Samsung laptop came w/w8, installed w7, won't default to hdd to boot

On 12/27/2016 6:22 PM, Paul wrote:
Mike S wrote:
On 12/27/2016 8:10 AM, Paul wrote:
Mike S wrote:
On 12/26/2016 6:24 PM, Paul wrote:
Mike S wrote:
I am working on a friend's Samsung np355v5c laptop which came with
Windows 8, and had a lot of issues, e.g it couldn't install most
security updates. He didn't have the install CD and I suspected virus
damage, so I formatted and installed an unused Win 7 Home Premium. In
order to boot from the install CD I had to turn off Secure Boot, and
select UEFI_and_Legacy Support, in the BIOS. That allowed me to click
F10 and select the CD as the boot device. I installed w7, activated
it, installed a bunch of updates. But...

Each time I boot/reboot I have to click F10 and select the HDD as the
boot device, if I don't the machine won't default to the HDD, it just
hangs, so I'm missing some settings.

How do I get the computer to boot from the HDD automatically? Do I
have to do something to the boot sector so setting UEFI_only in the
BIOS would allow it to be managed correctly?

TIA,
Mike

I've set up one GPT disk here, which boots in
UEFI mode and has three OSes on it.

The trick for me, was *always* using popup boot
on every step of the way, and on my UEFI+CSM setup,
remembering to select the UEFI identifier in the boot list.
By booting my install DVD in UEFI mode, that offered
an opportunity for GPT partitioning and so on.

The UEFI+CSM BIOS will continue to offer options for
"backsliding", and it seems to be able to figure out
that I want to boot Windows, even when I haven't selected
an OS. And even though *GRUB* is (nominally) in control
of boot management. So somehow, the EFI partition and
items in there seem to be "more acceptable" to the BIOS.

But if I press my F8 popup boot in time, I can select an
identifier in the boot list which is UEFI and things
work as expected.

If I were to cut off its fun, by switching back to UEFI only
(no CSM), maybe it would be forced to boot the actual OS
which has the boot manager. But I cannot be sure. And there
are certain experiments I don't carry out on the Test Machine.
There have been incidents on the Internet, where a UEFI machine
gets bricked. And the owner is unable to untangle the mess. I've
not run into a "miracle recovery" in one of those stories yet.
Once I see some "Houdini material", magic ways to escape, then
I'd be game to turn Secure boot on, UEFI only, or whatever.

I started out, wanting to share a picture of the disk setup,
but now I'm finding that no two tools draw the same partition
map :-( This is... not good. How can there be a learning moment,
if you're standing on "thin ice" ? One environment had shown
me two EFI partitions (contains .efi bootstrap materials),
the other claims there is only one EFI partition. And yet
the BIOS boot menu seems to agree there are two partitions
present that might be of interest. UEFI is full of puzzles.
This is why I only have one GPT test install here,
one puzzle is enough.

Maybe your setup isn't GPT after all, and is MBR ?

Paul

Well I installed w8, activated, updates, the computer still won't
default to the hdd to boot, but when w8 installed it didn't create a
GPT partition and I didn't see any way to do that. Did I miss that
feature? Now I'm searching for freeware that will convert MBR to GPT
without losing data. If you know of any I'd be happy to hear about it.

If you have UEFI+CSM turned on, use the popup boot (BIOS F8
on mine, YMMV), there should be *two* entries for the
optical drive in the popup boot. One is the UEFI entry.
Boot the optical drive using the UEFI entry, which coaxes
the OS installer to allow GPT. When I did my first GPT
just recently, it took me two tries to get this
right :-( And there are only two choices.

Paul

Paul, yes that's exactly right, there are 2 choices, but I would like
to get it to boot from the hdd without user interaction because this
is one of the Samsung laptops with a screen that is often white, so
the owner is going to rely upon using an external monitor until he
saves enough to repair it. (Father of 3, just got cut from full time
to part time, not exactly rolling in money). So I'm trying to get it
to boot without him or his kids having to push any keys and hope they
did it right, so far I can't get the Samsung to show the boot/cmos
screens on the external monitor, that only works when Windows manages
the extra video port.

All I can suggest at this point, is on every reboot while
you're working on it, select the UEFI option while running
in UEFI+CSM mode. Then, when the basic install is finished,
flip it to UEFI only mode if you want. Then, retest and
see if it boots then.

That means, if you were installing Win8, you might have to
manually select the boot path up to four times during the
install. That's what I was doing, to emulate a UEFI-only
BIOS mode - babysitting it.

