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UEFI Windows 8 + BIOS Grub4dos = MultiBoot USB-Harddisk

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#51 wimb

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Posted 21 January 2013 - 01:47 PM

How much would have costed them :ranting2: to check:

  1. Fixed/Removable bit of the device
  2. Existance of more than tone partition in the MBR partition table

 

The create Recovery Drive feature even recognised that there were three partitions present in the USB-harddisk,

and after I selected the first partition to be used as Recovery Drive, then it simply made an entirely New MBR instead of apply Format

so that my partition table entries for the second and third primary partions were gone .......(simply zeroed everything they don't need :eek: )

 

:cheers:



#52 steve6375

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Posted 21 January 2013 - 01:56 PM

So does it never warn that all data on the drive will be lost?



#53 wimb

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Posted 21 January 2013 - 02:05 PM

So does it never warn that all data on the drive will be lost?

 

Yes they warn that the data on the selected drive will be lost (and that would be OK for me),

but what they do unexpectedly at the same time is removal of the second and third primary partition.

They simply give the USB-harddisk a New MBR instead of Formatting only the selected drive .... :ph34r:

 

For me drive is NOT equal to disk ......Drive is only a partition of the disk.



#54 steve6375

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Posted 21 January 2013 - 02:10 PM

Well, the 2nd and third partition are on the drive - so they are technically accurate. They could have made it more user-friendly by saying 'I see you have a drive with three partitions - please be advised that all data in all partitions will be destroyed if you proceed!'.

 

 

 

A helicopter flying above Seattle encountered an electrical malfunction which disabled all of its electronic navigation and communications equipment. The pilot was unable to determine his position and course to proceed to the airport due to heavy clouds and haze.
Seeing a tall building, he flew toward it, circled, and drew a handwritten sign which he held up to the window. His sign read, "WHERE AM I?" in very large letters.
Those in the tall building saw his sign and quickly responded with an even larger sign of their own, which read, "YOU'RE IN A HELICOPTER." The pilot smiled and waved at them, looked at his map again, determined the course to steer and fortunately, landed safely.
Finally on the ground, the co-pilot asked the pilot how the "YOU ARE IN A HELICOPTER" sign helped to determine their position.
"I saw the sign and knew that had to be the Microsoft building because, just like their help-lines, they gave me a technically correct but completely useless answer."


#55 wimb

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Posted 21 January 2013 - 02:19 PM

Well, the 2nd and third partition are on the drive - so they are technically accurate. They could have made it more user-friendly by saying 'I see you have a drive with three partitions - please be advised that all data in all partitions will be destroyed if you proceed!'.

 

It would be more user friendly when they simply kept the other partition entries ...

 

Thanks for the nice story. It made me smile again ....

 

:cheers:



#56 Wonko the Sane

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Posted 21 January 2013 - 08:41 PM

Well, the 2nd and third partition are on the drive - so they are technically accurate

Technically accurate my sock. :frusty:

.

They are on the DISK (or PHYSICALDRIVE) or DEVICE, which is NOT the same thing to which they assign a DRIVE LETTER! :ranting2:

 

:cheers:

Wonko


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#57 laddanator

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Posted 01 February 2013 - 09:27 PM

So let me see if I can sum this up. If your Windows 8 device doesn't have the option to switch between BIOS and UEFI then G4D will never work as in all my G4D bootable USB devices are useless on a Native Windows 8 machine? I have had my hands on three Windows 8 machines in the last two weeks. 1 Acer tablet, 1 Gigabyte tablet and 1 Asus laptop and the only successful USB boot I had was on the Acer after I created a Factory restore to a USB flashdrive that Windows 8 formatted. I actually brought home the Asus laptop to see if I could get make sense of all this UEFI stuff and non booting g4d USB devices.



#58 steve6375

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Posted 01 February 2013 - 10:06 PM

New Win8 systems will have their BIOS set to UEFI boot only as they leave the factory. This is for security reasons. Normally, BIOSes will have a boot option to enable UEFI and BIOS booting from external devices. Once enabled, for a USB device you may see listed on the BBS (BIOS Boot Selection) Menu:

 

Lexar JumpDrive - UEFI

Lexar Jumpdrive

etc

 

Where the first option will boot via UEFI. Normally, this option is only presented if a UEFI USB stick is detected. Likewise, the 2nd option is only presented if an MBR USB stick is detected.

