I installed Windows 8.1 Pro on my PC first, it works fine, and I am able to use a recovery usb drive to restore the system (partition C:) with saved system image.
Later I installed OpenSuSE 13.1 on another disk drive and using the default grub2 bootloader. It works normally too, I can boot both Windows 8.1 and OpenSuSE 13.1.
But the Windows 8.1 recovery procedure is no longer working. I can still using the recovery usb drive to boot the system into a recovery mode and select the system
image, but the procedure failed to continue with the message:
The system image was built on the system in BIOS mode, but the system to be recovered is in EFI mode.
The system image of Windows 8.1 was re-built after I installed OpenSuSE 13.1. It seems that Windows 8.1 under a multi-boot environment is treated
as in BIOS mode when the system image was built.
Any idea how to solve this problem? It is desirable to be able to use the system image doe Windows 8.1 system recovery under Multi-boot environment.
This is what I am getting from your post, but I am not sure that it is correct.
Windows 8.1 was installed in EFI mode;
opensuse was installed in legacy MBR (or BIOS) mode
the above mix makes Windows unbootable, and you are unable to recover.
Please correct what I have wrong.
If my summary is correct, then step 2 was a mistake. You should have installed opensuse in EFI mode for consistency.
If you made BIOS changes to switch to legacy mode, then see if you can switch it back, and see if Windows then boots. If that works, then we can try to help you switch opensuse to EFI mode.
It might be useful to us if you provide the output from:
# fdisk -l
# efibootmgr -v
The second of those commands will possibly give an error.
Thank you for your reply, yes, you are right, my OpenSuSE 13.1 was installed in MBR mode.
I re-installed OpenSuSE and try to use Grub2-efi type of bootloader, but the installer shows a warning message (unsupported …) and failed to write the configuration to bootloader, without the bootloader, I am not able to boot the system after the installation is completed. The only available bootloader type I can choose is MBR.
I wonder if this is something related to my hardware? My Windows 8.1 is installed in the raid of the first two hard drives (/dev/md126), OpenSuSE 13.1 is installed in the
third hard drive (/dev/sdd), the grub bootloader is written to the MBR of the first device (/dev/md126p1), this is the default selection by OpenSuSE installer and is the only successful configuration.
Now how do I go back to the pure Windows 8.1 environment?
Set your BIOS to only do UEFI boots, and try to boot the DVD (or whatever media you are using).
If that fails, then try disabling secure-boot in your BIOS, and try again.
If it still fails – then there is some limitation in your UEFI firmware.
On the RAID question – I do not have any experience with RAID. I’ve seen threads here with people having RAID problems, but I have not read through them with enough care to know what the solutions are.
I just realized that I need to set BIOS to UEFI only before I install OpenSuSE, so I did just that, this time the boot loader type was set to Grub2-efi automatically during the installation process. However, after the installation was complete and the computer rebooted, only OpenSusE entry is listed in the Grub table, no entry for Windows 8.1, is this normal?
Here is the output of command fdisk -l:
Disk /dev/sda: 1000.2 GB, 1000204886016 bytes, 1953525168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
Disk label type: dos
Disk identifier: 0xdce83071
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 2048 718847 358400 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda2 718848 1023999999 511640576 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda3 1024000000 3711741951 1343870976 f W95 Ext’d (LBA)
/dev/sda5 ? 1211962634 1854450312 321243839+ 7d Unknown
Partition 5 does not start on physical sector boundary.
No, that’s not normal. But perhaps “os-prober” is confused by RAID.
Check your EFI partition, which will be mounted as “/boot/efi” now that you have opensuse booting UEFI.
There should be a directory “/boot/efi/EFI/Boot”, and it should contain a file “bootx64.efi”. And that file should be identical to the file “bootmgfw.efi” in the “EFI/Microsoft/Boot” partition.
If that is all in place, then see if your BIOS has a UEFI boot option to boot the device (the disk containing the EFI partition). Hopefully, that would boot you into Windows. Maybe also try with secure-boot disabled. If you can get into Windows, then you can fix booting from within.
Under directory /boot/efy/EFI, there is only one sub-directory opensuse, no BOOT, and there is a file grubx64.efi in directory /boot/efi/EFI/opensuse
There is no Microsoft/BOOT directory.
OpeuSuSE installation process does not pick up the installed WIndows 8.1 information when it chose Grub-efi as the bootlocader type.
I need to go back to the BIOS settings and try a different parameters and re-install OpenSuSE and see what happens.
Welcome here, but can you pleass copy/paste your computer text between CODE tags when you post it? It is the # button in the tool bar of the post editor. Not easy to find, but now you know
Your partitioning is really confusing sdd seems only to contain the GPT partition/ Where did you put the rest of Linux?? LOL
Also sda seems to be a MBR formatted drive since it has an extended partition and then it has an unknown partition??? Maybe a broken partition of the RAID array??
It looks like Windows was installed as a MBR system. And no sign of a GPT partition for Windows.
Is it true hardware RAID or FAKE (BIOS assisted on the mother board )RAID I suspect FAKE because real hardware RAID is transparent to the OS ie the array shows up as a single device.