The reason I leave my test machine (the one with the GPT test
install on it) in UEFI+CSM mode, is I use CSM mode more than
I do UEFI, and UEFI is being used *only* for this test case.
Which is why I manually steer the boot in the desired direction.

Paul

Since I already did the install and the disk has MBR, will it still work
if I convert it to GPT (using a USB cable on a different machine and
Easeus Partition Master) and then enable UEFI?

Mike S wrote:
On 12/27/2016 6:22 PM, Paul wrote:
Mike S wrote:
On 12/27/2016 8:10 AM, Paul wrote:
Mike S wrote:
On 12/26/2016 6:24 PM, Paul wrote:
Mike S wrote:
I am working on a friend's Samsung np355v5c laptop which came with
Windows 8, and had a lot of issues, e.g it couldn't install most
security updates. He didn't have the install CD and I suspected
virus
damage, so I formatted and installed an unused Win 7 Home
Premium. In
order to boot from the install CD I had to turn off Secure Boot, and
select UEFI_and_Legacy Support, in the BIOS. That allowed me to
click
F10 and select the CD as the boot device. I installed w7, activated
it, installed a bunch of updates. But...

Each time I boot/reboot I have to click F10 and select the HDD as
the
boot device, if I don't the machine won't default to the HDD, it
just
hangs, so I'm missing some settings.

How do I get the computer to boot from the HDD automatically? Do I
have to do something to the boot sector so setting UEFI_only in the
BIOS would allow it to be managed correctly?

TIA,
Mike

I've set up one GPT disk here, which boots in
UEFI mode and has three OSes on it.

The trick for me, was *always* using popup boot
on every step of the way, and on my UEFI+CSM setup,
remembering to select the UEFI identifier in the boot list.
By booting my install DVD in UEFI mode, that offered
an opportunity for GPT partitioning and so on.

The UEFI+CSM BIOS will continue to offer options for
"backsliding", and it seems to be able to figure out
that I want to boot Windows, even when I haven't selected
an OS. And even though *GRUB* is (nominally) in control
of boot management. So somehow, the EFI partition and
items in there seem to be "more acceptable" to the BIOS.

But if I press my F8 popup boot in time, I can select an
identifier in the boot list which is UEFI and things
work as expected.

If I were to cut off its fun, by switching back to UEFI only
(no CSM), maybe it would be forced to boot the actual OS
which has the boot manager. But I cannot be sure. And there
are certain experiments I don't carry out on the Test Machine.
There have been incidents on the Internet, where a UEFI machine
gets bricked. And the owner is unable to untangle the mess. I've
not run into a "miracle recovery" in one of those stories yet.
Once I see some "Houdini material", magic ways to escape, then
I'd be game to turn Secure boot on, UEFI only, or whatever.

I started out, wanting to share a picture of the disk setup,
but now I'm finding that no two tools draw the same partition
map :-( This is... not good. How can there be a learning moment,
if you're standing on "thin ice" ? One environment had shown
me two EFI partitions (contains .efi bootstrap materials),
the other claims there is only one EFI partition. And yet
the BIOS boot menu seems to agree there are two partitions
present that might be of interest. UEFI is full of puzzles.
This is why I only have one GPT test install here,
one puzzle is enough.

Maybe your setup isn't GPT after all, and is MBR ?

Paul

Well I installed w8, activated, updates, the computer still won't
default to the hdd to boot, but when w8 installed it didn't create a
GPT partition and I didn't see any way to do that. Did I miss that
feature? Now I'm searching for freeware that will convert MBR to GPT
without losing data. If you know of any I'd be happy to hear about it.

If you have UEFI+CSM turned on, use the popup boot (BIOS F8
on mine, YMMV), there should be *two* entries for the
optical drive in the popup boot. One is the UEFI entry.
Boot the optical drive using the UEFI entry, which coaxes
the OS installer to allow GPT. When I did my first GPT
just recently, it took me two tries to get this
right :-( And there are only two choices.

Paul

Paul, yes that's exactly right, there are 2 choices, but I would like
to get it to boot from the hdd without user interaction because this
is one of the Samsung laptops with a screen that is often white, so
the owner is going to rely upon using an external monitor until he
saves enough to repair it. (Father of 3, just got cut from full time
to part time, not exactly rolling in money). So I'm trying to get it
to boot without him or his kids having to push any keys and hope they
did it right, so far I can't get the Samsung to show the boot/cmos
screens on the external monitor, that only works when Windows manages
the extra video port.

