$&#@*!!!! Uefi

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Red Squirrel

No Lifer
May 24, 2003
67,200
12,027
126
www.anyf.ca
Windows pisses me off. Seems like they zero in on the worst way to do anything, then run with it. Luckily, I only have to deal with a couple machines at work anymore. Everything I personally run is gnu/linux.


I sometimes ask myself why I make my life so complicated by using Linux since lot of stuff is harder, if I buy any piece of hardware I need to make sure it's compatible etc. But then I use Windows for an hour and realize why I use Linux. Modern versions of Windows are such a royal pain to use. They are unintuitive and just terrible all around. The best version of Windows was Windows 2000. Wish they kept that going, and just upgraded under the hood, without touching the user experience.
 
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lxskllr

No Lifer
Nov 30, 2004
57,364
7,514
126
I've had very little hardware trouble, but I don't buy the latest anything. Last issue I remember having was xubuntu and a xerox printer. The automagically selected driver didn't work, and it took some educated guessing to get the right one. Debian got it right the first time.
 

PingSpike

Lifer
Feb 25, 2004
21,729
559
126
I sometimes ask myself why I make my life so complicated by using Linux since lot of stuff is harder, if I buy any piece of hardware I need to make sure it's compatible etc. But then I use Windows for an hour and realize why I use Linux. Modern versions of Windows are such a royal pain to use. They are unintuitive and just terrible all around. The best version of Windows was Windows 2000. Wish they kept that going, and just upgraded under the hood, without touching the user experience.

Yeah, I used to like Windows back then. I was at least satisfied with it.

Some one should tell Microsoft that the only thing worse than a bad UI is a constantly changing UI. You can eventually learn to use a bad UI.
 
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ElFenix

Elite Member
Super Moderator
Mar 20, 2000
102,414
8,356
126
bootrec just cannot find a windows installation. it's insane. you can run it from the system32 directory and it can't find the fucking folder you're in
 

Scarpozzi

Lifer
Jun 13, 2000
26,389
1,777
126
I went through this when I bought a cheapo Dell laptop and wanted it to perform like a non-cheapo laptop. I popped a m.2 SSD in and learned how much of a pain it is to deal with UEFI and all the Windows partition nonsense. I can't remember if I kept it or threw it in legacy mode. After not wanting to pay for cloning software that may or may not work (and trying some free software that didn't work), I gave up and got a USB stick, formatted it for Windows 10 install media with laptop drivers and pulled the plug on the old hard drive. Half of the problem was the Sabrient drive wasn't being detected in the BIOS, but it was still available as a bootable device. BIOS updates didn't help.

I'm about to put myself through it again and will be getting or building a new desktop PC for home...first time in 15 years.
 

ElFenix

Elite Member
Super Moderator
Mar 20, 2000
102,414
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ahhhh i was finally able to find the bcd and rename it!

now to put all my ram and graphics card and hdmi switch back in and finally eat dinner!
 

pcgeek11

Lifer
Jun 12, 2005
21,279
4,406
136
Haven't stayed up to date on all the lingo - is UEFI that more recent development where changing even a single thing hardware wise will render you computer unable to boot and then you have to do a complete reformat?


Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) is a specification for a software program that connects a computer's firmware to its operating system (OS). UEFI is expected to eventually replace BIOS. Like BIOS, UEFI is installed at the time of manufacturing and is the first program that runs when a computer is turned on.
 

Captante

Lifer
Oct 20, 2003
30,246
10,748
136
Fwiw I've had very little trouble using Macrium Reflect to clone drives in literally 100's of systems new and old including those with UEFI BIOS.

The one problem I've run into several times involved lack of a compatible USB 3 driver which required use of a USB 2.1 port to connect my dock.
 
Mar 11, 2004
23,031
5,495
146
User error doesn't cause the uefi to lose the USB flash drive with acronis on it between reboots.

Boot 1: load acronis from USB "SoRrY yOu CaN't UsE wD eDiTiOn EvEn ThO yOu HaVe An Sn550"

/me plugs in an sata WD drive

Boot2: uefi loses the goddamn flash drive and can't fucking find it

I'm sorry but you must not have ever worked tech support if you think that. Users absolutely 10000000000000000000000% can accomplish that which you'd think otherwise impossible.

I don't think this has anything whatsoever to do with UEFI and is down to either faulty hardware, you trying to do something that you need to do something special with the board or other hardware you're using, or some combination of the above.

You know what, that was dickish. While I do think its not UEFI (at least solely) that's to blame, I could see that being a frustrating situation. It seems you're trying to migrate an older setup to something newer, and it seems like there's probably been multiple changes that will make it extra frustrating, so just start new. Most of the worthwhile data should carry over fine, and its probably to your benefit for other issues to start fresh. I'm guessing you use a base image? It'll suck to build it anew, but if you research the best way of doing that with more modern stuff, I have a hunch you'll save yourself a lot of headaches, and might make other improvements (i.e. programs you don't really need any more for instance and can trim off, or things that might let you do things you didn't know were possible before).
 
