Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Preparing a 3TB drive

30 Dec 2013

      Thanks for that.  I asked Levi, and he's not had a single issue with UEFI.  He also told me that the toggle is automatic once I switch the system and then reboot from DVD rom.  And the image is not taken from this system, it's actually taken and created from an ISO mounted onto the system.  In other words, I don't create the image through what is already installed on this computer, but using the Windows DVD.  

-----Original Message-----
From: Blind-sysadmins [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of Andrew Hodgson
Sent: Saturday, December 28, 2013 10:23 AM
To: Blind sysadmins list
Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Preparing a 3TB drive

Hi,

Ok, addressing some of the points:

I don't know whether Winstaller supports UEFI installations, you will need to ask the developer.  If you are using an image taken from an existing legacy system, it won't work, it needs to be a new installation.
The way that UEFI boots is to scan the media devices for FAT32 or CDs, then it reads files from the /EFI directory.  If SecureBoot is enabled (which it probably will be on a Dell system), then the digital signature is verified.  This won't be an issue with Windows 8.1 installation media or anything that uses the WinPE/Microsoft boot loader.
Once booted into the operating system, if you run the OS setup from within a PE booted from UEFI, and the disk is a GPT disk (not sure whether the second requirement needs meeting, or whether the disk is converted on installation), when Windows is being installed, it creates the relevant EFI boot partition as well as the OS and Recovery partitions.

To check whether the system uses EFI, you can run some commands, here is the output from my system:

DISKPART> list volume

  Volume ###  Ltr  Label        Fs     Type        Size     Status     Info
  ----------  ---  -----------  -----  ----------  -------  ---------  --------
  Volume 0     D                       DVD-ROM         0 B  No Media
  Volume 1     C                NTFS   Partition    118 GB  Healthy    Boot
  Volume 2         Recovery     NTFS   Partition    300 MB  Healthy    Hidden
  Volume 3                      FAT32  Partition     99 MB  Healthy    System
  Volume 4     E   My Passport  NTFS   Partition   1862 GB  Healthy
  Volume 5     F   Seagate Bac  NTFS   Partition   2794 GB  Healthy

The FAT32 is the EFI boot partition which contains the boot loader.

You can also run bcdedit.exe /enum:

C:\>bcdedit /enum

Windows Boot Manager
--------------------
identifier              {bootmgr}
device                  partition=\Device\HarddiskVolume2
path                    \EFI\Microsoft\Boot\bootmgfw.efi
description             Windows Boot Manager
locale                  en-GB
inherit                 {globalsettings}
integrityservices       Enable
default                 {current}
resumeobject            {f18cb81b-35dd-11e3-ae88-a28fcb3f8bec}
displayorder            {current}
toolsdisplayorder       {memdiag}
timeout                 30

Windows Boot Loader
-------------------
identifier              {current}
device                  partition=C:
path                    \Windows\system32\winload.efi
description             Windows 8.1
locale                  en-GB
inherit                 {bootloadersettings}
recoverysequence        {f18cb81d-35dd-11e3-ae88-a28fcb3f8bec}
integrityservices       Enable
recoveryenabled         Yes
isolatedcontext         Yes
allowedinmemorysettings 0x15000075
osdevice                partition=C:
systemroot              \Windows
resumeobject            {f18cb81b-35dd-11e3-ae88-a28fcb3f8bec}
nx                      OptIn
bootmenupolicy          Standard

So you can see here that the system runs the boot loader from the EFI partition, then loads Windows 8.1 from the boot partition.

Using this setup means you don't need to interact with any EFI shells etc.

Hope this helps.
Andrew.

-----Original Message-----
From: Blind-sysadmins [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of Katherine Moss
Sent: 28 December 2013 01:38
To: Blind sysadmins list
Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Preparing a 3TB drive

To answer your question, the computer currently boots from legacy BIOS, though my goal is to switch it to use UEFI, which I can do; it's a toggle of sorts under boot options.  I saw it once, though the prompts were gibberish to me, and I didn't understand what kind of information the system was looking for in order to make the switch successfully.  My goal now is to use a Winstaller image off of a DVD Rom, though that's only because I don't have a USB drive large enough, and it will be moved to USB in future.  Not to mention, I'm not even sure how to boot this thing off USB.  I know that this particular model supports UEFI (I gave it a bios update that said so), though how do I tell if it also supports secure boot, and if so, what does that mean?  Do I have to have secure boot enabled?  I'd rather not.  

-----Original Message-----
From: Blind-sysadmins [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of Andrew Hodgson
Sent: Friday, December 27, 2013 6:52 AM
To: Blind sysadmins list
Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Preparing a 3TB drive

Hi,

The drive alignment is taken care of in the Windows 8.1 installer when you partition the drives.  Converting the boot process to UEFI is a different process.

Are you going to install from a CD or USB?  Does the BIOS support UEFI or Secure Boot?

Andrew.

-----Original Message-----
From: Blind-sysadmins [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of Katherine Moss
Sent: 27 December 2013 04:04
To: Blind sysadmins list
Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Preparing a 3TB drive

NTFS is the file system, not the partition type.  So you can have a GPT partition that is formatted as NTFS.  And can someone please explain to me the alignment issue?  I ask because I'm going to be switching my Latitude E6530 to use UEFI when I reinstall this weekend Windows 8.1.  Right now, it's using legacy BIOS, though that's a holdover from Windows 7, and I didn't switch it.  I'm switching it now though just before I reinstall, and I want to ensure that I reinstall it correctly.  I mean, I might have to look up on UEFI.org the prompts and what they mean, especially coming from a BIOS world, though I have never heard anything about the drive alignment.  I was under the impression that Windows was smart enough to handle everything itself.  

-----Original Message-----
From: Blind-sysadmins [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of Isaac
Sent: Thursday, December 26, 2013 9:13 PM
To: Blind sysadmins list
Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Preparing a 3TB drive

but he may want it as ntfs and not gpt
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Andrew Hodgson" <andrew@hodgsonfamily.org>
To: "Blind sysadmins list" <blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org>
Sent: Thursday, December 26, 2013 5:39 PM
Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Preparing a 3TB drive
...
David,
Is the drive showing up at all in Windows 7?  As it is a data drive only, 
you need only initialise the disk as GPT, then create your 3TB partition. 
You don't need to worry about the alignment.  If you are using it as a 
boot drive, then you need to use an UEFI BIOS.
If you can't see the disk using Disk Manager or Diskpart, then something 
else is wrong.  Can the BIOS see the disk?
Andrew.
-----Original Message-----
From: Blind-sysadmins 
[mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of 
David Mehler
Sent: 26 December 2013 16:23
To: blind-sysadmins
Subject: [Blind-sysadmins] Preparing a 3TB drive
Hello,
To anyone with a 3TB internal or external drive, though internal is what 
I'm dealing with.
This is going to be in a system running windows7sp1, which is not 
detecting the drive. I've read that the drive needs to be prepared outside 
of windows, partitioned gpt and formatted ntfs then windows will see it.
I have also read about drive alignment and that this is crucial on larger 
drives and also the 4k boundaries on these larger drives instead of 512 
byte boundaries.
The end result is I'm a little confused. The primary goal of these drives 
are going to be Windows data storage drives, with probably some Linux 
systems talking to them as well again for data storage.
I want to ensure that all operating systems can see them, that they are 
properly aligned, and  have the correct 4k boundaries set.
What all do you use for this?
Thanks.
Dave.
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