All I can suggest at this point, is on every reboot while
you're working on it, select the UEFI option while running
in UEFI+CSM mode. Then, when the basic install is finished,
flip it to UEFI only mode if you want. Then, retest and
see if it boots then.

That means, if you were installing Win8, you might have to
manually select the boot path up to four times during the
install. That's what I was doing, to emulate a UEFI-only
BIOS mode - babysitting it.

The reason I leave my test machine (the one with the GPT test
install on it) in UEFI+CSM mode, is I use CSM mode more than
I do UEFI, and UEFI is being used *only* for this test case.
Which is why I manually steer the boot in the desired direction.

Paul

Since I already did the install and the disk has MBR, will it still work
if I convert it to GPT (using a USB cable on a different machine and
Easeus Partition Master) and then enable UEFI?

Of course not.

It will need an EFI partition to start. Then,
files ending with .efi must populate that folder.
The process boots with winload.efi instead of
winload.exe (MBR boot).

It *might* work with boot repair. Macrium has
a boot repair facility, only available on the Macrium CD,
which you could try. When I got myself in trouble once,
the Macrium seemed to repair things like GUIDs, but didn't
repair everything. It got me 90% of the way there, and then
I was able to adjust the odd thing to finish the job.

The following is a "slice" of my GPT disk. It's a triple boot
and I removed the other two OSes to make this less confusing.
This is the output of "disktype", a small FOSS utility
available various ways.

--- /dev/sda
Block device, size 127 GiB (136365211648 bytes)
DOS/MBR partition map
Partition 1: 127.0 GiB (136365211136 bytes, 266338303 sectors from 1)
Type 0xEE (EFI GPT protective) --- protective MBR
GPT partition map, 128 entries
Disk size 127 GiB (136365211648 bytes, 266338304 sectors)
Disk GUID 35395C5A-82CB-9A48-8560-69A3A4B0AF83
Partition 1: 450 MiB (471859200 bytes, 921600 sectors from 2048)
Type Unknown (GUID A4BB94DE-D106-404D-A16A-BFD50179D6AC)
Partition Name "Basic data partition"
Partition GUID 86FAEA1F-FDE5-224E-B87C-CE51929736DF
NTFS file system
Volume size 450.0 MiB (471858688 bytes, 921599 sectors)
Partition 2: 99 MiB (103809024 bytes, 202752 sectors from 923648) --- you need this to
Type EFI System (FAT) (GUID 28732AC1-1FF8-D211-BA4B-00A0C93EC93B) be populated
Partition Name "EFI system partition"
Partition GUID 3058B269-799D-9441-AD7B-EA6700A4C200
FAT32 file system (hints score 4 of 5) --- it's FAT32
Volume size 95 MiB (99614720 bytes, 97280 clusters of 1 KiB)
Partition 3: 16 MiB (16777216 bytes, 32768 sectors from 1126400) --- this could well be an
Type MS Reserved (GUID 16E3C9E3-5C0B-B84D-817D-F92DF00215AE) un-allocated space
Partition Name "Microsoft reserved partition" rather than a real
Partition GUID D9E29745-CD1C-154E-A5CB-C73E3E28B80C partition
Blank disk/medium
Partition 4: 38.51 GiB (41349545984 bytes, 80760832 sectors from 1159168)
Type Basic Data (GUID A2A0D0EB-E5B9-3344-87C0-68B6B72699C7)
Partition Name "Basic data partition"
Partition GUID 14CFE9D4-4FB3-4340-80C9-2CB018622DDA
NTFS file system --- a Win10 C: drive
Volume size 38.51 GiB (41349545472 bytes, 80760831 sectors) on my test GPT install

The 99MiB Partitions can have folders for
different OSes in it. A xxx.efi file at the top
level. A folder for Windows. A folder for Ubuntu.

The question then is:

1) Does any utility create one of those (EFI partition) ?
2) Does Windows Repair re-populate one of those ?

If I needed to find out, I'd back up the drive,
and try the various repair methods.

The thing is, any repair utility will look for "key indicators"
about the install type (MBR or GPT) and repair accordingly.
It won't willingly convert a setup with "mostly"
MBR characteristics into GPT.

