Solved (Accidentally) Deleted EFI Partition, can't boot.

ajthemacboy

New Member
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Location
Mississippi
Hello,
I recently partitioned my Asus ROG G750JW into 2 main parts: One 300GB for a mackintosh, and one 6** (remaining space) for windows 8. That worked fine, until I tried to format what I thought was random partition with a size of 128MBs. I believe this to be the EFI partition, and you know what that does. I cannot boot to windows 8 or mac, and windows boot manager no longer shows up in BIOS. I have a windows 8 reinstall disk and the hackintosh install disk. When trying to refresh from the windows reinstall disk, I get an error saying that the disk is locked. What I need to know is if there is any way to restore this without erasing my hard drive. I do not have access to a windows computer (I can if I have to, but it wouldn't be ideal), but do have access to a mac. I don't have restore points, even if I did they are on the now one-huge partition, which by the way is listed as MBR format. Thanks in advance, -AJ
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Paradox
    CPU
    FX-6300
    Motherboard
    MSI 970 GAMING
    Memory
    8GBs
    Graphics Card(s)
    Sapphire Radeon r9 270
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Acer 21.5' Borderless Display
    Screen Resolution
    1920*1080
    Hard Drives
    Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM 64MB Cache
    PSU
    EVGA 500W
    Case
    Corsair 300R
    Cooling
    2 Case Fans + Stock CPU Cooler to cool VRMs
    Other Info
    Custom PC
Do you have something you can boot and get into a command prompt for Windows? If so, you may be able to recreate the MSR partition.

If you can, run Diskpart and list the disks and select the correct one with the install, probably disk 0. Then list the partitions and copy that listing and post it next time.

Diskpart
lis dis
sel dis 0
lis par

exit

What might be happening is you removed a partition in a sequence which changed the partition number the boot manager is looking for..but just a guess. Restoring it may or may not help the situation now... You may end up having to run a bcdboot command to reset the boot entries for Windows 8.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 x64
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Home Grown
    CPU
    i7 3770K
    Motherboard
    ASUS P8Z77 -v Pro, Z87-Expert
    Memory
    16 G
    Graphics Card(s)
    EVGA GTX 680 Classified (2)
    Hard Drives
    Kingston SSD 240 GB
Thank you for your response Saltgrass,
Lis Dis returns:
Disk 0 Online 931 GB
Disk 1 Online 14 GB
Disk 2 Online 7663 MB

sel dis 0 and lis par:
Partition 1 Primary 931 GB 512 B offset

I think what has happened is, without the EFI partition, Windows doesn't know where each partition stops and starts. Therefore it's all one big partition, with no stops and starts like there should be. Hopefully the data is still there, but I don't know how to access it. So what can I do now?
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Paradox
    CPU
    FX-6300
    Motherboard
    MSI 970 GAMING
    Memory
    8GBs
    Graphics Card(s)
    Sapphire Radeon r9 270
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Acer 21.5' Borderless Display
    Screen Resolution
    1920*1080
    Hard Drives
    Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM 64MB Cache
    PSU
    EVGA 500W
    Case
    Corsair 300R
    Cooling
    2 Case Fans + Stock CPU Cooler to cool VRMs
    Other Info
    Custom PC
Also, I have tried to write partition wizard to a flash drive to restore that partition, but I get a boot error: Reboot and select proper boot device… This is probably due to me writing it on a mac, and the format being different.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Paradox
    CPU
    FX-6300
    Motherboard
    MSI 970 GAMING
    Memory
    8GBs
    Graphics Card(s)
    Sapphire Radeon r9 270
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Acer 21.5' Borderless Display
    Screen Resolution
    1920*1080
    Hard Drives
    Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM 64MB Cache
    PSU
    EVGA 500W
    Case
    Corsair 300R
    Cooling
    2 Case Fans + Stock CPU Cooler to cool VRMs
    Other Info
    Custom PC
Partition Wizard needs to boot as Legacy. If you have Windows 8 Secure Boot enabled, you will need to change and allow Legacy boots as well as UEFI. But you comment about the Apple situation may also be correct.

I am not sure what to tell you where to start. But I think you need to boot into something related to Windows, like the install media for Window 8 or 8.1.

