Clover cannot boot into Windows 8.1, black screen

[Guest CrispCustard]

Hey guys,

 

Got my Hackintosh running using chris1111's new method: http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/304256-new-way-to-install-os-x-yosemite-v2/

 

Problem is that most of the installation was done in the background, so I'm not entirely sure what Clover settings/drivers were selected upon installation. The good thing is that it works of course, apart from one slight issue. I have 2 SSDs, one previous SSD running Windows 8.1 that boots in UEFI mode. I installed Yosemite into my new SSD. 

 

When I select my new SSD as the primary boot drive, Clover boots (as expected). Problem is that I see multiple Windows HDDs in Clover even though there should be only one:

 

 

The first one boots up into a black screen while the rest give errors that the Windows installation does not exist. If I override the motherboard's boot manager and boot directly into my Windows SSD, everything works fine. I've been looking around and this blog post seems to fix the problem: http://hackintoshrizwan.blogspot.com/2014/04/how-to-dual-boot-clover-with-windows-81.html But it doesn't explain exactly how I install that Ntfs.efi file. I've put it into my EFI partition but it doesn't seem to do anything. I've also looked at the AIO guides, but those all handle the case of where I'm installing a fresh copy of both Yosemite and Windows 8.1. I do not want to reinstall my Windows 8.1.

 

If I understand the problem correctly, Clover does recognise the Windows 8.1 UEFI, it's just that it doesn't have the necessary "drivers" to boot from it properly. How do I achieve this? Thanks.

[Allan]

Put the NTFS.efi in EFI/Clover/drivers64UEFI

[Guest CrispCustard]

Put the NTFS.efi in EFI/Clover/drivers64UEFI

Already did that. Is there anything else I need to configure?

 

[Allan]

Remove the VBoxHfs and use HFSplus.efi

[Guest CrispCustard]

Remove the VBoxHfs and use HFSplus.efi

 

Just did that as well, same results.

 

It's strange though, shouldn't I need HFSplus from the start? That's how the bootloader knows how to read my HFS drive right? 

[Allan]

Read this: Fix Clover bootloader to dual boot OS X Mavericks / Windows 8.1 from ssd/hdd

 

Although it mentions OS X Mavericks, you can apply this to Yosemite.

[Guest CrispCustard]

Thanks, but for me there's no Microsoft folder inside EFI, which I'm guessing is also part of the problem. There are only two folders, EFI/Boot and EFI/Clover along with Clover_Install_Log.txt . 

[artur_pt]

hello

 

for me u are accessing the wrong efi in windows ssd

 

try to see what windows do in ur ssd when is installed..

 

if iis in uefi mode installed .. u must have in that ssd a efi partition .. can be there with other name..

 

good hack

[fusion71au]

Thanks, but for me there's no Microsoft folder inside EFI, which I'm guessing is also part of the problem. There are only two folders, EFI/Boot and EFI/Clover along with Clover_Install_Log.txt .

The Microsoft folder is most likely in the EFI partition on your Windows SSD. This might create a problem for Clover if that EFI partition is not the first partition on the disk eg if there is a Windows Recovery Partition instead - see video in this thread - http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/297046-installing-clover-bootloader-as-uefi-and-dual-booting-w-w81/?do=findComment&comment=2007465.

 

You can try installing the Windows bootloader, bootmgfw.efi, in the EFI partition of your OSX Yosemite SSD:

1. Boot the computer with a Windows8 installer USB

2. At the Windows Installer GUI, press <Shift> and <F10> keys simultaneously to bring up the Windows Command Prompt

3. Type the following lines into the terminal, pressing <Enter> after each line

 

 

diskpart

list disk

select disk A (where A is the number of the hard disk with Yosemite installed)

list partition

select partition 1 (assuming EFI is the first partition)

assign letter=S

select disk B (where B is the number of the hard disk with Windows installed)

list partition

select partition 4 (assuming Windows is installed on the fourth partition)

assign letter=W

exit

bcdboot W:\windows /s S: /f UEFI

 

 

4. Close the command prompt and reboot the computer to Clover on your hard drive. With any luck, you should now have a "Boot Microsoft EFI boot menu from EFI" entry ---> boots Windows in UEFI mode by running bootmgfw.efi from your Yosemite SSD.

 

Good Luck!

 

PS

You can add the following lines to the GUI section of your config.plist to hide the extraneous legacy Windows entries:

 

 

 

<key>Scan</key>

<dict>

<key>Entries</key>

<true/>

<key>Legacy</key>

<false/>

<key>Tool</key>

<false/>

</dict>

 

 

[Guest CrispCustard]

Thanks for the help everyone. I copied the Windows bootloader onto my Yosemite's EFI partition. Now in Clover I get two options to "Boot Microsoft EFI boot menu from EFI". Sadly though both of them do not work.

