[Guide] NVMe-boot w/o modding the BIOS (Clover-EFI method)



please read the instructions at the start of this thread it provides a link to download the BDU which is a utility to install clover.




I know that, i’d like an older version, but when i download one it’s a .pkg file. How do i install a pkg file to the usb?

@knightrider2003
why would you want an older version of clover ? the version in BDU is already pretty old.

clover is virtually impossible to install without the bdu unless you are running OSX the only other way to generate the config aside from the DBU is the clover configurator which is exclusive to OSX.



installed an older version and the error i mentioned earlier came out more clear. It says "BErrorart!" in red then doesn’t continue. So that means there is no config.plist. Probably clover just can’t read any of my disks.

@knightrider2003
https://www.win-raid.com/t3286f50-Guide-NVMe-boot-for-systems-with-legacy-BIOS-and-UEFI-board-DUET-REFIND-49.html#msg109729
https://www.win-raid.com/t3854f50-Understanding-the-process-Boot-from-USB-gt-OS-load-from-NVME.html
It’s no wonder i haven’t seen this message before, as it turns out this is a duet error not a clover error. however if i am not mistaken clover is actually built on a duet variant ?

I am sorry i cannot be alot of help with this.

Ok, i used the bcdutility. I don’t get any errors and there are 6 windows logo’s onscreen. If i press F3, the usb external pops up. What are those 6 windows logo button for?

@knightrider2003
glad you have fixed your issue,
those logos are simply windows volumes that have been detected by clover that you may try to boot from you can simply hide the ones you don’t need (ie all but the one that actually boots to windows in your nvme) in the config.plist file.
open it with a text editor i prefer notepad++ because it will respect the xml flags.

under the GUI key in the config.plist
create a new key called Hide
add an array

<key>Hide</key>
<array>
<string>entry to hide</string>
<string>entry 2 to hide</string>
</array>

add as many strings are there are volumes to hide ensure the string matches the volume name on the disk i used diskpart to determine volume names.

@sibliss no matter what button i push, it ends with a blinking cursor. One logo gave me a bcd boot error.

@knightrider2003
well it’s a start because now clover is loading.

the BCD boot error is the entry you want to keep you may hide the others. the microsoft BCD boot error happens because of the of the windows bootloader error i warned about earlier this is probably because you tried to clone the install rather than using a new install which as i have stated cloning windows to different drives will break it’s bootloader.

some pointers for you.
if you can still boot the original source drive in that computer boot the os convert to GPT if you haven’t already …SYSPREP the OS and then power it down. clone the syspreped os image to the nvme drive then boot to the nvme drive

the sysprep will remove the hardware ID’s and stuff used by the windows bootloader which will be reset on the first run of the OS on the new drive :slight_smile:

@sibliss why can’t i just install the os? It’s also a blinking cursor.

what is your installation media ? usb or dvd ?

if you used the Microsoft media creation tool and assuming that driver was copied to the 4 locations i mentioned in the pined post i see no reason it should not work.

@sibliss if i use the dir command in the shell, i can’t see any files on any disk. This isn’t supposed to be.

@knightrider2003
although that is strange i would not worry about it as long as you can install the OS because at the end of the day clover is like maybe 5 seconds on boot and does not effect the rest of your computer.



This is generally NOT true!
To change my NVMe I cloned my system to an internal SSD (not NVMe): it was immediately bootable; then I changed the NVMe-SSD to a bigger one and I cloned the system from the boot-SSD to the new NVMe.
Then I detached the internal SSD, restarted the system and the new NVMe was immediately bootable.

All this without other changes to the system.

@Thiersee
It seems you have been very lucky in that regard… i should say will almost never work (it’s not supposed to). I will assume however you were not running a true legacy install on the old drive since you did not mention having to convert MBR to GPT i assume that means your starting OS was already GPT without GPT the UEFI shell will not read or even detect the pcie nvme ssd …

I feel i should mention in the 15 or so machines i have done now that straight copy idea has not worked not even once. it is a well known fact that the only supported way to clone/deploy a windows 10 OS is via WDS and thus sysprep. the entire purpose of sysprep is to remove unique device identifiers and restore the image to a state such that it can be installed on other hardware via WDS. this makes sysprep almost ideal for the our purposes of transferring an existing OS to another drive. as an MTA/MCP with an understanding of MS systems i am inclined to prefer and recommend the sysprep route.

to quote the MS website



https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/manufacture/desktop/sysprep–generalize–a-windows-installation

Seems i have to convert the directory structure of the boot drive from BIOS to UEFI.

@knightrider2003

yes there is a tool for this https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/deployment/mbr-to-gpt

@sibliss
I forgot to mention, it was the same hardware and already GPT-partitioned/formatted !

@knightrider2003

If you download an older version within BDU (Options/Configuration) it prepares the target drive with the older Clover-version; .pkg-files get you, if you download from the Clover-HP.

@sibliss think it will break the bootability.

@knightrider2003
it should not break anything. atleast in theory!

@sibliss how does that tool do that? It doesn’t change folderstructure at all.