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deleting a link to a windows boot loader

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CrazyDingo View Drop Down
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    Posted: 18 May 2015 at 8:29am
My z97 Extreme6 (bios 2.10) is running better than fine Smile - but I have two windows boot managers listed under boot option priorities.
My question(vaguely):
I can live with this but I'm wondering if I can easily (without breaking my system) delete one - a little curios, because I wonder if down the track it might get a little crowded and confusing (e.g. install windows 10 in a year or two and wind up with 3 loaders, install a new version of ubuntu and get two of those and so on).
Background:
1. I broke a windows 8.1 64 installation by installing something (possibly a driver, maybe the xfast lan utility) - so I reinstalled windows from scratch again (with just an sm951 drive connected, v. nice), all good.
2. I disconnected the sm951 drive to install ubuntu on a separate SSD - all went well, though I noticed I still had the pointer to the windows boot loader in the boot options, even with the sm951 drive removed.
3. when I reinstall the sm951, I have the two windows boot managers plus ubuntu as boot options (along with other stuff, not relevant).

My plan:
press cmos reset, unplug from mains, anti-static wrist protector etc=>remove cmos battery for a minute or so, restart system.  (I have saved separate uefi's for both the windows and ubuntu installations - I go into bios to load these etc manually as it means I am free to boot directly into windows or ubuntu, very handy for system updates etc.)

My hope (**):
uefi bios will repopulate boot options with pointers to the ubuntu and windows boot loaders (from loaders in uefi partitions of their respective SSDs) and other boot options => life is sweet, broken windows boot manager plus pointer removed from nvram / cmos (I can continue to use saved uefi's as before to load into windows or ubuntu as desired).

My question (precisely):
Is my hope correct, or will following my plan break my system and so that I need to re-install both OS's to repopulate uefi/bios boot options (I really don't want this option and would rather live with the broken link that is not much of a problem).

Thanks very much for any help.


Edited by CrazyDingo - 18 May 2015 at 9:23am
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parsec View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote parsec Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 19 May 2015 at 12:53am
Yes, the marvelous gift that UEFI booting an MS OS gives us if we have multiple Windows boot drives, "Windows Boot Manager" listed in the boot list multiple times, with nothing else in the entry that allows us to tell them apart. We can discover which entry belongs to which drive, and remember that the first/top entry is for drive X, and the one below it is for drive Y, but that is a poor workaround.

I've experimented with a couple BCD edit programs to try modifying the name "Windows Boot Manager" to something else, when I had two such entries in the boot list. It's been a while but as I recall I succeeded, and also ruined the ability to boot that drives OS. I gave up on that project, but I have hope it can be done.

I'm surprised you still had two "Windows Boot Manager" entries in the boot drive list after disconnecting your SM951. I've done the same thing with one of my boot drives, actually using the HDD Saver feature on our board to remove power from a SATA SSD that is one of the Windows boot drives. I only see one "Windows Boot Manager" entry in my boot list. I've also simply removed power from one of the OS drives and its "Windows Boot Manager" entry was gone. The difference must be that I clear the CMOS routinely whenever I change the drive configuration, and for other various reasons.

I can tell you that clearing the CMOS will not ruin your system, I've done that many times with two "Windows Boot Manager" entries (both drives in the PC) in the boot order. I have never removed the CMOS battery, just used the CMOS clear button or CMOS clear jumper. I think clearing the CMOS will remove the ghost "Windows Boot Manager" entry haunting your boot list. Wink

I must say I would NOT press the CMOS reset button until power is removed from the PC!! I believe the manual states that is the correct procedure for using the CMOS reset button.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote CrazyDingo Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 20 May 2015 at 10:01am
Thanks Parsec,
- I only get one Windows Boot Manager after disconnecting the SM951 (I was referring to this single uninvited guest);
- neither clearing CMOS nor clearing plus removing cmos battery did the trick;
- remove power before clearing CMOS, absolutely! I always do, though perhaps didn't make that clear.
- I haven't sorted this problem yet but seem to be making progress.  Let you know if it goes well - I don't expect I'll be able to delete the redundant manager, but I think that using a BCD edit program is worth exploring (though, cautionary tale noted!).

Regards
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (1) Thanks(1)   Quote parsec Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 20 May 2015 at 12:17pm
Originally posted by CrazyDingo CrazyDingo wrote:

Thanks Parsec,
- I only get one Windows Boot Manager after disconnecting the SM951 (I was referring to this single uninvited guest);
- neither clearing CMOS nor clearing plus removing cmos battery did the trick;
- remove power before clearing CMOS, absolutely! I always do, though perhaps didn't make that clear.
- I haven't sorted this problem yet but seem to be making progress.  Let you know if it goes well - I don't expect I'll be able to delete the redundant manager, but I think that using a BCD edit program is worth exploring (though, cautionary tale noted!).

Regards

Ok, I think I'm finally really getting what happened now. I might also know why, two possibilities.

If you cleared the CMOS with the SM951 and the Ubuntu SSD installed in the PC, and you still get the extra Windows Boot Manager entry in the boot order, that indicates that one of those two drives may have two EFI boot partitions on it. You installed Win 8.1 twice on the SM951, and in what way did you prepare it before the second installation? How was the drive formatted for the second Win 8.1 installation?

I found a different clue in your first post, when you described the boot order entries. That is, "along with other stuff, not relevant". Would any of the not relevant entries look something like, "AHCI: Drive Name", where Drive Name is SM951 or the model of the Ubuntu SSD?

If so, that tells me in the UEFI, CSM is Enabled or Secure Boot is Disabled, but the opposite was true at one point. 

Or you were using the UEFI SATA Option ROM setting during the first Win 8.1 installation.

The Win 8/8.1 installer, when creating a EFI booting installation, also puts a MBR partition on the OS drive. The MBR booting option is only seen when CSM is Enabled or Secure Boot is Disabled, and should be, AHCI: SM951.

You've got some confusion going on there. Start Disk Management to check the partitions on the two OS drives, or really better, use the diskpart command in a CMD prompt window to see all the partitions you have.

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote CrazyDingo Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 21 May 2015 at 9:41am
Hi Parsec,
Main point straight up - everything seems to be working well now, very happy with the system Smile - there are some things I don't understand (more below) but they may not be problems.

When I had the extra Windows Boot Manager entry in the boot order, my Pro 850 (non-windows / ubuntu) drive had two subdirectories to the EFI boot partition (one Microsoft and one Ubuntu) - if there were two EFI boot partitions I didn't notice it.
Since reformatting the  Pro 850 (ubuntu) drive the extra Windows Boot Manager entry in the boot order has gone.  
Using Bcdedit it looks like my sm951 drive has two windows boot managers in the one UEFI file - but it doesn't look like the extra boot manager is causing problems like before (booting into either system goes fine).
From memory, for my re-installation of windows I used the windows installer to remove all existing partitions, reformat and re-install from scratch.
I'll have to investigate further re your comments on CSM / secure boot - perhaps the trouble has something to do with these settings.
I wonder if the new extra windows boot manager that Bcdedit now shows on sm951 drive is from this: I initially installed (same on re-installation) windows 8.1 with secure boot off; but when I boot into windows now I turn secure boot on (for security reasons, obviously I leave it off when booting into ubuntu)?
Thanks for the tips - yes, I'll have a look at what's going on with diskpart.
Kind regards.


Edited by CrazyDingo - 21 May 2015 at 3:55pm
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