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Windows 8.1 BCD error after installing 10.9.1


Spursboy-Liv
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Hi there,

 

I've recently set up a successful install of Mavericks 10.9.1 using a *certain* USB loader on my Lenovo IdeaPad Z500 Touch, with everything configured to work correctly bar the built-in WiFi, touchscreen and onboard nVidia GPU.

 

However, while everything is running smoothly on the Mac side of things, my pre-installed copy of Windows 8.1 no longer boots from Chimera, notifying me that my boot configuration data is missing.

 

I've pondered that the boot loader I'm using is pointing to the wrong boot partition (rather than the drive which stores Windows that Chimera has detected, along with my Lenovo recovery partition)...

 

However, I'm guessing that my problems may boil down to UEFI, having changed my BIOS settings to Legacy prior to installing Mavericks. I also had to disable Secure Boot to avoid any further issues.

 

Would it be worth reconfiguring my BCD file using Windows 8.1's advanced system recovery, or would that then lead to more problems?

 

Additionally, is it too late to change my boot loader to Clover? I've read that Chimera doesn't support UEFI, but surely I wouldn't receive a BCD error if my Windows partition wasn't detected... Conversely, it may be why I cannot find my System Reserved partition.

 

Obviously, any reinstallations to get my dual-boot config in working order would be my last resort, which is why I'm very hopeful that I'm not the only one to have fallen into this issue. It's taken a lot of time to perfect my Mavericks install!

 

Many thanks for your help in advance. Feel free to ask for any screenshots or further info :)

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Thanks for the replies guys, it's much appreciated.

 

@dcai777 - I've tried to make the System Reserved partition active in disk part after using my Windows 8.1 USB to boot into the recovery command prompt, but I continually receive an error that there is no volume assigned with the partition.

 

@deadman - I used that command in the CMD prompt, but even though it finds my Windows installation, everytime I hit Y to proceed with the fix, an error stating 'the requested system device cannot be found' appears...

 

HOWEVER

 

The good news is that my Windows Boot Manager EFI has returned in my BIOS after playing around with your solutions, so I can boot into Windows 8.1 without any hitches if I switch to UEFI - and Mavericks providing that I'm on Legacy mode.

 

Would it still be worth changing to Clover so I can get the full benefits of UEFI without having to always switch between boot modes whenever I wish to use an OS?

 

Cheers fellas!

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The good news is that my Windows Boot Manager EFI has returned in my BIOS after playing around with your solutions, so I can boot into Windows 8.1 without any hitches if I switch to UEFI - and Mavericks providing that I'm on Legacy mode.

 

Would it still be worth changing to Clover so I can get the full benefits of UEFI without having to always switch between boot modes whenever I wish to use an OS?

 

Cheers fellas!

 

Definitely worth changing over to Clover to dual boot UEFI Windows & OSX (I even do this on my 6 year old BIOS based machine).  It appears Windows in your machine is installed in UEFI mode (hence no System Reserved Partition is found) but the bootloader and your *certain* USB loader can only boot in BIOS/Legacy mode.

 

I think the best approach initially would be to install Clover first on a fat32 USB and play around with it.  The number of options that Clover provides can be quite overwhelming, even for experienced hackintoshers and it is probably wise to leave most settings on default if you don't fully understand what they do.  Thankfully, a lot of the options are the same or similar in chameleon so you can safely set these eg Graphics Enabler/Graphics Injection=Yes, Set P & C states etc.

 

Once you are happy with the setup, it is then a simple matter to transfer your settings to the hard drive's EFI partition.

 

It looks like there is already a thread where people with your machine have successfully installed with Clover and someone has even posted his config.plist there.  You might like to read info about Clover at the Clover Wiki.  The Clover General Discussion thread is also an excellent place to ask questions and I know Clover's developers regularly help users there.

 

Good Luck!

 

PS You shouldn't need to reinstall Mavericks:  simply install Clover over Voldemort's bootloader when you are ready :)

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