EFI partition not present on C. Can I resize C: and move Boot Loader from Linux drive?

JohnFante · Mar 25, 2024

I am running a multiple OS system. Hackintosh, Win11, PopOS and Manjaro Linux. I select OS via OpenCore.

When I installed Win11 the installer did not create an EFI partition on the Win11 drive. Instead it placed the Microsoft boot loader folder in the EFI folder on my PopOS install. From there I can fine boot Win11. However I would like to clean things up and get an dedicated EFI folder on the Win11 drive. Also to avoid issues with futre updates etc.

Can I just resize the C: drive with 200 mb and create and EFI folder in the beginning of the drive and copy the Microsoft boot loader folder from the EFI folder on the PopOS install? I was thinking of using Gparted to do the resize and to create the EFI folder and make it hidden. I can mount and copy paste the EFI folders in MacOP/Hackintosh.

Thank you in advance!

FreeBooter · Mar 25, 2024

You can create EFI system partition but because you are using Linux on same HDD after creating EFI partition Linux may not boot, probably.

In this video, i will show you how to create EFI partition from within Windows Recovery Environment.

JohnFante · Mar 25, 2024

Thank you for the reply

Forgot to mention that all the OS'ses are on separate drives.

In that case creating an EFI partition on the Windows drive and then creating and EFI folder with the Microsoft boot loader folder in (in the EFI folder on the Windows drive) should do the trick. Or?

x BlueRobot · Mar 25, 2024

JohnFante said:
In that case creating an EFI partition on the Windows drive and then creating and EFI folder with the Microsoft boot loader folder in (in the EFI folder on the Windows drive) should do the trick.

Yes, it should work without any issues.

I'll recommend reading up about the bcdboot command: BCDBoot Command-Line Options

NavyLCDR · Mar 25, 2024

Just create the empty EFI system partition and then use the bcdboot command to populate it.

Megahertz · Mar 25, 2024

Please post a whole window Disk Manager image of ALL your drives. Don't forget to expand the columns so we can read them. How to Post a Screenshot of Disk Management
If you have a MiniTool or AOMEI Partition use it instead or Windows disk manager.

The commands Navy wrote are like below. (I would like to see the Disk Manager image before you apply the commands)
Boot from Windows and open a CMD window as administrator and type:

diskpart
list disk (take note of the windows drive number n)
select disk n (replace n with the drive number found above)
select vol c
shrink desired=100
create part EFI
format quick FS=fat32 label=EFI
assign letter=W
exit
bcdboot C:\Windows /s W: /f UEFI
diskpart
select vol W
remove letter=W
exit

JohnFante · Mar 26, 2024

Thank you for all the good advice :-D

I rezised my C: in Gparted on PopOS and created an EFI partition. Then I booted into windows recovery from a USB stick and followed this guide. [FIX] Windows 10 Master Boot Record Is Corrupted. I got the "bootrec /fixboot command gives Access is denied" but followed this to correct it: FIX: 'bootrec /fixboot' Access Is Denied In Windows 11/10. My system had allready assigned a drive letter to the EFI partition (D:) so I used that.

Only issue is that the the EFI partition now has a drive letter (G:). I had marked it hidden on Gparted but apparantly that did not do the trick. Wich also the assigned drive letter points to.

How do I fix this issue? I have attached a screenshot of diskmanagement.

SIW2 · Mar 26, 2024

Are you sure it is the correct type?

DiskGenius Download Center | Free Download DiskGenius

Free download DiskGenius to recover lost data & partition, manage disk capacity, backup Windows and personal data and fix disk issues on PC and Servers.

www.diskgenius.com

zbook · Mar 26, 2024

JohnFante said:
Only issue is that the the EFI partition now has a drive letter (G:). I had marked it hidden on Gparted but apparantly that did not do the trick. Wich also the assigned drive letter points to.

How do I fix this issue? I have attached a screenshot of diskmanagement.

Please detach other cables or drives to confirm the single disk drive boot.

To delete assigned drive letter G:

administrative command prompt:

mountvol G: /d

mountvol

Reference article for the mountvol command, which creates, deletes, or lists a volume mount point.

learn.microsoft.com

To view the final result please run disk par info > post a share link

https://www.tenforums.com/attachments/bsod-crashes-debugging/355861d1640707960-batch-files-use-bsod-debugging-diskparinfo.bat

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Batch files for use in BSOD debugging - Windows 10 Help Forums

Information This thread is for use by the BSOD team to store batch files that can be used to collect additional data, fix settings or anything else that is useful in debugging BSOD problems in Windows 10. The way I see it working is the first

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JohnFante · Mar 26, 2024

SIW2 said:
Are you sure it is the correct type?

DiskGenius Download Center | Free Download DiskGenius

Free download DiskGenius to recover lost data & partition, manage disk capacity, backup Windows and personal data and fix disk issues on PC and Servers.

www.diskgenius.com

View attachment 91505

I installed DiskGenious and got this. Can I "just" change the parameters or will that destroy the data on the EFI partition so I would have to run "bootrec /fixboot" again?

And something is wrong. I can not shut down the system from Windows now ....

zbook · Mar 26, 2024

Had you considered Megahertz's approach in post#6?

JohnFante · Mar 26, 2024

zbook said:
Please detach other cables or drives to confirm the single disk drive boot.

