Windows 8.1 dual boot on one disk with UEFI bios

gogoud

Member
I have a new Lenovo Idea Flex 15 laptop and I would like to maintain a backup partition on the same disk (as it has lots of space). I shrank the main partition and then created a new partition with a backup of the system using Casper 8.0. Then I used EasyBCD 2.2 to set dual-booting so I could choose whether to boot the normal or the backup partition. But although I get the choice, and the normal partition boots fine, the backup system hangs when I try to boot to it.

This is the DISKPART info:
DISKPART> list partition

Partition ### Type Size Offset
------------- ---------------- ------- -------
Partition 1 Recovery 1000 MB 1024 KB
Partition 2 System 260 MB 1001 MB
Partition 3 OEM 1000 MB 1261 MB
Partition 4 Reserved 128 MB 2261 MB
Partition 5 Primary 214 GB 2389 MB
Partition 6 Primary 50 GB 216 GB
Partition 7 Primary 25 GB 427 GB
Partition 8 Recovery 13 GB 452 GB

DISKPART> list volume

Volume ### Ltr Label Fs Type Size Status Info
---------- --- ----------- ----- ---------- ------- --------- ------
Volume 0 C Windows8_OS NTFS Partition 214 GB Healthy Boot
Volume 1 E Windows8 Ca NTFS Partition 50 GB Healthy
Volume 2 D LENOVO NTFS Partition 25 GB Healthy
Volume 3 WINRE_DRV NTFS Partition 1000 MB Healthy Hidden
Volume 4 SYSTEM_DRV FAT32 Partition 260 MB Healthy System
Volume 5 PBR_DRV NTFS Partition 13 GB Healthy Hidden

So C is the 'normal' system and 'E' is my backup partition (D and the rest are pre-existing stuff I don't understand).

So when I try to add a boot entry with EasyBCD it is really easy and this is the result (debug mode):
Windows Boot Manager
--------------------
identifier {9dea862c-5cdd-4e70-acc1-f32b344d4795}
device partition=\Device\HarddiskVolume2
path \EFI\Microsoft\Boot\bootmgfw.efi
description Windows Boot Manager
locale en-US
inherit {7ea2e1ac-2e61-4728-aaa3-896d9d0a9f0e}
default {035536bc-a425-11e3-be79-a4db30848247}
resumeobject {035536bb-a425-11e3-be79-a4db30848247}
displayorder {035536bc-a425-11e3-be79-a4db30848247}
{035536b9-a425-11e3-be79-a4db30848247}
toolsdisplayorder {b2721d73-1db4-4c62-bf78-c548a880142d}
timeout 3

Windows Boot Loader
-------------------
identifier {035536bc-a425-11e3-be79-a4db30848247}
device partition=C:
path \WINDOWS\system32\winload.efi
description Windows 8.1
locale en-US
inherit {6efb52bf-1766-41db-a6b3-0ee5eff72bd7}
recoverysequence {035536bd-a425-11e3-be79-a4db30848247}
recoveryenabled Yes
isolatedcontext Yes
allowedinmemorysettings 0x15000075
osdevice partition=C:
systemroot \WINDOWS
resumeobject {035536bb-a425-11e3-be79-a4db30848247}
nx OptIn
bootmenupolicy Standard

Windows Boot Loader
-------------------
identifier {035536b9-a425-11e3-be79-a4db30848247}
device partition=D:
path \Windows\system32\winload.exe
description Windows 8 Casper_Backup
locale en-US
osdevice partition=D:
systemroot \Windows
nx OptIn
pae Default
sos No

I notice that the settings for my D:/Volume1 loader are different from C:/Volume0 and I don't know why they should be since it is meant to be an exact copy of C:, but this is what EasyBCD did when I told it to add a Windows Vista/7/8 entry.

What am I doing wrong and is there a way to get real dual-booting on this system? I don't believe there is anything wrong with the backup partition, I have used Casper successfully on many other machines, I think the boot process is not handing over to it correctly. Thanks for any help.

Dominic
 
Thanks Terry I tried that but it still doesn't work. Why does this entry have a path to winload.exe whereas the C: (original) entry has a path to winload.efi? It doesn't look right to me...
 
Sorry, I missed that when I saw the wrong disk letter.
You're right, it should be efi.
I'll leave it to CG (the author) to comment on why EasyBCD is creating on non-efi entry for your cloned partition.
 
So I used bcdedit (ugh!) to edit the line:
Code:
path \Windows\system32\winload.exe
to read:
Code:
path \Windows\system32\winload.efi
and now this partition runs ok
 
This is a known bug that's been patched and is due to be fixed in the next EasyBCD release. Sorry!
 
Meanwhile, when running UEFI Windows, you can duplicate the UEFI Bootloader in an elevated command prompt:
bcdedit /copy {current} /d "Other OS"
and then change the new entry easily in EASY BCD.
Theo
 
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