Installed in UEFI - now a new problem

[Burgurne]

Greetings.
Installed Windows 7 on a new SSD using UEFI. That went well. Then I have tried some backup/restore programs, and they all need a boot-img to restore the SSD.
I then restartet, went to BIOS, changed the boot order to this:

1. boot ...... USB-key
2. boot ...... UEFI: Windows boot manager

Now it can't boot! Right after POST it stops and write, that there is missing a destination. After restart, if I press the "boot-select" key during POST and then select UEFI: Windows boot manager, it boot just fine with no error.
If I change boot-order to this in BIOS:

1. boot ...... UEFI: Windows boot manager
2. boot ...... USB-key

then it also boots fine without having to select the Windows-drive. The UEFI: Windows boot manager MUST be the first in BIOS or manually selected.

Is there any way to change that, so I can have the choise to boot from another media (USB or DVD) without having to use F11 (boot selector key on my mobo)?

I have looked in the guide for bcdedit, but it only writes about MBR and not UEFI boot.
Any ideas?

 

[gregrocker]

I believe EFI Boot manager must be first to boot as long as you have installed to UEFI BIOS and GPT disk, otherwise you'd need to change it to Legacy BIOS to MBR disk. But booting via your F11 key is no problem, so why bother?

 

[Burgurne]

You're right. It's not a big deal, but on the other hand. The created system restore CD can't boot. Selecting the UEFI-boot on the dvd gives same error as when windows boot manager is not the first boot-option in bios. And booting normally with the SR-cd just says, that it does not support my system!!

The original Windows 7 DVD works though, but it is slow starter. Hopefully I don't have to use it much, as this is just for restore when I'm in troubble.

I can't really see the advance in using UEFI when it is such a picky system, but right now I'm not in the mood to start all over again installing windows 7 from scratch. That's my bad I did not read up on UEFI before choosing it.

 

[gregrocker]

Until we know a lot more I'm not advising using EFI BIOS, instead choosing in BIOS setup Legacy BIOS, with EFI listings removed from BIOS Boot order, HD wiped before reinstall with Diskpart Clean Command to provide a clean slate for normal install to MBR disk.

It took a lot of time and work to establish ourselves as the go-to place for boot, install and partitioning fixes and workarounds in Win7 and we're swamped now as a result. There's hardly the time to retool all at once as EFI comes fully online, but we'll need to pick it up by osmosis in small steps such as with this thread and the other 2-3 EFI threads daily out of dozens.

If you're game we can use help here from those who want to bone up on EFI as a specialty.