Wndowws 10 Pro: How to listg contents of the ESP (UEFI bootpartition)

Anyone know how to list the contents of the EFI partition (a.k.a. ESP)?

Tried "bcdedit /v" to see the booting info, but cannot find any
addressability for the ESP/EFI partition.

(Ultimate aim is to install a boot manager in there...)

This is on a Lenovo Thinkpad 11e.

--
/\/\aurice
(Replace "nomail.afraid" by "bcs" to reply by email)

Maurice wrote:
Anyone know how to list the contents of the EFI partition (a.k.a. ESP)?

Tried "bcdedit /v" to see the booting info, but cannot find any
addressability for the ESP/EFI partition.

(Ultimate aim is to install a boot manager in there...)

This is on a Lenovo Thinkpad 11e.


Easy-peasy. TestDisk. It has a file listing option,
buried down a copy layers in the "disk search" stuff.

https://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk_Download

https://i.postimg.cc/Zqz88rZt/testdisk-sees-EFI.gif

Paul

Paul wrote:
Maurice wrote:
Anyone know how to list the contents of the EFI partition (a.k.a. ESP)?

Tried "bcdedit /v" to see the booting info, but cannot find any
addressability for the ESP/EFI partition.

(Ultimate aim is to install a boot manager in there...)

This is on a Lenovo Thinkpad 11e.


Easy-peasy. TestDisk. It has a file listing option,
buried down a copy layers in the "disk search" stuff.

https://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk_Download

https://i.postimg.cc/Zqz88rZt/testdisk-sees-EFI.gif

"copy" should be "couple"

You can also copy files in that interface, as
far as I know.

Paul

On Sat, 23 Mar 2019 16:16:44 -0400, Paul wrote:

TestDisk. It has a file listing option,
buried down a copy layers in the "disk search" stuff.

https://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk_Download

Downloaded that but could find no way to install it to desktop
(I had no problem earlier d/l & installing MiniTool PartionWizard.)

I did get it to run once but could not get through the buried layers to
find an option to
get into the ESP.

I find W10 quite a frustrating version of Windows!
(Happy with W7 and W-XP...)

Will have to use a 'live' install of some other system to get the ESP
addressability
(so well hidden within bcdedit).

Many thanks,

Regards,
--
/\/\aurice
(Replace "nomail.afraid" by "bcs" to reply by email)

Maurice wrote:
On Sat, 23 Mar 2019 16:16:44 -0400, Paul wrote:

TestDisk. It has a file listing option,
buried down a copy layers in the "disk search" stuff.

https://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk_Download

Downloaded that but could find no way to install it to desktop
(I had no problem earlier d/l & installing MiniTool PartionWizard.)

I did get it to run once but could not get through the buried layers to
find an option to
get into the ESP.

I find W10 quite a frustrating version of Windows!
(Happy with W7 and W-XP...)

Will have to use a 'live' install of some other system to get the ESP
addressability
(so well hidden within bcdedit).

Many thanks,

Regards,

It's a portable application, that opens a Command Prompt window
for its text based session. Just unzip the package and use
it that way. It doesn't keep preferences so doesn't need
registry and so on.

I probably should have tossed in this article, as it'll
give you some idea how many levels down that option is.

https://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk_Step_By_Step

I'm not a big fan of the menu system on the application,
but the price is right :-) And it does get results.

Paul

On Sun, 24 Mar 2019 14:36:48 -0400, Paul wrote:

it'll give you some idea how many levels down that option is.

https://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk_Step_By_Step

Seems a v.useful document, but I still couldn't find how to add files
into the ESP!

Will probably achieve that by running a 'live' Linux install, which will
facilitate
direct editing of the ESP, into which I just need to insert a new
subdirectory for the
boot manager.
Once done, I know the W10 command to get the system to then boot via
the new boot
manager.

Regards,
--
/\/\aurice
(Replace "nomail.afraid" by "bcs" to reply by email)

Maurice wrote:
On Sun, 24 Mar 2019 14:36:48 -0400, Paul wrote:

it'll give you some idea how many levels down that option is.

https://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk_Step_By_Step

Seems a v.useful document, but I still couldn't find how to add files
into the ESP!

Will probably achieve that by running a 'live' Linux install, which will
facilitate
direct editing of the ESP, into which I just need to insert a new
subdirectory for the
boot manager.
Once done, I know the W10 command to get the system to then boot via
the new boot
manager.

Regards,

As long as it is not considered "protected" on the Linux side.

When a Windows partition has a partition type of 0x27,
in Linux you could change this from 0x27 to 0x07 and
make it a "visible" NTFS partition. You don't want to
let Windows see you do that, so this is something you
do in Linux and put it back. The tool for MSDOS partitioned
drives is

sudo fdisk /dev/sda

For the disk you are working with, you have prepared it as
a GPT disk (presumably for UEFI/EFI booting). The ESP
partition has a value of (in Linux parlance) 0xEF01. You
can use this command, and the partition type change command
to change it as you see fit.

sudo gdisk /dev/sda

Once edited, you do a "w" to write the changes and/or
"q" to quit if you want to discard the changes.

It's possible the ESP partition is "fat32", but to get
some idea, you could always

sudo apt install disktype

sudo disktype /dev/sda

and get what information is available for it.

And yeah, when I did that, it says it is FAT32.

https://i.postimg.cc/3rDR0wFH/WIN10-UEFI-GPT-setup.gif

I don't know if 0xEF01 is blocked in Linux, but
maybe it will allow changing to 0x0C or similar.
Make a backup before trusting a new recipe... :-)

There are a variety of ways of mounting pesky partitions
in Linux. You can use -o loop and specify an "offset from
the beginning of the disk" and mount /dev/sda using those
parameters, converting a "bitmap section" of disk, to a
partition mount. And that will work read/write.

Similarly, you can "keep a bitmap file", like a blob.img
as a standalone file. And loopback mount that and access it
as if it was a file system. Works a treat. That method is
used for persistence partitions on LiveDVD runs. A single
file can hold the newly created content in your home
directory.

I don't think Windows has nearly the number of shenanigans
that Linux has. On Linux, RAMdisks are built-in.

Paul

On Mon, 25 Mar 2019 09:06:59 -0400, Paul wrote:

It's possible the ESP partition is "fat32"

It's VFAT.

--
/\/\aurice
(Replace "nomail.afraid" by "bcs" to reply by email)

On Mon, 25 Mar 2019 12:20:43 +0000, I wrote:

Will probably achieve that by running a 'live' Linux install, which will
facilitate direct editing of the ESP, into which I just need to insert a
new subdirectory for the boot manager.

That worked fine.

Once done, I know the W10 command to get the system to then boot via
the new boot manager.

Which was:

bcdedit /set {bootmgr} path \EFI\refind\refind_x64.efi

but bizarrely in the Lenovo ThinkPad 11e's W10 Powershell (Admin)
terminal session, it
would not work ("Invalid /set"). However, after scouring the internet I
found that it
did work if I entered it as follows:

bcdedit /set '{bootmgr}' path \EFI\refind\refind_x64.efi

and the ThinkPad now default boots into the rEFInd Boot Manager.

Regards,

--
/\/\aurice
(Replace "nomail.afraid" by "bcs" to reply by email)