Your idea of doing a conversion to GPT, would
certainly count as a strong hint. But, will
Windows Repair make the 99MiB FAT32 for you ?
Will it put the files in there ? Would Macrium
Boot Repair do that (will it have the files???).
Those are the questions that go through my mind.
It seems I would:

1) MBR to GPT. Hope that it makes 99Mib FAT32 EFI for you.
2) Windows Boot Repair (use the installer DVD and see
if there is a Repair in there). Boot the installer
DVD in UEFI mode, then try.
3) Try Macrium if Windows Boot Repair fails. I think the
two products could potentially make a good "tag team"
at repair. The Windows one is definitely dumb.
The Macrium one may lack files. But between them,
they might get the job done. You will need to make a
fairly modern Macrium disc for this (I assume it's hybrid
but haven't checked).

You can see (2) here.

http://www.sevenforums.com/attachmen...ry_options.jpg

This isn't the best picture of (3), and the menu item
should only be on the bare metal restore rescue CD,
rather than on the Windows copy of the program. The
idea is, the function is only for usage when the
HDD OS won't boot, so they put the function on
their CD. It can then scan the materials on the disk,
and fix things (within reason). Since the disc is *not*
an OS installer disc, it will have limitations on the
files it can pull out of a hat. It is a WinPE disc,
so it has WinPE materials, but that's all it can
rely on.

http://kb.macrium.com/Uploads/Images...xboot-menu.png

This is a scan of my most recent Macrium rescue CD. It
doesn't have the word Hybrid in it. The "EFISECTOR"
reference looks... hopeful.

--- rescue_macrium_laptop_6_64.iso
Regular file, size 222.3 MiB (233046016 bytes)
UDF file system
Sector size 2048 bytes
Volume name "Rescue"
UDF version 1.02
ISO9660 file system
Volume name "RESCUE"
Preparer "IMAPI2 (1.0) ISO9660 FORMATTER COPYRIGHT (C) 2004-2007 MICROSOFT"
Data size 221.7 MiB (232462336 bytes, 113507 blocks of 2 KiB)
El Torito boot record, catalog at 351
Bootable non-emulated image, starts at 352, preloads 4 KiB
Platform 0x00 (x86), System Type 0x00 (Empty)
Bootable non-emulated image, starts at 354, preloads 1.406 MiB (1474560 bytes)
Platform 0xEF (EFI), System Type 0x00 (Empty)
Windows / MS-DOS boot loader
FAT12 file system (hints score 5 of 5)
Volume size 1.390 MiB (1457664 bytes, 2847 clusters of 512 bytes)
Volume name "EFISECTOR"

This is a WinXP installer CD for comparison (which should
not have UEFI).

--- winxpoem.iso
Regular file, size 589.1 MiB (617754624 bytes)
ISO9660 file system
Volume name "GRTMPOEM_EN"
Publisher "MICROSOFT CORPORATION"
Preparer "MICROSOFT CORPORATION, ONE MICROSOFT WAY, REDMOND WA 98052, (425) 882-8080"
Application "CDIMAGE 2.52 (03/09/2004 TM)"
Data size 589.1 MiB (617754624 bytes, 301638 blocks of 2 KiB)
El Torito boot record, catalog at 19
Bootable non-emulated image, starts at 345, preloads 2 KiB
Platform 0x00 (x86), System Type 0x00 (Empty)
Windows NTLDR boot loader

This Windows 7 installer DVD, looks like the Macrium one,
where the Macrium one would be using WinPE5 or WinPE10.

--- H:\WIN7_SP1_PRO_x64_GSP1RMCPRXFREO_EN_DVD.ISO
Regular file, size 3.093 GiB (3320903680 bytes)
UDF file system
Sector size 2048 bytes
Volume name "UDF Volume"
UDF version 1.02
ISO9660 file system
Volume name "GSP1RMCPRXFREO_EN_DVD"
Publisher "MICROSOFT CORPORATION"
Preparer "MICROSOFT CORPORATION, ONE MICROSOFT WAY, REDMOND WA 98052, (425) 882-8080"
Application "CDIMAGE 2.54 (01/01/2005 TM)"
Data size 3.093 GiB (3320903680 bytes, 1621535 blocks of 2 KiB)
El Torito boot record, catalog at 22
Bootable non-emulated image, starts at 734, preloads 4 KiB
Platform 0x00 (x86), System Type 0x00 (Empty)
Bootable non-emulated image, starts at 736, preloads 512 bytes
Platform 0xEF (EFI), System Type 0x00 (Empty)
Windows / MS-DOS boot loader
FAT12 file system (hints score 5 of 5)
Volume size 1.390 MiB (1457664 bytes, 2847 clusters of 512 bytes)
Volume name "EFISECTOR"