However, there is no set rule for this and it is up to the BIOS developer to decide how or if these options are presented. It would be limiting to ship a UEFI-only BIOS because it would not be capable of booting XP and most linux OS's...



#59 laddanator

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Posted 01 February 2013 - 10:40 PM

New Win8 systems will have their BIOS set to UEFI boot only as they leave the factory. This is for security reasons. Normally, BIOSes will have a boot option to enable UEFI and BIOS booting from external devices. Once enabled, for a USB device you may see listed on the BBS (BIOS Boot Selection) Menu:

 

Lexar JumpDrive - UEFI

Lexar Jumpdrive

etc

 

Where the first option will boot via UEFI. Normally, this option is only presented if a UEFI USB stick is detected. Likewise, the 2nd option is only presented if an MBR USB stick is detected.

However, there is no set rule for this and it is up to the BIOS developer to decide how or if these options are presented. It would be limiting to ship a UEFI-only BIOS because it would not be capable of booting XP and most linux OS's...

 

I have searched the Bios up and down on this Asus X55A and no option to change back to Non UEFI Bios that I see. So any USB drive would be considered UEFI if formatted the way wimb has listed on page 1?

 

  1. bootsect.exe /nt60 E: /force /mbr
  2.  
  3. bcdboot.exe M:\Windows /l nl-NL /s E: /f UEFI


#60 steve6375

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Posted 01 February 2013 - 10:53 PM

The manual shows that the UEFI Boot can be disabled in the BIOS - from that I would infer that it can boot to MBR??

http://dlcdnet.asus....l_X75A_Z104.pdf



#61 laddanator

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Posted 01 February 2013 - 11:05 PM

The manual shows that the UEFI Boot can be disabled in the BIOS - from that I would infer that it can boot to MBR??

http://dlcdnet.asus....l_X75A_Z104.pdf

 

 

Thanks, steve6375. I read the manual that came with the laptop but must have missed it. I found what I needed under

 

 

Boot Option

 Boot Configuration

Launch CSM (Disable)

 

Just Enable the Launch CSM option and I was able to boot to my g4d USB drives. This seems really stupid. I am sure not all manufacturers will have an option to "turn UEFI off' option?



#62 wimb

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Posted 02 February 2013 - 07:34 AM

Just Enable the Launch CSM option and I was able to boot to my g4d USB drives. This seems really stupid. I am sure not all manufacturers will have an option to "turn UEFI off' option?

 

That Launch CSM option is really hidden and NOT found if someone is looking for option to Disable UEFI

 

===============================================================================

For existing portable USB-harddisk if you want to support BIOS + UEFI booting then use

 

bcdboot.exe M:\Windows /s E: /f ALL

 

where E: is the FAT32 BOOT drive and M: is the NTFS Win8 SYSTEM Drive

 

The Firmware option /f can be BIOS or UEFI or ALL

 

When WinNTSetup2 is used to install Windows 8 on USB then BIOS+UEFI booting is Enabled already.

http://www.msfn.org/...winntsetup-v23/

================================================================================


UEFI + BIOS bootable USB-stick with Win8 Recovery folder sources\boot.wim
is made easily with few mouseclicks in Win 8 Configuration > Recovery menu

 

http://reboot.pro/to...e-4#entry166946

 

Read also the WARNING

http://reboot.pro/to...e-2#entry166256

 

:cheers:



#63 Shahzaib Abbas Apml

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Posted 02 February 2013 - 08:42 AM

Brother any one Tell how post article.I want  post my article about  PXELinux+ISO(little which made by EZbootcd)+Windows Server 2012 WDS(XP(working on it)+Vista+7+8+2012 32-bit+64 Bit Instillation Multi-boot Image is possible,.,. 



