EasyBCD says partition is a Logical partition, when it is primary

V

vsrawat

Member
When I go to EasyBCD to Change Boot Drive, it says (target) partition is a Logical partition

Whereas Windows Disk Management as well as EaseUS Partition Manger shows that it is Primary Patition.

EasyBCD.jpg

I think logical partition is only on MBR Disks but I have two HDDs, both GPT, booting as EFI.

how to make my partition primary so that boot drive can be changed to that?

Thanks.
 
You can't do that on a UEFI PC
UEFI finds the boot files in the EFI System partition. They can't be anywhere else.
The "change boot partition" only applies to MBR/BIOS where the boot partition is movable and can be pointed to by the MBR partition table entry with the "active" bit set.
There's no "active" bit in GPT. It just uses the EFI System partition as the start of the boot chain..
As you know, there are no "logical" partitions in GPT. It removed the 4-primary restriction which made them necessary in large MBR HDDs.
The fact that EasyBCD gives that message is just consequence of the fact that it was written before UEFI/GPT existed. It's really just telling you that the partition you're pointing it at is unsuitable for the purpose.
 
Thanks for clarifying. That removes all doubts decisively.

Hope developers will update the software soon to reflect methods that work for users' current setup, if the system it UEFI, then that option should be greyed out. or, there should be a warning message there that this option will not work for UFI-GPT. I had spend hours in trying that thing again and again.

Thanks.
 
In my two HDDs, both GTP, using EFI boot,
As you said, there has to be "EFI System partition" in each of them.

I can see "Boot, EFI folders and Bootmgr and BOOTNDXT files on several partitions.

how to I remove all boot files from other partitions? Some patitions are with O.S., others without O.S. I had moved using bcdboot.

can I just delete them without affecting the booting-ability of that hdd?

Thanks.
--
Rawat
 
In my two HDDs, both GTP, using EFI boot, when I didn't put 1TB hdd, and put only 500GB HDD, the system didn't boot.

When I put 1TB hdd, the system booted, even if it starting O.S. on 500GB HDD.

why is that? does it mean that 500GB HDD's EFI partition didn't have boot files? how to move the boot files to that partition as that is not having a drive letter so is not visible nor accessible to Windows software?

Even if EasyBCD cannot make other partition bootable, if there are more than one HDDs, EasyBCD should add option to make the other HDD botoable, by transfering system boot files to EFI patition of other HDD, unless there is some workaround to do it.

Thanks.
 
If you install Windows in isolation, It will create a System Reserved Partition (MBR) or an EFI System Partition (GPT) and put the boot files in there as part of Setup.
If you Install Windows onto a PC with an existing version of Windows, it will use the existing boot partition and files (updating them to the latest level if necessary) and automatically dual-boot the new OS with the old.
If you have multiple EFI System Partitions, it implies that you did the former and each should be capable of booting its own associated OS.
I'm not sure how you got an EFI System partition with nothing in it unless you did the formatting in isolation and then ran Setup with the other OS visible.
I have one EFI partition with W7 and W10 sharing an SSD.
If you want the ability to boot each of your drives in isolation, put in the smaller drive by itself and run "Repair your PC " > "Startup Repair" from your booted Installation media (3 times)
If you don't have an Installation Disc, you can make a repair disc which will do the same job (Control Panel > Backup & Restore > Create Repair Disc)
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Somewhat of a sidebar: Microsoft no longer actually stores any files (or even any data at all) in the MSR in standard UEFI/GPT boot configurations, but the OS will refuse to boot and/or updates will refuse to install if the MSR doesn't exist (that's one of the checks/fixes that EasyRE does). As such, an ESP or an equivalent FAT32 boot partition must always exist for UEFI boot to succeed, as that's where the boot files will go regardless of the presence of an MSR.
 
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