EasyBCD 2.4 reports UEFI booting whilst in Legacy Mode

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DavidB12

New Member
I have a multi-boot system with Windows 10, Windows 7 (64bit) and even an old Windows XP installation. I set this all up using EasyBCD over a period of years as I have progressed from XP to Windows 7 to Windows 10 as my main OS. Each OS in on a different partition on an MBR partitioned harddrive with a System Reserved partition which is the active partition and has all the BCD files (and NST folder).
Recently my hard drive (which was about 10 years old) started reporting some errors so I quickly copied all the partitions to a new drive using exactly the same partition scheme. I have not had to reinstalled any of the OSs. Instead I have fixed the MBR code and partition boot sector and ensured that all the MountedDevices entries in the windows registry are correct for the new partitions. I have everything back up and booting correctly (including XP) but to do so I have had to use an old copy of EasyBCD 2.0.2 because EasyBCD 2.4 (and 2.3) reports that the system is booting in UEFI mode. I only have Legacy mode enable in the firmware and MSInfo32 reports BIOS Mode Legacy (Windows 10). MSInfo32 in Windows 7 and XP does not have a BIOS Mode entry. Clearly my computer MUST be booting in Legacy mode because Windows XP cannot boot in UEFI, and EASYBCD 2.0.2 has correctly set up all the entries including the easyldr file for XP.
Can you explain HOW EasyBCD 2.4 detects the booting mode? If I knew this I might be able to correct the problem. I would rather not have to use EasyBCD 2.0.2 if I want to make changes to my system.
 
DavidB12 said:
I have a multi-boot system with Windows 10, Windows 7 (64bit) and even an old Windows XP installation. I set this all up using EasyBCD over a period of years as I have progressed from XP to Windows 7 to Windows 10 as my main OS. Each OS in on a different partition on an MBR partitioned harddrive with a System Reserved partition which is the active partition and has all the BCD files (and NST folder). BeBallPlayers
Recently my hard drive (which was about 10 years old) started reporting some errors so I quickly copied all the partitions to a new drive using exactly the same partition scheme. I have not had to reinstalled any of the OSs. Instead I have fixed the MBR code and partition boot sector and ensured that all the MountedDevices entries in the windows registry are correct for the new partitions. I have everything back up and booting correctly (including XP) but to do so I have had to use an old copy of EasyBCD 2.0.2 because EasyBCD 2.4 (and 2.3) reports that the system is booting in UEFI mode. I only have Legacy mode enable in the firmware and MSInfo32 reports BIOS Mode Legacy (Windows 10). MSInfo32 in Windows 7 and XP does not have a BIOS Mode entry. Clearly my computer MUST be booting in Legacy mode because Windows XP cannot boot in UEFI, and EASYBCD 2.0.2 has correctly set up all the entries including the easyldr file for XP.
Can you explain HOW EasyBCD 2.4 detects the booting mode? If I knew this I might be able to correct the problem. I would rather not have to use EasyBCD 2.0.2 if I want to make changes to my system.
Click to expand...
Hello,

EasyBCD 2.4 detects the booting mode by checking the presence of the EFI System Partition (ESP) on the disk. The ESP is a special partition that contains the UEFI boot files and is required for UEFI booting. If EasyBCD 2.4 finds an ESP on the disk, it assumes that the system is booting in UEFI mode and disables some of its features that are incompatible with UEFI.

However, it is possible that your disk has an ESP even though you are booting in Legacy mode. This could happen if you have previously installed windows in UEFI mode on the same disk, or if you have cloned the disk from another system that was using UEFI mode. In that case, EasyBCD 2.4 would incorrectly detect the booting mode and limit your options.

One possible solution is to delete the ESP from the disk, if you are sure that you do not need it for any of your operating systems. You can use a disk management tool such as Diskpart or GParted to do this. However, be careful not to delete any other partitions that are essential for booting or storing your data. You should also backup your data before making any changes to the disk layout.

Another possible solution is to use EasyBCD 2.0.2, which does not check for the ESP and allows you to edit the boot entries as you wish. However, this version may not support some of the newer features of Windows 10 and UEFI, such as Secure Boot or Fast Startup. You should also be aware that EasyBCD 2.0.2 is no longer supported or updated by the developers, so you may encounter some bugs or compatibility issues.

I hope this helps you to understand how EasyBCD 2.4 detects the booting mode and how you fix the problem.

Best regards,
Latonya86Dodson
 
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