Last edited:
Mar 11, 2004
23,031
5,495
146
I went through this when I bought a cheapo Dell laptop and wanted it to perform like a non-cheapo laptop. I popped a m.2 SSD in and learned how much of a pain it is to deal with UEFI and all the Windows partition nonsense. I can't remember if I kept it or threw it in legacy mode. After not wanting to pay for cloning software that may or may not work (and trying some free software that didn't work), I gave up and got a USB stick, formatted it for Windows 10 install media with laptop drivers and pulled the plug on the old hard drive. Half of the problem was the Sabrient drive wasn't being detected in the BIOS, but it was still available as a bootable device. BIOS updates didn't help.

I'm about to put myself through it again and will be getting or building a new desktop PC for home...first time in 15 years.

In that instance I'd have just gone with a fresh non Dell install to begin with and save the headaches. The time you spent trying to sort it out you'd have been ahead starting fresh. Get your old key, keep the old drive so you can migrate any data you might want (which would be a good time to see what you can ditch and what you should probably have redundant backup of if you don't actively do that already). I think I always did that with any system I didn't build myself (and ones I did build myself I obviously was having to basically do that for), as there was just too much junk. And that was before Superfish and whatever similar that Dell got caught doing.
 

Scarpozzi

Lifer
Jun 13, 2000
26,389
1,777
126
In that instance I'd have just gone with a fresh non Dell install to begin with and save the headaches. The time you spent trying to sort it out you'd have been ahead starting fresh. Get your old key, keep the old drive so you can migrate any data you might want (which would be a good time to see what you can ditch and what you should probably have redundant backup of if you don't actively do that already). I think I always did that with any system I didn't build myself (and ones I did build myself I obviously was having to basically do that for), as there was just too much junk. And that was before Superfish and whatever similar that Dell got caught doing.
I agree.... it's just that I was upgrading another system to SSD at the same time and hit similar issues. It was originally Windows 8 and got a free Windows 10 upgrade...because 8 was a flop. Anyhow, I was worried I would hit license issues if I didn't copy things over. I think I had a code for a clean install on the Dell...just didn't want to deal with driver issues. I got it though. 👍
 

ElFenix

Elite Member
Super Moderator
Mar 20, 2000
102,414
8,356
126
Fwiw I've had very little trouble using Macrium Reflect to clone drives in literally 100's of systems new and old including those with UEFI BIOS.

The one problem I've run into several times involved lack of a compatible USB 3 driver which required use of a USB 2.1 port to connect my dock.
macrium would run into bad sectors on the SSD that the controller wasn't remapping, and fail. didn't matter that i told it to ignore them. ran chkdsk several times and no fix. clonezilla had the same issue. acronis will ignore them.
 

lxskllr

No Lifer
Nov 30, 2004
57,364
7,514
126
dd or ddrescue can overcome bad blocks. I think ddrescue is the preferred program, but I used dd last time.
 

Red Squirrel

No Lifer
May 24, 2003
67,200
12,027
126
www.anyf.ca
Not sure if this works on SSDs, but on HDDs I like to actually dd the entire thing when I buy a new one. I will do a dd write to the entire drive then do a dd read. If there are any sectors that run into errors the HDD will often remember them and re-map them in hardware. At least that's my understanding. If I don't do it first, it will happen during raid rebuild, and that's not always pretty.
 
Nov 20, 2009
10,043
2,573
136
My seven year old Gigabyte board sometimes loses the USB. Not talking from an extended chipset, but the USB ports for the KBM. I reboot and it is all well and good again. I just figured it was the mobo getting old or something.
 

VirtualLarry

No Lifer
Aug 25, 2001
56,227
9,990
126
My seven year old Gigabyte board sometimes loses the USB. Not talking from an extended chipset, but the USB ports for the KBM. I reboot and it is all well and good again. I just figured it was the mobo getting old or something.
That can be down to your PSU, and whether or not your mobo shunts the USB +5V power from the PSU's +5Vsb, or +5V line.

On older boards that have jumpers, I pretty-much ALWAYS jumper them to draw power from the +5V line, as it has more amps, more stable, etc. Downside is, you won't be able to USB-charge peripherals plugged in while the PC is in an OFF state. Oh well.

I've run into problems before (and even on my current Asus B450-F ROG STRIX board!), where running the USB +5V ports off of the +5Vsb (which is often only 2.5-3.0A @ 5V), can be stressful on it, and lead to early PSU death. Not of the "main" portion of the PSU, but of the +5Vsb line, which is also used for powering the CMOS while the PC is plugged in, as well as during the power-on process. If the +5Vsb line goes out, your PC won't likely power-on, at all, even if the "main" components (main +5V/+12V lines are OK).
 

Iron Woode

Elite Member
Super Moderator
Oct 10, 1999
30,855
12,354
136
This shit isnt worth the fucking hassle


Use to be when you wanted to get a new hard drive you just copied all your shit over, unplugged the old one, and presto fucking chango it worked.

Now we've got this uefi shit because people can't wait 10 goddamn seconds for their fucking computer to boot and the simple task of upgrading to a new drive takes hours because none of the things that should be automated fucking work and none of the troubleshooting steps work and shit like bcdboot doesn't fucking work either so you're left with a system that's stuck in a boot loop and you have to rest the bios over and over again just to get the fucking thing to boot from a cdrom.

Been at this for almost 4 fucking hours now fuck!
it worked fine for me when I upgraded from a Samsung 850 EVO 250 to a Samsung 860 EVO 500.

It is actually a better idea to just format and install your OS fresh and then your programs for best performance.