The Lemon Fool

I wonder if anyone can help with this dual boot issue. I have a dual boot computer with linux Mint on one SSD and Windows 10 on another. The EFI system partition which mounts as /boot/efi is on the Windows drive and for tidiness’ sake I would like to move it to the linux SSD so that all the controlling stuff is in the same place. So I have copied the contents of the EFI system partition across. I have ensured that the new partition is identical to the original one – same partition type (FAT32), same flags. But the Asus BIOS/UEFI just does not recognise the new partition. Any idea what I overlooked?

Incidentally I really enjoy using linux Mint and I use Windows only for very few applications. I continue to have problems with Windows 10 and I want to do a fresh install, hence the need to clear the SSD.

Thanks.

Cinelli

cinelli wrote:I wonder if anyone can help with this dual boot issue. I have a dual boot computer with linux Mint on one SSD and Windows 10 on another. The EFI system partition which mounts as /boot/efi is on the Windows drive and for tidiness’ sake I would like to move it to the linux SSD so that all the controlling stuff is in the same place. So I have copied the contents of the EFI system partition across. I have ensured that the new partition is identical to the original one – same partition type (FAT32), same flags. But the Asus BIOS/UEFI just does not recognise the new partition. Any idea what I overlooked?

Incidentally I really enjoy using linux Mint and I use Windows only for very few applications. I continue to have problems with Windows 10 and I want to do a fresh install, hence the need to clear the SSD.

Thanks.

Cinelli

I think you'll have to do a bit more than just copying the partition. Are you currently using the Windows boot menu or GRUB?

RC

ReformedCharacter wrote:I think you'll have to do a bit more than just copying the partition. Are you currently using the Windows boot menu or GRUB?

RC

I am using GRUB. Just to emphasise, all is currently working fine. I just want to tidy things up. And also to understand how these things work.

Thanks.

Cinelli

I think you may have to do it in 2 bites, first get Windows to boot from the linux SSD then set up GRUB to dual boot.

https://www.tenforums.com/installation- ... ition.html

Looking at #2, it seems that you have created the partition already and need to perform the bcdboot section. Here's some more information about bcdboot:

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/window ... techref-di

Once you can boot Windows from the linux SSD, I would delete the partition from the Windows SSD and then reinstall GRUB from a live CD:

https://linuxmint-installation-guide.re ... iboot.html

There are a number of utilities that might be of interest, such as EasyBCD which I believe is free for non-commercial use.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EasyBCD

HTH

RC

I am struggling here. In my attempt to move the EFI partition from one SSD to another, I have completed the following steps:

create new partition and format it via diskpart/list disk/select disk/list partition/shrink/create partition/format/assign letter

then

bcdboot D:\Windows /s S:

where S: denote the destination. This works and creates some files in S: but the directory structure is not the same as the working EFI partition. The BIOS does not see this new partition. That’s what I can’t get to grips with – presumably the bdcboot command, as well as copying files, marks the partition in some way, but how? Then in live linux Mint

# mount /dev/sdb1 /mnt
# grub-install –root-directory=/mnt /dev/sdb

but this fails with error “Embedding is not possible. GRUB can only be installed in this setup by using blocklists. However blocklists are unreliable and their use is discouraged. Error: will not proceed with blocklists. No changes made to new partition.”

Searching for these errors generally point me to people running arch linux and more technical terms I don’t understand. Any help will be gratefully received.

Cinelli