HTH,
Paul

On 12/27/2016 9:02 PM, Paul wrote:
Mike S wrote:
On 12/27/2016 6:22 PM, Paul wrote:
Mike S wrote:
On 12/27/2016 8:10 AM, Paul wrote:
Mike S wrote:
On 12/26/2016 6:24 PM, Paul wrote:
Mike S wrote:
I am working on a friend's Samsung np355v5c laptop which came with
Windows 8, and had a lot of issues, e.g it couldn't install most
security updates. He didn't have the install CD and I suspected
virus
damage, so I formatted and installed an unused Win 7 Home
Premium. In
order to boot from the install CD I had to turn off Secure Boot,
and
select UEFI_and_Legacy Support, in the BIOS. That allowed me to
click
F10 and select the CD as the boot device. I installed w7, activated
it, installed a bunch of updates. But...

Each time I boot/reboot I have to click F10 and select the HDD
as the
boot device, if I don't the machine won't default to the HDD, it
just
hangs, so I'm missing some settings.

How do I get the computer to boot from the HDD automatically? Do I
have to do something to the boot sector so setting UEFI_only in the
BIOS would allow it to be managed correctly?

TIA,
Mike

I've set up one GPT disk here, which boots in
UEFI mode and has three OSes on it.

The trick for me, was *always* using popup boot
on every step of the way, and on my UEFI+CSM setup,
remembering to select the UEFI identifier in the boot list.
By booting my install DVD in UEFI mode, that offered
an opportunity for GPT partitioning and so on.

The UEFI+CSM BIOS will continue to offer options for
"backsliding", and it seems to be able to figure out
that I want to boot Windows, even when I haven't selected
an OS. And even though *GRUB* is (nominally) in control
of boot management. So somehow, the EFI partition and
items in there seem to be "more acceptable" to the BIOS.

But if I press my F8 popup boot in time, I can select an
identifier in the boot list which is UEFI and things
work as expected.

If I were to cut off its fun, by switching back to UEFI only
(no CSM), maybe it would be forced to boot the actual OS
which has the boot manager. But I cannot be sure. And there
are certain experiments I don't carry out on the Test Machine.
There have been incidents on the Internet, where a UEFI machine
gets bricked. And the owner is unable to untangle the mess. I've
not run into a "miracle recovery" in one of those stories yet.
Once I see some "Houdini material", magic ways to escape, then
I'd be game to turn Secure boot on, UEFI only, or whatever.

I started out, wanting to share a picture of the disk setup,
but now I'm finding that no two tools draw the same partition
map :-( This is... not good. How can there be a learning moment,
if you're standing on "thin ice" ? One environment had shown
me two EFI partitions (contains .efi bootstrap materials),
the other claims there is only one EFI partition. And yet
the BIOS boot menu seems to agree there are two partitions
present that might be of interest. UEFI is full of puzzles.
This is why I only have one GPT test install here,
one puzzle is enough.

Maybe your setup isn't GPT after all, and is MBR ?

Paul

Well I installed w8, activated, updates, the computer still won't
default to the hdd to boot, but when w8 installed it didn't create a
GPT partition and I didn't see any way to do that. Did I miss that
feature? Now I'm searching for freeware that will convert MBR to GPT
without losing data. If you know of any I'd be happy to hear about
it.

If you have UEFI+CSM turned on, use the popup boot (BIOS F8
on mine, YMMV), there should be *two* entries for the
optical drive in the popup boot. One is the UEFI entry.
Boot the optical drive using the UEFI entry, which coaxes
the OS installer to allow GPT. When I did my first GPT
just recently, it took me two tries to get this
right :-( And there are only two choices.

Paul

Paul, yes that's exactly right, there are 2 choices, but I would like
to get it to boot from the hdd without user interaction because this
is one of the Samsung laptops with a screen that is often white, so
the owner is going to rely upon using an external monitor until he
saves enough to repair it. (Father of 3, just got cut from full time
to part time, not exactly rolling in money). So I'm trying to get it
to boot without him or his kids having to push any keys and hope they
did it right, so far I can't get the Samsung to show the boot/cmos
screens on the external monitor, that only works when Windows manages
the extra video port.

All I can suggest at this point, is on every reboot while
you're working on it, select the UEFI option while running
in UEFI+CSM mode. Then, when the basic install is finished,
flip it to UEFI only mode if you want. Then, retest and
see if it boots then.

