Booting from WinPE CD/DVD Whilst in UEFI Mode

Hi

I have a system recently converted to UEFI using MBR2GPT. Today I created a bootable DVD using Kyhi's Recovery Tools ISO and want to run it up to find out exactly what I've got and how it works. Snag is I can't boot up from CD or DVD - my system just hangs.

I've done some searching on the internet and find that I have to disable Secure Boot in the UEFI firmware. I can't, I haven't got that option - although I have been told that Secure Boot will only appear if I have UEFI Only selected. It doesn't, I've checked. What I do have, however, is a setting called Storage Boot Option Control with the options Disabled, UEFI Only, Legacy Only, Legacy First and UEFI First - in that order. Does that mean anything to anyone? It's a Gigabyte Z97P-D3 mobo. When I converted to UEFI I made no changes (under advice) to my mobo firmware which is set to UEFI and Legacy - the other options are UEFI Only and Legacy Only.

When it comes to the boot sequence, first in the list is Windows Boot Manager followed by the disk model - the CD/DVD reader is second. Swapping them around just results in a flashing cursor on the screen.

My question therefore is: just how do I get my PC to boot from CD or DVD? I have a strong feeling that NavyLCDR would say I should use BCDboot with the ALL switch to copy both the UEFI and BIOS files to the System Reserved partition since currently I only have the files for UEFI in there as far as I am aware. Certainly its only around 10.6MB at present whereas BIOS files take up something like 30MB as far as I can recall.

Any help would be appreciated. Thank you.
Tracey

How did you create the DVD? Does it have the .ISO file saved to it, or does it have the files and folders contained within the ISO file saved to it?

You can try changing the storage option boot control to UEFI first.

As @cereberus stated....sometimes USB flash drives are easier to boot from.

Just to verify the disc is actually bootable, download (if you don't have it) the free Macrium Reflect V7 and create the bootable rescue disk, which uses WinPE. Try booting with that and if it works, then the disc you have been trying to boot with is bad.

If you don't have a program to backup (image) your drive then you need Macrium (or some other) anyway and should be making full disc images.

Many thanks for your responses.

I've been trying the various things suggested but nothing has worked.

First I tried a flash drive in exactly the way that cereberus said. I literally copied the ISO files to the flash drive having first formatted it to Fat32. There was one slight deviation from the instructions in that I cannot make my PC boot from a USB drive unless the flash drive is inserted before making the change in the F/W, it won't show up unless I insert the drive. When I do insert it it shows up twice, once as "UEFI: Sandisk" and again as just "Sandisk" I opted to use Sandisk followed by UEFI: Sandisk followed by CD/DVD drive followed by Windows Boot Manager. Nothing happened - it just sat there winking a white cursor at me.

I then tried fireberd's idea but that equally drew a blank.

NavyLCDR - I burnt the ISO to the disc using an ISO file CDBurner XP. I must be honest and say that I was under the impression that to make something bootable it was more than just a case of copying the boot files to the media hence the need to burn a DVD. Before I post this I'm going to try something else. I'm back again and yes, I've finally managed to do it.

What I tried was to create a USB flash drive with the ISO using the Windows USB DVD Download Tool. Looked like everything was going fine until the end when said it couldn't create the files. Not to be deterred, I had look to see what else there was and I found several tools that would do the job. I opted for Rufus, got it going and burned a bootable USB flash drive, went into the mobo f/w made the necessary changes, saved it and exited. And it booted up nicely and its quite some disk isn't it.

Nevertheless folks, I feel I have to get booting with a CD/DVD sorted as I have several disks all ready for use should an emergency arise but if I can't boot from them I'll be in a right pickle. There has to be something I'm missing - and by all accounts, I'm not the only one having trouble if you check on the internet. I've read of others having to disable their Secure Boot and also do something else but I can't remember what, I think it may have been to switch back to Legacy mode but can't be sure. Neither can I remember where I saw it.

Whilst I now have a means of being able to boot into Kyhi's disk I'm hoping you may be able to think of something else for me to try re booting from CD/DVD.

Tracey

PS Very sorry for the long post.

Thanks for getting back to me Kyhi.

Where I was going wrong was in just copying the files to the flash drive rather than burning using an ISO burner to burn the ISO to the drive. I thought something was wrong in all honesty before I did it but decided I'd follow instructions to the letter as near as possible. When I did get it going the drive simply showed up as Sandisk in the F/W so I just stayed with that and everything booted up just fine. Just to put your mind at ease I do have the 64-bit version of the file and I've got 8GB RAM.

I've just burned a second DVD using the program you pointed me to and tried booting an old spare PC (definitely NOT UEFI) we have upstairs. Although it took a long time it did get there and I did a backup whilst I was there. I've no reason at all to suppose the first disk is a dud either - either disk will do the job certainly on BIOS PC but at present not on mine although I will have another go and see if I can get it going.

Again thanks for your responses.
Tracey

Kyhi said:

The above is all that is needed for UEFI Booting from USB Stick...

and mark the FAT32 partition as active and that is all that is needed for legacy BIOS Booting from USB Stick....