#64 laddanator

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Posted 02 February 2013 - 01:06 PM

That Launch CSM option is really hidden and NOT found if someone is looking for option to Disable UEFI

 

===============================================================================

For existing portable USB-harddisk if you want to support BIOS + UEFI booting then use

 

bcdboot.exe M:\Windows /s E: /f ALL

 

where E: is the FAT32 BOOT drive and M: is the NTFS Win8 SYSTEM Drive

 

The Firmware option /f can be BIOS or UEFI or ALL

 

When WinNTSetup2 is used to install Windows 8 on USB then BIOS+UEFI booting is Enabled already.

http://www.msfn.org/...winntsetup-v23/

================================================================================


UEFI + BIOS bootable USB-stick with Win8 Recovery folder sources\boot.wim
is made easily with few mouseclicks in Win 8 Configuration > Recovery menu

 

http://reboot.pro/to...e-4#entry166946

 

Read also the WARNING

http://reboot.pro/to...e-2#entry166256

 

:cheers:

 

So to format the USB Drive as you suggest, this must be done under a running Windows 8 machine? Once the drive is formatted, you need to install Windows 8 to the USB Drive and then add a menu option for Grub4dos in the bcd file? Once this is done, you do not have to "Turn off UEFI" with CSM and you can boot into g4d from the bcd menu?

 

What would be the entry into BootBCD for g4d?



#65 wimb

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Posted 02 February 2013 - 03:23 PM

What would be the entry into BootBCD for g4d?

 

Enable Launch CSM does that turn UEFI OFF ?
Or Does it simply add BIOS support to UEFI.

 

In any case you need BIOS support for booting Grub4dos
and Grub4dos does not work for only UEFI booting.
Best is when both options are presented in BBS Menu like for
Mobo Gigabyte GA-Z77MX-D3H that allows to use F12 Boot Menu

 

http://reboot.pro/to...sk/#entry164379

 

To add Grub4dos to Boot Manager Menu, First you need to set User Account Control OFF and Reboot

You need to open Administrator Command Window at C:\Windows\system32 (use R-mouse at cmd.exe)

 

For USB-harddisk FAT32 Boot Drive E: with file Boot\BCD then run commands as

 

bcdedit.exe /store E:\Boot\BCD /enum all
bcdedit.exe /store E:\Boot\BCD /create /d "Start GRUB4DOS" /application bootsector

 

This command will give {guid} in return and you can use R-mouseclick to Mark and copy(via Enter) the {guid}

 

bcdedit.exe /store E:\Boot\BCD /set {guid} device boot
bcdedit.exe /store E:\Boot\BCD /set {guid} path \grldr.mbr
bcdedit.exe /store E:\Boot\BCD  /displayorder {guid} /addlast

 

Run bcdedit again to check result like


bcdedit.exe /store E:\Boot\BCD /enum all

 

will show that has been added something like

 

id                      {6f9ae832-c03a-11e1-8098-00501848e329}
device                  boot
path                    \grldr.mbr
description             Start GRUB4DOS


Much easier is to make use of program BOOT_IMG.exe (also part of IMG_XP package)

BOOT_IMG.exe can be used to add Grub4dos to Boot Manager Menu
and make grub4dos boot entry for some Boot Image file like LiveXP_WIM.ISO or 7pe_x86_E.iso


The ISO files can be located on FAT32 BOOT drive, but the VHD files for portable XP or Win7 must be located on NTFS partition.

http://www.911cd.net...showtopic=23553

 

Remember that:

BIOS is booting via E:\Boot\BCD

UEFI is booting via the UEFI search filename E:\efi\boot\ bootx64.efi and then via E:\efi\microsoft\boot\BCD

 

:cheers:



#66 laddanator

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Posted 02 February 2013 - 03:34 PM

Not sure if it turns it off or adds support. That's why I used "Turn off UEFI"

 

Thanks for the info wimb. I am actually testing your method now.



#67 cyphersmith

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Posted 14 February 2013 - 09:57 PM

Enable Launch CSM does that turn UEFI OFF ?
Or Does it simply add BIOS support to UEFI.

It enables BIOS support.  CSM stands for Compatibility Support Module.  In all honesty, BIOS doesn't really exist anymore.  The CSM puts the system into the state that an OS would expect it to be in if you were actually using BIOS.