The 128 MB partition is the Microsoft Reserved partition and is usually on all GPT configured hard drives. But it almost sounds like you have removed the GPT configuration info from the drive, although I don't remember if it would even read any partitions, just say it was uninitialized. When you used Disk Management, did the drive show up with an asterisk indicating it was a GPT drive? You can copy the information from a command prompt, just right click and select mark, then highlight and right click again to copy.

But the first step in trying to recover a system is to have good information about its current status. Partition Wizard (pictures) would help, or even all the info from Diskpart would be very useful.

You might start thinking about reinstalling, depending on what you can discover about your situation.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 x64
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Home Grown
    CPU
    i7 3770K
    Motherboard
    ASUS P8Z77 -v Pro, Z87-Expert
    Memory
    16 G
    Graphics Card(s)
    EVGA GTX 680 Classified (2)
    Hard Drives
    Kingston SSD 240 GB
After disabling safe boot and enabling launch PXE, etc, I'm still getting the "reboot and select proper boot device" error. I knew that I could mark text in command prompt, but I can't put it anywhere if I can only boot from the install disk, right? I'll keep trying with Partition Wizard, but in the meanwhile; is there any way I can copy the files from my laptop to my Mac via some cable? I have ethernet, and I can order a thunderbolt cable if need be. I doubt I can but I thought it worth mentioning.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Paradox
    CPU
    FX-6300
    Motherboard
    MSI 970 GAMING
    Memory
    8GBs
    Graphics Card(s)
    Sapphire Radeon r9 270
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Acer 21.5' Borderless Display
    Screen Resolution
    1920*1080
    Hard Drives
    Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM 64MB Cache
    PSU
    EVGA 500W
    Case
    Corsair 300R
    Cooling
    2 Case Fans + Stock CPU Cooler to cool VRMs
    Other Info
    Custom PC
I'll keep trying with Partition Wizard, but in the meanwhile; is there any way I can copy the files from my laptop to my Mac via some cable? I have ethernet, and I can order a thunderbolt cable if need be. I doubt I can but I thought it worth mentioning.

You might try a version of Ubuntu that you can boot to and run but not install. I don't know in your situation if it would be able to access the files either.

You might want to try to find someone with a PC to set up the Partition Wizard bootable version. It is available in a bootable CD, so I assume an Apple could make that using the .ISO

When you boot into the bios or use the boot device menu, do you see anything that might be bootable listed?
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 x64
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Home Grown
    CPU
    i7 3770K
    Motherboard
    ASUS P8Z77 -v Pro, Z87-Expert
    Memory
    16 G
    Graphics Card(s)
    EVGA GTX 680 Classified (2)
    Hard Drives
    Kingston SSD 240 GB
Nothing at all. There isn't even a boot loader listed, like there normally is. One thing I'm about to try is fdisk /mbr. I tried using the mac disc burner to write the iso to a blank CD, with no luck. I'll pursue that too.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Paradox
    CPU
    FX-6300
    Motherboard
    MSI 970 GAMING
    Memory
    8GBs
    Graphics Card(s)
    Sapphire Radeon r9 270
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Acer 21.5' Borderless Display
    Screen Resolution
    1920*1080
    Hard Drives
    Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM 64MB Cache
    PSU
    EVGA 500W
    Case
    Corsair 300R
    Cooling
    2 Case Fans + Stock CPU Cooler to cool VRMs
    Other Info
    Custom PC
If you do not see anything, that probably means you still have the UEFI only boot enabled. If you had enabled the Legacy boot options, at least the DVD should show up. If you had UEFI capable boot media in the DVD, it should show up as both Legacy and UEFI.

