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[90% SOLVED] UEFI and Clover partitions


PlutoDelic

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It seems UEFI has no problem loading MBR drives, can anybody investigate this, why couldnt i ever create a detectable let alone a bootable UEFI USB, but the ISO works well? Even a x64 package boots up.
 
I have messed up my E6410 Hackintosh/Clover right now am and only booting from the UEFI Windows, but i am planning to create a manually partitioned USB. From what i know, EFI is usually FAT32, or am i wrong?

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It seems UEFI can detect a Clover USB if it's MBR, where as it fully detects the UEFI in the 2nd disk for my Windows 10, which is on GPT.

 

Weirdly, none of the USB trials made in OS X work, where as flashing the ISO's from Windows or using cvad's BDUtility result in UEFI detection.

 

How come this is happening? MBR can load GPT through Clover (my current setup), UEFI can load Windows on GPT, but no UEFI GPT Clover solution.

 

I am on the brink of finalising a Clover Guide for the E6410 but ever since i found that UEFI boot doable, im on the hunt to make it work once again...

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this beats any method on creating a USB, of course what you install as a bootloader makes the difference....

 

https://support.apple.com/en-is/HT201372

 

The one problem I had with this method was that I couldn't access the /S/L/E folder on the created installer. It just didn't exist. No idea why...

 

Great finds though. I for one can't wait to try out Clover on the 6410. Better than Chameleon imo. 

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I've made a breakthrough in getting a UEFI boot in Latitude E6410 (nVidia). For odd reasons, the BIOS reads the MBR instructions in the EFI partitions without a problem, but when it comes to booting through UEFI, it ignores or doesnt see the EFI partition at all. I've read a guide in InsanelyMac where a person mimics EFI layout in an MBR partitioned USB.

 

What i did, i mimicked the whole process of the MBR guide into a GPT one, but this time ignoring the EFI completely and making another partition that looks like an EFI, but is a normal one. AND IT BOOTS.

 

I am further investigating and asking around as why the EFI is not viable to be detected by our machine, but it sure is DELL's fault.

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There is some progress here and i may need the pro's help in figuring things out.

 

A few months a go, i ordered a Hard Drive Caddy since i desperately need a machine that can run Microsoft Visio. I made a UEFI/GPT USB through Rufus, installed it and now i'm a happy windows camper. That's when i started the research for OS X UEFI as well and stumbled on the Clover ISO's.

 

Initially, i wiped a USB into a GPT one and found out no matter what i do, the EFI partition will not play any role for our Dell BIOS. Then i stumbled on a guide in Insanelymac where a guy mimicked the partition layout of GPT in to an MBR, meaning he did a MBR USB with two partitions, one for clover and one for OS X. He made a package filtered for UEFI only, but pretty much contained the same what the ISO's have. It booted and it installed 10.10.3 all fine.

 

Now before i installed OS X on the Hard Drive, i've done the same USB procedures on the hard drive, but with GPT (mind you, the USB boots with GPT as well, but you totally have to ignore the original EFI). Apart from the original EFI partition, i created a 300MB FAT32 partition named CLO  and a 100GB partition for Yosemite, and went for the installation.

 

To my surprise, UEFI did not detect it, and this pissed me off.

 

I asked myself a single question, WTF does Windows have that Clover/OS X doesnt. I tell you what, a very weird partitioning layout. Look for yourself:

/dev/disk0
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *500.1 GB   disk0
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:       Microsoft Basic Data CLO                     314.6 MB   disk0s2
   3:                  Apple_HFS Yose                    99.1 GB    disk0s3
   4:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.0 MB   disk0s4
   5:                  Apple_HFS Data                    399.7 GB   disk0s5
/dev/disk1
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *320.1 GB   disk1
   1: DE94BBA4-06D1-4D40-A16A-BFD50179D6AC               314.6 MB   disk1s1
   2:                        EFI NO NAME                 104.9 MB   disk1s2
   3:         Microsoft Reserved                         134.2 MB   disk1s3
   4:       Microsoft Basic Data Windows10               107.9 GB   disk1s4
   5:       Microsoft Basic Data WinData                 211.6 GB   disk1s5

Notice the different locations for both EFI partitions. DISK0 is obviously OS X with a proper GPT layout and the EFI is the first partition, even if you totally wipe a GPT-ed drive, the EFI will always be there (there are ways to delete it however). Now notice the EFI on DISK1, it's the 2nd partition, right after what microsoft calls MRP (Microsoft Recovery Partition), and after EFI you have the so called MSR (Microsoft Reserved Partition) partition.

I went so far, that i started a Windows UEFI installation at my OS X drive, just so i can have those partitions, and for odd reasons, Disk Utility does not like them at all, it wont even delete them.

 

And on the brink of giving up, i had this idea to copy Clover on the already existing Windows EFI partition, AND IT WORKS, i had to add it manually in the BIOS, but it actually works.

 

I know one thing, the standard GPT means EFI at the beginning, and im pretty sure UEFI has to play along. This case seems like Dell adapted to Microsoft, and Microsoft does not give a single crap about standards.

 

This all started as a reason for me to give a proper guide for Clover on E6410, but i cant tell people to get a HDD Caddy.

 

Is there any way i could cross-compare the two EFI's? Mounting the Windows EFI with Clover Configurator it responds with "Unexpected disk identifier: disk1s2", but it does mount it successfully.

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