To delete assigned drive letter G:

administrative command prompt:

mountvol G: /d

mountvol

Reference article for the mountvol command, which creates, deletes, or lists a volume mount point.

learn.microsoft.com

To view the final result please run disk par info > post a share link

https://www.tenforums.com/attachments/bsod-crashes-debugging/355861d1640707960-batch-files-use-bsod-debugging-diskparinfo.bat

Batch files for use in BSOD debugging - Windows 10 Help Forums

Information This thread is for use by the BSOD team to store batch files that can be used to collect additional data, fix settings or anything else that is useful in debugging BSOD problems in Windows 10. The way I see it working is the first

www.tenforums.com

Batch files for use in BSOD debugging - Windows 10 Help Forums

Information This thread is for use by the BSOD team to store batch files that can be used to collect additional data, fix settings or anything else that is useful in debugging BSOD problems in Windows 10. The way I see it working is the first

www.tenforums.com

I removed all the Linux drives so that I only have two

zbook said:
Please detach other cables or drives to confirm the single disk drive boot.

To delete assigned drive letter G:

administrative command prompt:

mountvol G: /d

mountvol

Reference article for the mountvol command, which creates, deletes, or lists a volume mount point.

learn.microsoft.com

To view the final result please run disk par info > post a share link

https://www.tenforums.com/attachments/bsod-crashes-debugging/355861d1640707960-batch-files-use-bsod-debugging-diskparinfo.bat

Batch files for use in BSOD debugging - Windows 10 Help Forums

Information This thread is for use by the BSOD team to store batch files that can be used to collect additional data, fix settings or anything else that is useful in debugging BSOD problems in Windows 10. The way I see it working is the first

www.tenforums.com

Batch files for use in BSOD debugging - Windows 10 Help Forums

Information This thread is for use by the BSOD team to store batch files that can be used to collect additional data, fix settings or anything else that is useful in debugging BSOD problems in Windows 10. The way I see it working is the first

www.tenforums.com

I have removed the linux drives so that I only have one Windows NVE and the Hackintosh NVE. They are just a hassle to remove because they are below big heatsinks so I would rather not. The linux drivers are just SSD's connected via SATA cables. I can see and load from the bootloader on the windows drive so it is installed there fine.

Think the problem is that the partition flags were defined wrong in Gparted. So maybe the trick is to use Disk Genious to change the flags etc.

JohnFante · Mar 26, 2024

zbook said:
Had you considered Megahertz's approach in post#6?

Thank you for the reply. It was basically what I did when I followed this guide: FIX: 'bootrec /fixboot' Access Is Denied In Windows 11/10. Or?

zbook · Mar 26, 2024

If possible post disk par info results so that bcdedit, diskpart results are available.

And if possible temporarily use English as the default language:

Add, Remove, and Change Display Language in Windows 10

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SIW2 · Mar 26, 2024

Can I "just" change the parameters

yes it shouldnt damage the contents. Select EFi system partition in the dropdown, click OK. need to click Save All at top rt to confirm the changes.

I think I did it on the fly like that once.

Or create diskgenius boot media. If it can find the recovery sequence, because bcdedit might have trouble finding the bcd store without the correct partition guid.

If it can make the media, you could boot it up do whatever you want from there..

otherwise you could try creating a temporary esp partition anywhere you have space and see if bcdboot can populate that

JohnFante · Mar 26, 2024

zbook said:
Please detach other cables or drives to confirm the single disk drive boot.

To delete assigned drive letter G:

administrative command prompt:

mountvol G: /d

mountvol

Reference article for the mountvol command, which creates, deletes, or lists a volume mount point.

learn.microsoft.com

To view the final result please run disk par info > post a share link

https://www.tenforums.com/attachments/bsod-crashes-debugging/355861d1640707960-batch-files-use-bsod-debugging-diskparinfo.bat

Batch files for use in BSOD debugging - Windows 10 Help Forums

Information This thread is for use by the BSOD team to store batch files that can be used to collect additional data, fix settings or anything else that is useful in debugging BSOD problems in Windows 10. The way I see it working is the first

www.tenforums.com

Batch files for use in BSOD debugging - Windows 10 Help Forums

Information This thread is for use by the BSOD team to store batch files that can be used to collect additional data, fix settings or anything else that is useful in debugging BSOD problems in Windows 10. The way I see it working is the first

www.tenforums.com

I removed all the Linux drives so that I only have two

SIW2 said:
yes it shouldnt damage the contents. Select EFi system partition in the dropdown, click OK. need to click Save All at top rt to confirm the changes.

I think I did it on the fly like that once.

Or create diskgenius boot media. If it can find the recovery sequence, because bcdedit might have trouble finding the bcd store without the correct partition guid.

If it can make the media, you could boot it up do whatever you want from there..

otherwise you could try creating a temporary esp partition anywhere you have space and see if bcdboot can populate that

Changing the partitions settings on the EFI partition to the settings you showed in post 8 helped. I can now shut down Windows as normal. However the drive G: still shows up in pathfinder but now I can not access the drive. It looks like the drive letter G: is stuck somehow. See attached:

x BlueRobot · Mar 26, 2024

JohnFante said:
However the drive G: still shows up in pathfinder but now I can not access the drive. It looks like the drive letter G: is stuck somehow.

Have you deleted the mount point as recommend by @zbook?

Code: