Post by Damion888 »

Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.19044.1566]
(c) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

C:\Windows\system32>reagentc /info
Windows Recovery Environment (Windows RE) and system reset configuration
Information:

Windows RE status: Enabled
Windows RE location: \\?\GLOBALROOT\device\harddisk0\partition3\Recovery\WindowsRE
Boot Configuration Data (BCD) identifier: e6e6d27b-9740-11ec-a765-e35c020d5447
Recovery image location:
Recovery image index: 0
Custom image location:
Custom image index: 0

REAGENTC.EXE: Operation Successful.
Damion888
Posts: 22
Joined: Mon Sep 14, 2015 7:00 pm

Re: Rough Time with BootIt UEFI and Windows 10

Post by Damion888 »

Brian, it's good to hear that BIU should handle a new install/copy of 10 like was done in BIBM.
Windows 11 will be a fresh install, alongside 10's.
Brian K
Posts: 2214
Joined: Fri Aug 12, 2011 1:11 am
Location: NSW, Australia

Re: Rough Time with BootIt UEFI and Windows 10

Post by Brian K »

For a fresh Win11 install, just create another NTFS partition in Partition Work.
I've found second and further Windows installs have the Recovery files in the OS partition. As per your above reagentc post. That's OK. At the next Windows upgrade you will probably acquire a RE partition for Win11. Courtesy of Microsoft.

After Win11 is installed (or Win10 copied), edit the Boot Items to Hide the OS from each other.
Post Reply