Reset or clone UEFI install using MBR partition from external drive?

The BIOS is set to secure boot UEFI. Could you answer my question, please? What do you think this partition (the empty, 128MB, unformatted one) is being used for? Is it possible that it is the very thing interfering with my boot process?

I think what's happening is the bootloader sees GPT partition, thinks it should boot there, doesn't find any files and throws an error. But then when I re-try, it works fine, because it finds my actual GPT partition (the first, 200MB one).



If you think otherwise, please tell me why, and what you think is happening.

Thanks,
Jesse

For UEFI there are two choices.
Please post an image so we can see whether CSM is or is not enabled.
Boot problems can occur with each choice.

There are few end users that delete the reserved partition however most prefer to have the default windows partitions.

What Is the System Reserved Partition and Can You Delete It?

jfrench said:

The BIOS is set to secure boot UEFI. Could you answer my question, please? What do you think this partition (the empty, 128MB, unformatted one) is being used for? Is it possible that it is the very thing interfering with my boot process?

I think what's happening is the bootloader sees GPT partition, thinks it should boot there, doesn't find any files and throws an error. But then when I re-try, it works fine, because it finds my actual GPT partition (the first, 200MB one).



If you think otherwise, please tell me why, and what you think is happening.

Thanks,
Jesse

The unformatted 128 MB partition is the Microsoft System Reserved Partition and is part of the standard way Microsoft does things:
UEFI/GPT-based hard drive partition layout.

Ohhhhh I see, thank you for clearing that up. I was unaware of that partition setup.

Here's everything boot-related I could find in the BIOS settings:







Each time the computer boots, the Dell screen shows and then this. When I hit F1, the computer boots into Win10 successfully.

In the second image what is seen after clicking view?

zbook said:

In the second image what is seen after clicking view?

I can press the button, but nothing happens.

temporarily turn off secure boot > recheck menu options

I think the BIOS CSM option is in the advanced menu enable legacy option.

So this appears to be UEFI native.

zbook said:

So this appears to be UEFI native.

This BIOS was happily booting an MBR system partition, which showed different options in the Boot Sequence menu at that time - i.e. Windows Boot Manager was not an option, instead the available options were something like "Internal HDD" "Floppy" "USB" etc. In this case I had Secure Boot turned off, and by hitting F12 at boot, could choose between Legacy and UEFI options.

When turning off Secure Boot and clicking Apply, I can go in and enable Legacy Option ROMs, but this does nothing to change the results when clicking "View" on the Boot Sequence page. I can click "Add Boot Option" and get this screen:

NavyLCDR is a boot expert.
Let's wait for his comments.