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#68 wimb

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Posted 15 February 2013 - 11:28 AM

 
UEFI_MULTI.exe is program to make Multi-Boot USB-Harddisk to boot computers having BIOS or UEFI firmware
 
Download  - UEFI_MULTI_72
 
 
:cheers:

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#69 Andrew Lovemuch

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Posted 22 February 2013 - 05:02 PM

This Good Job !! 


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#70 allgames71

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Posted 04 April 2013 - 04:00 PM

Sir ,

 

By following your instruction , I can make the Win8 USB harddisk UEFI and MBR boot. It's perfect. Thanks

 

But I don't understand what what you mean :

 

  "After Install of Win 8 then bcdedit.exe can be used to add Grub4dos entry in Boot\BCD for booting Image"

 

1. How to use "bcdedit.exe to add Grub4dos"

2. "Boot\BCD for booting Image" , is it mean "F:\EFI\Microsoft\Boot" ?

3. I've made all my boot programs like Winpe, partition tools , backup & recovery .... by Easyboot program , and make to a 3GB iso file. So how can I use bcdedit.exe to add this iso to "Boot\BCD" ?

 

Thanks for your kind tutor.



#71 Wonko the Sane

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Posted 04 April 2013 - 04:35 PM

The way to add grldr.mbr to the BCD should have NOT changed :unsure:, see:

http://diddy.boot-la...ws.htm#windows3

you should not need to specify the store if running from the same booted OS.

(and of course you need besides grldr.mbr also a copy of grldr in root)

 

:cheers:

Wonko



#72 wimb

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Posted 04 April 2013 - 04:58 PM

But I don't understand what what you mean :

 

  "After Install of Win 8 then bcdedit.exe can be used to add Grub4dos entry in Boot\BCD for booting Image"

 

This sentence belongs to the Manual procedure using Windows 8 Tools and it does not apply for the UEFI_MULTI program tutorial.

Follow the UEFI MULTI Tutorial http://reboot.pro/to...182-uefi-multi/

 

In fact UEFI_MULTI program will add Grub4dos entry to (root) Boot\BCD used for booting in BIOS mode.

You can use BOOT_IMG or UEFI_MULTI to add ISO to Grub4dos Menu.

Grub4dos ISO booting is only working in BIOS mode and not in UEFI mode.

 

:cheers:



#73 allgames71

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Posted 04 April 2013 - 06:19 PM

Thanks for all your reply.

 

My question now is that :

 

I have a very simple Easeus Partition Master 7 program. I made it by Easyboot to usb thumb drive. It boots OK , and the structure is like this :

 

iso (folder) ......................... this folder contains the Easeus Partition Master 7.iso that created by Easyboot

BOOT_HARDDISK.LST

default

grldr

menu.lst

 

the menu.lst is like this :

 

find --set-root --ignore-floppies /iso/iso.iso
map /iso/iso.iso (hd32)
map --hook
chainloader (hd32)
boot

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I want to know where should I place all the above iso folder and files ?

 

1. I've tried to put all the files and iso folder to Win8 NTFS partition root directory , but failed to boot

2. I've put the iso folder to Fat32 partition root directory , also failed

3. I've change the menu.lst like this forum introduced :

 

find --set-root --ignore-floppies /iso/iso.iso
map /iso/iso.iso (hd32)
map --hook

root (0xff)
chainloader (0xff)

 

Of course , fail again , please help. Thanks again



#74 steve6375

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Posted 04 April 2013 - 06:33 PM

What do you mean by 'failed to boot' ? 



#75 allgames71

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Posted 04 April 2013 - 06:49 PM

Dear sir ,

 

When it failed to boot , the screen black out and reboot with an error message :

 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Windows can't start. May be due to the current software or hardware changed. To repair the problem :

 

1. Insert Windows Install Disk , then restart your computer
2. Choose language setting , then press [next]
3. press [repair your computer]

 

If you don't have an Install Disk , please contact your system manufacturer for help.

 

file :  \grldr.mbr
state: 0xc000000f

 

Info : Because the needed file missing or error , so can't load the program or system

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Please help. Thanks







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