TeraByte Unlimited

I use IFW (and IFD on occaision) and store images on a NAS. Using IFD, I store images on an eSATA external drive. I also use BootIt BM, which makes IFD easily available. Should I lose the drive that has the BootIt BM partition, I can boot from the IFD rescue disk or the BootIt BM disk and restore from the eSATA external, and once I get Windows up and running, I can restore the most up to date image from the NAS. Now for my question.

OEM Windows 8 is on UEFI with Secure Boot enabled by default. One must go through the Windows 8 boot menu in order to boot from a CD or USB device. So if Windows 8 pooches and won't boot at all, how does one boot a rescue IFD USB or CD?

A friend with a new HP laptop had such a problem - no boot device. On a reboot, I did get the "Windows has crashed do you need help?" screen, looked at the UEFI options, and there was a warning that if I disabled UEFI windows would not boot. Another reboot and I selected the repair option, and it couldn't. Subsequent reboots got nothing more than "no boot device". I helped her go through the HP support dothistrythattrythistrythattrythisother cluster, and it was determined that the drive was bad and the laptop has been shipped to HP for repair/replacement.

I don't have a problem now, but I would like to know what options are available to boot a rescue USB or CD if Windows 8 won't boot at all.

My UEFI BIOS has a Boot Menu. HD, CD, USB. I assume yours has the same.

TBWinRE on a UFD (or via WinRE) is probably the easiest right now for Windows 8 if you're stuck with UEFI-only booting. Normally, you can disable Secure Boot (and EFI mode, if necessary) to allow booting legacy devices and then enable it when finished. Depending on the BIOS it may list both types for devices (one entry for legacy and one for UEFI) in the boot menu.