'Unsupported Disk Layout for UEFI Firmware' yet BIOS Mode set to UEFI

cereberus · 04 May 2017

essenbe said:

@cereberus, My first reply was that it was not a UEFI install. I realize the partition structure is very wrong and a UEFI has no active partition. But, looking at his boot options, he has Windows Boot Manager selected as an option. I have never seen a Legacy install with Windows Boot Manager as an option. Just wondering how it got that way. I'm not disagreeing with you at all, in fact I agree. The Windows Boot Manager threw me and I was wondering how it got that way.

I expect it tries to use windows boot manager and fails and then tries a legacy bios start - that is what my PC does. i expect OP had a uefi install on hdd originally but erroneously installed legacy bios on ssd.

DarkMage530 · 04 May 2017

cereberus said:

You create a 1607 installation drive on another pc and boot from that.

1607 works? or just 1703

Also sorry if this sounds really dumb but how do you boot from a drive on another pc? I have a laptop thats on 1607 or 1703 (haven't checked yet) which I could use, just not sure how I'd use it to boot my pc with.

NavyLCDR · 04 May 2017

I would install Macrium Reflect Free. Make a backup image of your C: drive to your D: drive. Boot the computer in UEFI mode from a Windows 10 installation USB flash drive. Select the custom install option, delete every partition on the SSD and install Windows 10 to the resulting unallocated space.

That should set you up with a GPT partitioned SSD and the proper partitions to boot in UEFI. Then re-install Macrium Reflect Free. Use the option to create a Macrium Reflect Boot Menu entry. Boot into the Macrium Reflect rescue environment. Restore the C: drive image you previously created back to the SSD, replacing ONLY the C: drive partition. Run the Fix Windows boot problems utility in Macrium Reflect.

Reboot - you should then be able to update.

DarkMage530 · 04 May 2017

@NavyLCDR Can you elaborate what options in the 'Fix Windows Boot Problems' I should use? I just finished running through your suggestions and before I restored the image from Macrium it looked like my SSD had the proper partitions with an EFI partition But then I restored the image onto just the C partition and then left all of the checks enabled in the Fix Windows Boot Problems. After I restarted my computer it looked like I was back where i started. So I'm currently running through the steps a second time now.

My guess is it was one of the 'Fix Windows Boot Problems' options I selected. Or is it possible the restoring of the image resulted in getting back to the original step? Should i have shrunk the partition before taking the Macrium Reflect Image?

I wasn't too excited about doing a reinstall of windows, but the imaging thing I think makes it less of a pain (if I get it working)

will update if my second go around yields better results

DarkMage530 · 05 May 2017

So just finished my second attempt. It seems the image I made keeps overwriting the GPT back to MBR during the image restore process

Is there a way to not have that happen?

essenbe · 05 May 2017

Are you trying to restore the whole image or just the C partition from your image? Just do the C partition. Just drag the C partition from the image to the C partition of your clean install. Don't bother with any of the other partitions.

DarkMage530 · 05 May 2017

Wait, you're supposed to drag the partition from the image to the partition you want to overwrite? Oh, I was just trying to select the C: partition so it had this tiny blue underline under it. ughhh ok lemme try this again.

cereberus · 05 May 2017

DarkMage530 said:

1607 works? or just 1703

Also sorry if this sounds really dumb but how do you boot from a drive on another pc? I have a laptop thats on 1607 or 1703 (haven't checked yet) which I could use, just not sure how I'd use it to boot my pc with.

My mistake - I meant 1703.

DarkMage530 · 05 May 2017

Well dragging the image partition works. I feel like an idiot.

Windows is now downloading the upload, something that hadn't happened before.

I'm going to bed but in the morning if the download and upgrade works I'll mark this as resolved.

Thanks everyone for your help thus far. I really appreciate it.

essenbe · 05 May 2017

Great, I'm glad it worked for you. You're not an idiot because you're unfamiliar with a piece of software. If that were so I would have been locked up years ago. Congratulations for trying something new. I hope everything worked. @cereberus and @NavyLCDR deserve the credit for their help.