Still don’t see where Linux actually got installed unless you put it in the GPT partition which should not work since it is supposed to be FAT formatted. :\
You are too fast to jump to conclusions without having any factual data to base these conclusions upon. According to disk layout, Windows in installed in BIOS mode and original post also was more or less clear about it. What was not clear, what the actual problem was. It was something with Windows recovery but this cannot usually be fixed by reinstalling openSUSE …
Right now situation is clear - openSUSE is installed in EFI mode and will not offer booting Windows in legacy mode. That’s correct.
@jsho - could you describe your original problem in more details? From your description it sounds more like you need to adjust boot order in your BIOS - it sounds like your “USB stick” (whatever it is) can be booted in both BIOS and EFI mode and for whatever reasons EFI mode now comes first.
Hmm … I have another idea … you have 3TB drive which is partitioned as GPT. It may confuse Windows tools. I’d try to boot with large disk unplugged first.
In any case your original question probably has better chances on dedicated Windows forum, as it is about Windows tools.
>
>Your partitioning is really confusing sdd seems only to contain the GPT
>partition/ Where did you put the rest of Linux?? LOL
>
>Also sda seems to be a MBR formatted drive since it has an extended
>partition and then it has an unknown partition??? Maybe a broken
>partition of the RAID array??
>
>It looks like Windows was installed as a MBR system. And no sign of a
>GPT partition for Windows.
>
>sdb seems to be unpartitioned.
MS win8 cannot be installed other than GPT/UEFI. Moreover i do not
understand how the RAID is being implemented and it is important to know
in order to boot to it. Nor do i know how to set a EFI boot partition to
point to one on another volume for booting.
>
>nrickert;2636349 Wrote:
>> You need to boot the install media in EFI mode.
>
>You are too fast to jump to conclusions without having any factual data
>to base these conclusions upon. According to disk layout, Windows in
>installed in BIOS mode and original post also was more or less clear
>about it. What was not clear, what the actual problem was. It was
>something with Windows recovery but this cannot usually be fixed by
>reinstalling openSUSE …
>
>Right now situation is clear - openSUSE is installed in EFI mode and
>will not offer booting Windows in legacy mode. That’s correct.
>
>@jsho - could you describe your original problem in more details? From
>your description it sounds more like you need to adjust boot order in
>your BIOS - it sounds like your “USB stick” (whatever it is) can be
>booted in both BIOS and EFI mode and for whatever reasons EFI mode now
>comes first.
>
>Hmm … I have another idea … you have 3TB drive which is partitioned
>as GPT. It -may- confuse Windows tools. I’d try to boot with large disk
>unplugged first.
>
>In any case your original question probably has better chances on
>dedicated Windows forum, as it is about Windows tools.
Excellent point. I was having trouble installing Win7 in GPT/EFI mode to
a 256 GB SSD while i had any other disk drives plugged in. Disconnecting
all other drives made the install work.
OP may want to try disconnecting all drives but the MSWin bootable raid
and seeing how that works out.
>
>Your partitioning is really confusing sdd seems only to contain the GPT
>partition/ Where did you put the rest of Linux?? LOL
>
>Also sda seems to be a MBR formatted drive since it has an extended
>partition and then it has an unknown partition??? Maybe a broken
>partition of the RAID array??
>
>It looks like Windows was installed as a MBR system. And no sign of a
>GPT partition for Windows.
>
>sdb seems to be unpartitioned.
MS win8 cannot be installed other than GPT/UEFI. Moreover i do not
understand how the RAID is being implemented and it is important to know
in order to boot to it. Nor do i know how to set a EFI boot partition
to point to one on another volume for booting.
?-)
Hi
Via the efibootmgr application (You can boot/run it from the rescue
dvd/usb) if the ESP exists on a different drive with the -d option.
Windows 8 needs to be booted from an efi type partition formatted to
vfat, for example it could exist on an SD Card, I don’t see any reason
it can’t be installed on a partition (whether gpt or not) as long as
it’s type 0700 for gpt or 7 for non-gpt. Now this sort of install could
be done from a windows 8 retail dvd, not an OEM recovery type.
–
Cheers Malcolm °¿° SUSE Knowledge Partner (Linux Counter #276890)
openSUSE 13.1 (Bottle) (x86_64) GNOME 3.10.1 Kernel 3.11.10-7-desktop
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>
>josephkk;2636821 Wrote:
>>
>> MS win8 cannot be installed other than GPT/UEFI.
>
>Of course it can.
Well swat me silly and color me cross eyed, but that is what the microsoft
literature says. If you have done otherwise it would be of interest to
others.
I’m not much of a Microsoft user, but it was clear all along that win8 did not require UEFI. People upgrading a Windows 7 system are very likely not using UEFI for Win8.
What does seem to be true, is that Win8 requires UEFI if the disk is GPT partitioned, and will not allow UEFI if the disk is not GPT partitioned. Or, at least, that’s what I seem to have been reading. And it might possibly be true that OEM releases of Win8 require UEFI. Microsoft has been pushing vendors toward UEFI (and secure-boot).
Some folk have recommended disabling UEFI in the firmware, repartitioning the disk for MBR partitioning, and reinstalling Win8 – all as a way of avoiding the supposed problems of UEFI. Personally, I think they are better off finding ways to live with UEFI, but that’s just my opinion.