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Difference between revisions of "Windows Booting Simplified"
Windows Booting Simplified (view source)
Revision as of 19:22, 12 November 2022
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When looking at all the Disks and Partitions / Volumes in Disk Management, the "System" (as in System Partition) is not a value that can be assigned, unlike "Active" (as in Active Partition) which can be set. The System Partition Designation is actually determined, rather than set. IE, if a computer is booted up from Disk X, with an MBR on Disk X, with BCD Information on Disk X that indicates the Windows OS is on Disk Y, then Disk X will be have the System Partition Designation assigned to it. | When looking at all the Disks and Partitions / Volumes in Disk Management, the "System" (as in System Partition) is not a value that can be assigned, unlike "Active" (as in Active Partition) which can be set. The System Partition Designation is actually determined, rather than set. IE, if a computer is booted up from Disk X, with an MBR on Disk X, with BCD Information on Disk X that indicates the Windows OS is on Disk Y, then Disk X will be have the System Partition Designation assigned to it. | ||
==== UEFI Boot Partition and WinRE ==== | ====UEFI Boot Partition and WinRE==== | ||
Creating a UEFI Boot Partition with WinRE is fairly simple. The below applies to a UEFI Computer and a GPT Disk / SSD; | Creating a UEFI Boot Partition with WinRE is fairly simple. The below applies to a UEFI Computer and a GPT Disk / SSD; | ||
* Create a Partition (usually at the beginning of a Disk / SSD, and can be made 1 GB in size (easy to spot that way)) | *Create a Partition (usually at the beginning of a Disk / SSD, and can be made 1 GB in size (easy to spot that way)) | ||
* Install the Boot Files: BCDBOOT C:\Windows /l en-us /s WhatEverDriveLetter: /f ALL /v (see example and explanation in above Top Tips Section) | **diskpart, select disk WhatEverDiskNumber, ...and see the below choices (these examples assume there is available disk space at the beginning and end of disk that has a working Windows "Boot Partition" in the middle of the disk / drive); | ||
* Install WinRE | ***create partition efi size=1024 (don't use this one, see the next one) Thankfully, there is no way to specify which partition to create as a UEFI / EFI partition. And also thankfully, if there is a blank partition at the beginning of a disk and at the end of a disk, DISKPART will select the partition at the end of the disk for the UEFI / EFI partition. If you can't tell, the use of 'thankfully' is facetious. Anyway, the only trick is to create an EFI partition at the end of a disk, then run the same command to put it on the one at the beginning. | ||
** Find the WinRE.wim File on the installation media, in WhatEverDriveLetter:\sources\install.esd | ***create partition efi size=1024 offset=1 (don't use this one either, see the next one, because this one will create a System Partition that cannot be accessed even when assigned a drive letter using DISKPART) | ||
** Extract the WinRE.wim file: 7-Zip is the easiest method, Right Click on the install.esd file, Click Open Archive, examine the XML "Manifest File" for the version of Windows that matches yours, go to WhatEverNumber\Windows\System32\Recovery and the Winre.wim file should be there. Copy it to a convenient location (need to find it later) ( [https://www.winhelponline.com/blog/extract-files-windows-10-iso-dvd-install-wim/ Here's a website with a detailed explanation] ). | ***Use the below method (this will create a UEFI / EFI Partition that is a "System Partition", will have the BCD files installed on it, AND will be accessible when a drive letter is assigned to it. | ||
****Create an ordinary FAT32 Partition at the beginning of a disk using DISKPART, Windows Disk Manager GUI, EaseUS Partition Manager, AOMEI Partition Manager, etc. (Partition type will be Primary) | |||
****Select the appropriate disk and partition in DISKPART and use this command: set id=c12a7328-f81f-11d2-ba4b-00a0c93ec93b override (Partition Type will be "System", remember, Windows calls the partition where it is installed the "Boot Partition" and the place where the Computer boots up the "System Partition) (from https://www.tenforums.com/drivers-hardware/80762-how-sign-existing-partition-efi-partition-diskpart.html) | |||
****Install the Boot Files: BCDBOOT C:\Windows /l en-us /s WhatEverDriveLetter: /f ALL /v (see example and explanation in above Top Tips Section) | |||
****Assign a drive letter: Select the appropriate Disk and Partition in DISKPART: assign letter=WhatEverLetter | |||
***OR, if installing Windows, and the disk is blank then Windows will put it at the beginning automatically | |||
*Install WinRE | |||
**Find the WinRE.wim File on the installation media, in WhatEverDriveLetter:\sources\install.esd | |||
**Extract the WinRE.wim file: 7-Zip is the easiest method, Right Click on the install.esd file, Click Open Archive, examine the XML "Manifest File" for the version of Windows that matches yours, go to WhatEverNumber\Windows\System32\Recovery and the Winre.wim file should be there. Copy it to a convenient location (need to find it later) ( [https://www.winhelponline.com/blog/extract-files-windows-10-iso-dvd-install-wim/ Here's a website with a detailed explanation] ). | |||
The WinRE\ | The WinRE\ | ||
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MBR Booting (and repair): http://woshub.com/how-to-rebuild-bcd-file-in-windows-10/ | MBR Booting (and repair): http://woshub.com/how-to-rebuild-bcd-file-in-windows-10/ | ||
Windows RE: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/manufacture/desktop/take-inventory-of-an-image-or-component-using-dism?view=windows-11 | |||
MBR Breakdown: https://nixhacker.com/explaining-the-magic-of-mbr-and-its/ | |||
Can a GPT Disk only be booted from a FAT32 UEFI / EFI Parition? No. All the websites, blogs, whatever that state a UEFI / EFI Partition has to be formatted as a FAT32 Partition are WRONG. The "rules" say, that only FAT32 has to be supported. It doesn't exclude NTFS. And then there's a bit of discussion about should / could / would, etc. But at the end: Can it boot from an NTFS partition? Yes (if the UEFI/BIOS of a motherboard supports NTFS, and there's nothing that excludes a manufacturer from including that capability). And there's also this: https://github.com/pbatard/uefi-ntfs | |||
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=== Other Thoughts and Notes === | |||
==== MSR (Microsoft Reserved Partition): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Reserved_Partition ==== | |||
It's OK to delete if one is not using it (read above Wikipedia Article to help determine that, and read other stuff too (links not included)). The reason it is OK to delete it, is because one can create it again, thus making it possible to fix any issues deleting it causes. But, even better would be to clone the partition before deleting it, thus one can restore it exactly as it was. Acronis, EaseUs, AOEMEI, BootIce, etc, Clonezilla, GParted (I think), can all facilitate backing it up / cloning it. | |||
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