Windows 11 – Fix Boot Issues in Virtual Machine with Separate Disks

backupbootuefiwindowswindows-11

I have restored a Windows 11 system from a partition-level backup of the main partition. The system boots, but only with manual intervention.

Initially, it enters a recovery screen (see upper image). From here, the only viable option is to press Esc, after which it is possible to acquire the firmware boot menu (see image second from top), as a submenu of the EFI settings user interface, allowing selection of the item for booting Windows. After selecting this item, Windows boots correctly.

After restoring the Windows partition, I attempted installing the bootloader first through the automated repair from installation media, and then manual steps. The latter did add the needed UEFI files to the boot partition as well as to register the menu entry for Windows in the system boot menu. Both are of course essential after recovering from a backup of just the Windows partition. However, normal boot remains elusive.

For reference, the target platform is a Qemu/KVM virtual machine on a x86 host. It was freshly provisioned with only default firmware settings preceding the data restoration. It has three virtual disks, one containing the EFI boot partition and Windows reserved partition, a second containing the Windows main partition (the one restored from backup), and a third containing a partition designated exclusively for a page file.

Analysis of the EFI boot entries from a non-Windows recovery environment confirms that the sole Windows boot entry is selected as the default (see image third from top).

To summarize, the boot procedure currently is the following:

System initially enters Windows recovery environment.
Press Esc to enter system firmware environment.
Select Windows as boot option from UEFI menu.
Windows loads normally.

Naturally, on a basic, properly-provisioned system, the final step would be the first and only. In principle, the original boot attempt should be simply a selection of the default boot item in the firmware, shown as the first entry on the list, and should not produce a different behavior from the manual selection. Yet, one case leads to the recovery environment, the other to successful boot. How may I correct the discrepancy?

Best Answer

TL;DR Simply change the boot order in UEFI > Boot to the NEW Windows bootloader manager. Currently you're booting an old and now wrong EFI entry because it points to a now non-existent OS which is the original installation.

EFI entries aren't removed when the main OS partition is because they reside in the ESP (EFI System Partition). They can be left alone as long as the correct boot entry is selected in UEFI, typically in the Boot menu, or tools/commands can be used from within OSes to manage those entries (select a new boot order or remove entries) or often inside the UEFI settings.

DON'T confuse UEFI settings > Boot menu with the one-time boot menu / boot override menu (self-explanatory) you've been using to select the correct OS. You need to actually open UEFI settings and change the boot order there.

I have tried an automated repair from installation media, and also manual steps to recreate the boot records. The latter did add the needed UEFI files to the boot partition as well as register the menu entry for Windows in the system boot menu.

Doing this does not change the old .efi files that worked for the original installation and are still selected by default. In UEFI settings > Boot you'll likely find 2 (two) "Windows bootloader manager" so simply select the other one.

This is very simple to understand as long as you understand UEFI and its boot process.

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Windows – How do you boot to a seperate drive that is cloned , for the purpose of a backup system partition

At this useful question, Why does a cloned Windows 7 BCD contain incomplete data (and, therefore, prevent booting)? they are asking a similar but different thing, the useful answers were not what I was looking for at all. My answer would not fit in well at that location, there is no XP, and the action I am doing is very specific and simpler.

I clone using the (compressed) image file method. That clone file of the C: partition is then sent to the backup system partition D:. Because of the use of disk IDs (GUID) everytime I send the image file to the new location, it has to be fixed before it will boot.

After research and many repeated clonings of a very specific setup, I now have a batch file that in 3 seconds, I can "fix" up the boot on My cloned partition.

The changes to be made on my system were to be made to a partition with the letter D, if that is not the correct partition you will have to alter the instances of D: . In my testing the partition is on the front of the disk, there is no reserve, there is no partition before it.

After booting to the Backup clone system, the OS decided to letter the partition with C: this works out very well, for my uses.

enter image description here
Ths pic shows it booted to the backup and how the letter itself has changed when it is booted there.

If you do not know what this does or why, do not use it, it is very specific, to the exact layout I use.

CLONEbootFix.Bat

Echo OFF
CLS
Color 0C
Echo ************** CLONE BATCH ***************
timeout /T 1 > NUL
Echo.
Echo ************** BCD EDIT D ***************
Echo.
Echo.
Echo Do you want to make the D: Drive or Partition to be bootable to Windows 7
Echo By messing with the BCD?   You must type Yes If you wish to do it.
Echo.
SET /P Choice1=type "YES" "NO" ? - 
IF /I "%Choice1%"=="YES" GOTO DOIT

Echo.
Echo You did not indicate yes, so It will not proceed.
Echo.
Echo It will now exit.
Echo.
pause
Exit

:DOIT
Echo.
Echo * * * Setting OS device * * *
Echo.
bcdedit /store D:\boot\bcd /set {default} osdevice boot
Echo.
Echo  * * * Setting Default Device Boot * * * 
Echo.
bcdedit /store D:\boot\bcd /set {default} device boot
Echo.
Echo  * * * Setting Boot Manager * * * 
Echo.
bcdedit /store D:\boot\bcd /set {bootmgr} device boot
Echo.
Echo  * * * Setting Memory Diagnostics Location * * * 
Echo.
bcdedit /store D:\boot\bcd /set {memdiag} device boot
Echo.
pause
exit

Only the 4 BCDedit lines are nessisary, so you can trim it down if desired, there is no error checking, just trying to make sure it is not run by misteak.

I created this for my own purposes, I cannot guarentee that it will work for your purpose, or that everything will work correct. It just would have helped me out to find this done.

Remember to re-Label (rename) your drive/partition , because the letters might not mean anything.

After sending the Image to the Backup partition, I then boot into the original system as always. Once in the original system, I run the batch to "fix" this backup system partition so it will also boot. It is Fixed preferably before the original is damaged in some way. I can always access some GUI OS even if the original disk has a hardware failure, or gets a virus or dies, or will not boot, or If I mess up the software on the one.

Linux – How to install Windows and linux on separate drives so that their booting is independent

I think UEFI can automatically handle that. At least it should find both EFI Partitions, just like it will find any EFI Partition on a DVD that is inserted or on USB Sticks.
You can configure the order in UEFI manually, or you can press a button on startup in most cases that let's you choose what to boot.
Yup, distros will allow you to do that on install time, but depending on what you install you might have to do more or less work. Antergos for example specifically asks for the /boot/efi partition and you can create one if it does not exist - just google it if you can't figure it out in install times, this is basic stuff that should be mentioned somewhere for every distro.

I don't know about BIOS/MBR, but I think it would be possible even with that instead of UEFI.

Edit:
There shouldn't be any need to connect them one after the other. It should work fine with both connected from the beginning.

Best Answer

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Windows – How do you boot to a seperate drive that is cloned , for the purpose of a backup system partition

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