That means, if you were installing Win8, you might have to
manually select the boot path up to four times during the
install. That's what I was doing, to emulate a UEFI-only
BIOS mode - babysitting it.

The reason I leave my test machine (the one with the GPT test
install on it) in UEFI+CSM mode, is I use CSM mode more than
I do UEFI, and UEFI is being used *only* for this test case.
Which is why I manually steer the boot in the desired direction.

Paul

Since I already did the install and the disk has MBR, will it still
work if I convert it to GPT (using a USB cable on a different machine
and Easeus Partition Master) and then enable UEFI?

Of course not.

It will need an EFI partition to start. Then,
files ending with .efi must populate that folder.
The process boots with winload.efi instead of
winload.exe (MBR boot).

It *might* work with boot repair. Macrium has
a boot repair facility, only available on the Macrium CD,
which you could try. When I got myself in trouble once,
the Macrium seemed to repair things like GUIDs, but didn't
repair everything. It got me 90% of the way there, and then
I was able to adjust the odd thing to finish the job.

The following is a "slice" of my GPT disk. It's a triple boot
and I removed the other two OSes to make this less confusing.
This is the output of "disktype", a small FOSS utility
available various ways.

--- /dev/sda
Block device, size 127 GiB (136365211648 bytes)
DOS/MBR partition map
Partition 1: 127.0 GiB (136365211136 bytes, 266338303 sectors from 1)
Type 0xEE (EFI GPT protective)
--- protective MBR
GPT partition map, 128 entries
Disk size 127 GiB (136365211648 bytes, 266338304 sectors)
Disk GUID 35395C5A-82CB-9A48-8560-69A3A4B0AF83
Partition 1: 450 MiB (471859200 bytes, 921600 sectors from 2048)
Type Unknown (GUID A4BB94DE-D106-404D-A16A-BFD50179D6AC)
Partition Name "Basic data partition"
Partition GUID 86FAEA1F-FDE5-224E-B87C-CE51929736DF
NTFS file system
Volume size 450.0 MiB (471858688 bytes, 921599 sectors)
Partition 2: 99 MiB (103809024 bytes, 202752 sectors from 923648)
--- you need this to
Type EFI System (FAT) (GUID
28732AC1-1FF8-D211-BA4B-00A0C93EC93B) be populated
Partition Name "EFI system partition"
Partition GUID 3058B269-799D-9441-AD7B-EA6700A4C200
FAT32 file system (hints score 4 of 5)
--- it's FAT32
Volume size 95 MiB (99614720 bytes, 97280 clusters of 1 KiB)
Partition 3: 16 MiB (16777216 bytes, 32768 sectors from 1126400)
--- this could well be an
Type MS Reserved (GUID
16E3C9E3-5C0B-B84D-817D-F92DF00215AE) un-allocated space
Partition Name "Microsoft reserved
partition" rather than a real
Partition GUID
D9E29745-CD1C-154E-A5CB-C73E3E28B80C partition
Blank disk/medium
Partition 4: 38.51 GiB (41349545984 bytes, 80760832 sectors from 1159168)
Type Basic Data (GUID A2A0D0EB-E5B9-3344-87C0-68B6B72699C7)
Partition Name "Basic data partition"
Partition GUID 14CFE9D4-4FB3-4340-80C9-2CB018622DDA
NTFS file system
--- a Win10 C: drive
Volume size 38.51 GiB (41349545472 bytes, 80760831
sectors) on my test GPT install

The 99MiB Partitions can have folders for
different OSes in it. A xxx.efi file at the top
level. A folder for Windows. A folder for Ubuntu.

The question then is:

1) Does any utility create one of those (EFI partition) ?
2) Does Windows Repair re-populate one of those ?

If I needed to find out, I'd back up the drive,
and try the various repair methods.

The thing is, any repair utility will look for "key indicators"
about the install type (MBR or GPT) and repair accordingly.
It won't willingly convert a setup with "mostly"
MBR characteristics into GPT.

Your idea of doing a conversion to GPT, would
certainly count as a strong hint. But, will
Windows Repair make the 99MiB FAT32 for you ?
Will it put the files in there ? Would Macrium
Boot Repair do that (will it have the files???).
Those are the questions that go through my mind.
It seems I would:

1) MBR to GPT. Hope that it makes 99Mib FAT32 EFI for you.
2) Windows Boot Repair (use the installer DVD and see
if there is a Repair in there). Boot the installer
DVD in UEFI mode, then try.
3) Try Macrium if Windows Boot Repair fails. I think the
two products could potentially make a good "tag team"
at repair. The Windows one is definitely dumb.
The Macrium one may lack files. But between them,
they might get the job done. You will need to make a
fairly modern Macrium disc for this (I assume it's hybrid
but haven't checked).

