Windows Advanced Startup Troubleshooting for UEFI
This article will discuss the boot requirements of the EFI enabled UEFI Firmware. The boot process will be explored with the StorageCraft® Recovery Environment for Windows x64 ISO using Commandline commands to ensure the Boot Configuration Data-store (BCD) is functioning and placed accordingly.
Below is a list of requirements for the EFI enabled UEFI boot process to complete.
Below is a list of requirements for the EFI enabled UEFI boot process to complete.
- Disk must be initialized as GPT
- Disk must contain an EFI system partition (ESP) on the same disk as the bootable partition
- The EFI partition must contain a bootloader (BCD)
- The bootloader must point to the correct path in order to direct the load of Winload.efi
Information
- Ensure your systems firmware is configured to boot EFI.
- In order to confirm the correct boot configuration, set the StorageCraft Recovery Environment for Windows x64 ISO to Number 1 in the boot order.
- Boot in to the StorageCraft Recovery Environment for Windows x64.
- From the Disk Map tab, right click on the disk, and select initialize disk.
- Ensure that the target disk of the restore is marked as GPT under the style column:
If the style marked is not GPT, and the desired restore target is for EFI enabled UEFI firmare. Please review this article
How To: Restore Windows Backup to UEFI Firmware and follow the article to perform a restore to EFI enabled UEFI firmware.
- Close the Initialize Disks window, from the DiskMap tab confirm there is an EFI system partition (ESP) contained on the disk where the backup image was restored, and that the partition is formatted as Fat32:
If there is no EFI partition, or the partition is not set as EFI system partition type, then review
Boot Configuration Utility Throws 0x44 for the resolution
If the partition is not formatted as Fat32, please review this article and follow the instructions to remedy the issue.
If the partition is not formatted as Fat32, please review this article and follow the instructions to remedy the issue.
- Under Tools, select Command Prompt. Use the commands below to assign a drive letter to the EFI partition:
diskpart list disk select disk x (where x is the Disk number containing the bootable partition) list partition select partition x (where x is partition number containing the EFI partition) assign letter=g exit
Here is an example:
- From Command Prompt use the following command:
BCDedit /store G:\efi\microsoft\boot\bcd
Check to ensure the device locations reference the drive letters assigned. To determine the location of the bootmanager and bootloader files review the path referenced in the output:
If the BCDedit command does not produce an output as seen in the example above, there is no BCD at the path depicted, for troubleshooting assistance review this link UEFI System Unable to Boot After StorageCraft Restore.
- Under tools, select File Browser. Navigate to G:\EFI\Microsoft\Boot ensure that there is a BCD and BootManager.efi contained in this directory on the ESP partition:
- From File Browser, confirm the existence of the winload.efi file at the path specified within the BCDedit output C:\windows\system32\Winload.efi:
If the Winload.efi file is not contained in the directory that the BCDedit output depicts, then it is required to alter the BCDedit path to point to the correct directory. In some Windows operating systems the Winload.efi will be contained at C:\windows\system32\boot\Winload.efi. If the system being restored falls within this category, select Tools, then click Command Prompt, use the following command to correct the issue.
Bcdedit /store g:\efi\microsoft\boot\bcd /set {default} path C:\windows\system32\boot\Winload.efi
Additional Advanced Troubleshooting Resources from Microsoft:
BCD System Store Settings for UEFI
BCDBoot Command-Line Options
BCDEdit Command-Line Options