 

I ended up reading into UEFI booting, trying to understand the bigger picture of what was going on. If I understand it correctly, Clover acts as an EFI bootloader with a GUI on top of it, so that users get to choose between the multiple boot drives that Clover recognises. The purpose of an EFI bootloader is simply to point in the direction of which .efi files to run so that the OS can be booted. The difference between Clover and the Windows EFI bootloader is that the Windows booloader does not have a GUI and just directly runs the relevant .efi files to get into Windows.

 

Therefore, if Clover is not able to detect/boot properly into Windows, it's most likely because the Windows bootloader files on the Clover EFI were missing/corrupted. So what you guys were trying to help me with was to just get my Windows bootloader files onto my Clover EFI. I believe I've successfully done so, as I can see the Microsoft folder and all the relevant .efi files. However, what about the first "Boot Microsoft EFI boot" option that was there even before I copied the files over?

 

I guess one of the other problems is that the installation method I followed does not tell me how exactly the installation was made. All I know is that an EFI partition with Clover was installed, but I have no idea how it was configured by chris1111. Is my information all correct guys?

 

Thanks for all the help again. You guys are really helpful.

[matt_d_rat]

The Microsoft folder is most likely in the EFI partition on your Windows SSD. This might create a problem for Clover if that EFI partition is not the first partition on the disk eg if there is a Windows Recovery Partition instead - see video in this thread - http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/297046-installing-clover-bootloader-as-uefi-and-dual-booting-w-w81/?do=findComment&comment=2007465.

 

You can try installing the Windows bootloader, bootmgfw.efi, in the EFI partition of your OSX Yosemite SSD:

1. Boot the computer with a Windows8 installer USB

2. At the Windows Installer GUI, press <Shift> and <F10> keys simultaneously to bring up the Windows Command Prompt

3. Type the following lines into the terminal, pressing <Enter> after each line

 

 

diskpart

list disk

select disk A (where A is the number of the hard disk with Yosemite installed)

list partition

select partition 1 (assuming EFI is the first partition)

assign letter=S

select disk B (where B is the number of the hard disk with Windows installed)

list partition

select partition 4 (assuming Windows is installed on the fourth partition)

assign letter=W

exit

bcdboot W:\windows /s S: /f UEFI

 

 

4. Close the command prompt and reboot the computer to Clover on your hard drive. With any luck, you should now have a "Boot Microsoft EFI boot menu from EFI" entry ---> boots Windows in UEFI mode by running bootmgfw.efi from your Yosemite SSD.

 

Good Luck!

 

PS

You can add the following lines to the GUI section of your config.plist to hide the extraneous legacy Windows entries:

 

 

 

<key>Scan</key>

<dict>

<key>Entries</key>

<true/>

<key>Legacy</key>

<false/>

<key>Tool</key>

<false/>

</dict>

 

 

 

 

I followed your instructions and now I have the boot options for Windows 8.1 in my EFI partition on the same drive as Yosemite. This created an additional "Boot Microsoft EFI boot menu from EFI" GUI option in Clover bootloader.

 

However Windows 8.1 still will not boot. Sometimes it just hits a blank screen and restarts. Other times I manage to get as far as a "Error 0xc0000225" screen.

 

How can I resolve this so that I can boot into Windows 8.1 from Clover? Also, once resolved, is there a way to remove the extraneous  "Boot Microsoft EFI boot menu from EFI" option from the Clover GUI?

 

Any help you can provide is greatly appreciated.

 

P.S

I have the following setup if it helps to know:

• Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z97X-GAMING 7
• CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor
• GPU: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 960 4GB

Mac OSX Yosemite 10.10.5 installed on 1 SSD, Windows 8.1 installed on another, separate SSD.

[fusion71au]

@matt_d_rat,

 

Maybe you have a different problem to @CalculatedShelf?  Is your Windows 8.1 installed in UEFI mode?  What is the output of running diskutil list in OSX terminal?

 

Try disabling Windows "fast startup" aka "Windows Hybrid Boot" under Windows Power Options.

 

 

To remove the "Boot Microsoft EFI boot menu from EFI" entry from the Clover Main Menu, simply mount the EFI partition on your Yosemite SSD (type diskutil mount disk#s1 in terminal, where # is the disk number of the disk you want to mount) and delete the /EFI/Microsoft folder.

[bwana]

sorry to necro this thread. but I am learning about this same issue and need some clarification. As opposed to holding 'del' to boot into the bios, most motherboards have another key that brings up the boot menu. The boot menu that the UEFI provides is stored in NVRAM on some chip in the motherboard. 

 

I have two SSDs - one with Win 10 and another with Sierra.

When Win 10 boot loader runs, it must read from the NVRAM. Does it ever write to the NVRAM after looking around for other boot loaders on other disks?

Likewise, does Clover do a 'search and write to NVRAM' when the Mac OS boot?

 

If I am dual booting Win 10 and Mac OS, then both of these OSes write to this NVRAM during their respective boot processes? How do Win10 and its boot loader and MacOS with clover keep things from going crazy?