You can see (2) here.

http://www.sevenforums.com/attachmen...ry_options.jpg


This isn't the best picture of (3), and the menu item
should only be on the bare metal restore rescue CD,
rather than on the Windows copy of the program. The
idea is, the function is only for usage when the
HDD OS won't boot, so they put the function on
their CD. It can then scan the materials on the disk,
and fix things (within reason). Since the disc is *not*
an OS installer disc, it will have limitations on the
files it can pull out of a hat. It is a WinPE disc,
so it has WinPE materials, but that's all it can
rely on.

http://kb.macrium.com/Uploads/Images...xboot-menu.png

This is a scan of my most recent Macrium rescue CD. It
doesn't have the word Hybrid in it. The "EFISECTOR"
reference looks... hopeful.

--- rescue_macrium_laptop_6_64.iso
Regular file, size 222.3 MiB (233046016 bytes)
UDF file system
Sector size 2048 bytes
Volume name "Rescue"
UDF version 1.02
ISO9660 file system
Volume name "RESCUE"
Preparer "IMAPI2 (1.0) ISO9660 FORMATTER COPYRIGHT (C) 2004-2007
MICROSOFT"
Data size 221.7 MiB (232462336 bytes, 113507 blocks of 2 KiB)
El Torito boot record, catalog at 351
Bootable non-emulated image, starts at 352, preloads 4 KiB
Platform 0x00 (x86), System Type 0x00 (Empty)
Bootable non-emulated image, starts at 354, preloads 1.406 MiB
(1474560 bytes)
Platform 0xEF (EFI), System Type 0x00 (Empty)
Windows / MS-DOS boot loader
FAT12 file system (hints score 5 of 5)
Volume size 1.390 MiB (1457664 bytes, 2847 clusters of 512 bytes)
Volume name "EFISECTOR"

This is a WinXP installer CD for comparison (which should
not have UEFI).

--- winxpoem.iso
Regular file, size 589.1 MiB (617754624 bytes)
ISO9660 file system
Volume name "GRTMPOEM_EN"
Publisher "MICROSOFT CORPORATION"
Preparer "MICROSOFT CORPORATION, ONE MICROSOFT WAY, REDMOND WA
98052, (425) 882-8080"
Application "CDIMAGE 2.52 (03/09/2004 TM)"
Data size 589.1 MiB (617754624 bytes, 301638 blocks of 2 KiB)
El Torito boot record, catalog at 19
Bootable non-emulated image, starts at 345, preloads 2 KiB
Platform 0x00 (x86), System Type 0x00 (Empty)
Windows NTLDR boot loader

This Windows 7 installer DVD, looks like the Macrium one,
where the Macrium one would be using WinPE5 or WinPE10.

--- H:\WIN7_SP1_PRO_x64_GSP1RMCPRXFREO_EN_DVD.ISO
Regular file, size 3.093 GiB (3320903680 bytes)
UDF file system
Sector size 2048 bytes
Volume name "UDF Volume"
UDF version 1.02
ISO9660 file system
Volume name "GSP1RMCPRXFREO_EN_DVD"
Publisher "MICROSOFT CORPORATION"
Preparer "MICROSOFT CORPORATION, ONE MICROSOFT WAY, REDMOND WA
98052, (425) 882-8080"
Application "CDIMAGE 2.54 (01/01/2005 TM)"
Data size 3.093 GiB (3320903680 bytes, 1621535 blocks of 2 KiB)
El Torito boot record, catalog at 22
Bootable non-emulated image, starts at 734, preloads 4 KiB
Platform 0x00 (x86), System Type 0x00 (Empty)
Bootable non-emulated image, starts at 736, preloads 512 bytes
Platform 0xEF (EFI), System Type 0x00 (Empty)
Windows / MS-DOS boot loader
FAT12 file system (hints score 5 of 5)
Volume size 1.390 MiB (1457664 bytes, 2847 clusters of 512 bytes)
Volume name "EFISECTOR"

HTH,
Paul

Paul,

Thank you very much for taking the time to write such a detailed post. I
will have to consider my options a little more.

I think it's time for the owner to repair the screen, lol.

Thanks Again,
Mike

Mike S wrote:


Paul,

Thank you very much for taking the time to write such a detailed post. I
will have to consider my options a little more.

I think it's time for the owner to repair the screen, lol.

Thanks Again,
Mike

As it turns out, converting MBR to GPT like this,
is tougher than it looks.

The Easeus product table only lists GPT to MBR,
and not the other direction. That's not an encouraging
sign, unless it's a marketing/documentation error.

Acronis Disk Director (I own a copy) promises to
do either MBR to GPT or GPT to MBR.

So I set up a disk, and the first attempt failed.
ADD will not do a conversion on a host OS that
doesn't support GPT.

When I installed ADD on my Win81 disk, I tried again.
I have a small RAMDisk on the machine, and it offered
to support MBR to GPT on that. But it *would not*
touch any of my real disks. Each of my disks has
one OS on it.

It turns out, in a patronizing way, Acronis says it
will not convert a disk that has an OS on it. Which
right away, reduces the utility of ADD. As conversion
of a Data Only disk, you could probably find a way
to do that without any third-party utilities.

*******

The only time I had fun with Acronis Disk Director,
was when I tried to change the clusters on an NTFS
partition from 4K to 64K. In an attempt to get
(as a side effect), any NTFS-compressed files to be
converted back to uncompressed form. So what happened ?
ADD corrupted some of the data files. So while the program
in that case agreed to carry out the operation, it was
a failure. I had made a backup before doing it, because
I considered the conversion to be "high risk", so I
was only annoyed by the result, but not really surprised.

So far I've got $0 worth of value from my ADD purchase.

Paul

On 12/28/2016 4:36 AM, Paul wrote:
Mike S wrote:


Paul,

Thank you very much for taking the time to write such a detailed post.
I will have to consider my options a little more.

I think it's time for the owner to repair the screen, lol.

Thanks Again,
Mike

As it turns out, converting MBR to GPT like this,
is tougher than it looks.

The Easeus product table only lists GPT to MBR,
and not the other direction. That's not an encouraging
sign, unless it's a marketing/documentation error.

I think it may do that if it's a boot disk.

Acronis Disk Director (I own a copy) promises to
do either MBR to GPT or GPT to MBR.

So I set up a disk, and the first attempt failed.
ADD will not do a conversion on a host OS that
doesn't support GPT.

When I installed ADD on my Win81 disk, I tried again.
I have a small RAMDisk on the machine, and it offered
to support MBR to GPT on that. But it *would not*
touch any of my real disks. Each of my disks has
one OS on it.

It turns out, in a patronizing way, Acronis says it
will not convert a disk that has an OS on it. Which
right away, reduces the utility of ADD. As conversion
of a Data Only disk, you could probably find a way
to do that without any third-party utilities.

Yup.

*******

The only time I had fun with Acronis Disk Director,
was when I tried to change the clusters on an NTFS
partition from 4K to 64K. In an attempt to get
(as a side effect), any NTFS-compressed files to be
converted back to uncompressed form. So what happened ?
ADD corrupted some of the data files. So while the program
in that case agreed to carry out the operation, it was
a failure. I had made a backup before doing it, because
I considered the conversion to be "high risk", so I
was only annoyed by the result, but not really surprised.

So far I've got $0 worth of value from my ADD purchase.

Sorry to hear that.

I made a UEFI/bootable USB 8.1 installer and ran it, worked perfectly,
it was so nice deleting the 2 MBR partitions and seeing the 4 GPT
partitions created by the w8 installer . Much easier than doing the
conversion.

Thanks for all of your very detailed and thorough posts.

Mike

"Mike S" wrote in message news

I made a UEFI/bootable USB 8.1 installer and ran it, worked perfectly,
it was so nice deleting the 2 MBR partitions and seeing the 4 GPT
partitions created by the w8 installer . Much easier than doing the
conversion.

Thanks for all of your very detailed and thorough posts.


Wtg. Glad to hear you took an earlier suggested route.

....winston
msft mvp

On 12/30/2016 1:32 AM, ...winston wrote:
"Mike S" wrote in message news

I made a UEFI/bootable USB 8.1 installer and ran it, worked perfectly,
it was so nice deleting the 2 MBR partitions and seeing the 4 GPT
partitions created by the w8 installer . Much easier than doing the
conversion.

Thanks for all of your very detailed and thorough posts.


Wtg. Glad to hear you took an earlier suggested route.

...winston
msft mvp

Thanks again to everyone who replied.