Look for any CSM entries and enable that and Secure Boot entries and select both Legacy and UEFI. But different bioses handle the settings differently so hard to give specific instructions.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 x64
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Home Grown
    CPU
    i7 3770K
    Motherboard
    ASUS P8Z77 -v Pro, Z87-Expert
    Memory
    16 G
    Graphics Card(s)
    EVGA GTX 680 Classified (2)
    Hard Drives
    Kingston SSD 240 GB
The DVD (Actually a CD) shows up in boot, but when I boot from it I get the 'restart and select proper boot device' error. Windows is almost done writing to a flash drive, then I can use fdisk.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Paradox
    CPU
    FX-6300
    Motherboard
    MSI 970 GAMING
    Memory
    8GBs
    Graphics Card(s)
    Sapphire Radeon r9 270
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Acer 21.5' Borderless Display
    Screen Resolution
    1920*1080
    Hard Drives
    Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM 64MB Cache
    PSU
    EVGA 500W
    Case
    Corsair 300R
    Cooling
    2 Case Fans + Stock CPU Cooler to cool VRMs
    Other Info
    Custom PC
Do you ever get the message about hitting a key to boot from the DVD, which you normally have to do after you select it?
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 x64
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Home Grown
    CPU
    i7 3770K
    Motherboard
    ASUS P8Z77 -v Pro, Z87-Expert
    Memory
    16 G
    Graphics Card(s)
    EVGA GTX 680 Classified (2)
    Hard Drives
    Kingston SSD 240 GB
One more question, what did you use to change the partitions or delete them on your install. A month or so ago we found EaseUS was having problems with handling Recovery Partitions on UEFI installs.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 x64
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Home Grown
    CPU
    i7 3770K
    Motherboard
    ASUS P8Z77 -v Pro, Z87-Expert
    Memory
    16 G
    Graphics Card(s)
    EVGA GTX 680 Classified (2)
    Hard Drives
    Kingston SSD 240 GB
No luck, don't know why it won't work but it doesn't. According to this article: FDISK /MBR rewrites the Master Boot Record It should, but I could be wrong. Trying Partition Wizard on a CD again.

EDIT: Didn't work, trying the Ubuntu path now.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Paradox
    CPU
    FX-6300
    Motherboard
    MSI 970 GAMING
    Memory
    8GBs
    Graphics Card(s)
    Sapphire Radeon r9 270
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Acer 21.5' Borderless Display
    Screen Resolution
    1920*1080
    Hard Drives
    Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM 64MB Cache
    PSU
    EVGA 500W
    Case
    Corsair 300R
    Cooling
    2 Case Fans + Stock CPU Cooler to cool VRMs
    Other Info
    Custom PC
My laptop doesn't have any boot keys to push other then F2 to get to the BIOS. They did that because of EFI and speed, but they never added options for people who disable EFI. I used Windows Partition Manager to delete it. Have to do some stuff, will continue later/tommarow.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Paradox
    CPU
    FX-6300
    Motherboard
    MSI 970 GAMING
    Memory
    8GBs
    Graphics Card(s)
    Sapphire Radeon r9 270
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Acer 21.5' Borderless Display
    Screen Resolution
    1920*1080
    Hard Drives
    Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM 64MB Cache
    PSU
    EVGA 500W
    Case
    Corsair 300R
    Cooling
    2 Case Fans + Stock CPU Cooler to cool VRMs
    Other Info
    Custom PC
Alright, I am able to load Ubuntu in live mode, but no disks show up in file explorer. So I doubt that is of any use. I really don't know what to do, but I know a guy who owns a computer shop who might be able to help with physical things. If you have any more suggestions that I can follow, that would be great, but other then that I don't know what to do.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Paradox
    CPU
    FX-6300
    Motherboard
    MSI 970 GAMING
    Memory
    8GBs
    Graphics Card(s)
    Sapphire Radeon r9 270
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Acer 21.5' Borderless Display
    Screen Resolution
    1920*1080
    Hard Drives
    Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM 64MB Cache
    PSU
    EVGA 500W
    Case
    Corsair 300R
    Cooling
    2 Case Fans + Stock CPU Cooler to cool VRMs
    Other Info
    Custom PC

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    win8.1.1 enterprise
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Hinze57
    CPU
    AMD FX 6100 6core 3.30gHz
    Motherboard
    gigibyte ga-78lmy-s2p
    Memory
    4gig ddr3
    Graphics Card(s)
    Radon hd5000 Series
    Sound Card
    onboard realtek hd
    Monitor(s) Displays
    19" viewsonic/ 22"Samsung
    Screen Resolution
    1680x1050
    Hard Drives
    128gig ssd Kingston
    80gig WD 10000 rpm spinner
    Case
    micro
    Keyboard
    microsoft curve 200
    Mouse
    Logitech wireless M215
    Internet Speed
    high speed 20
    Browser
    ie 11
    Antivirus
    windows defender
    Other Info
    updated enterprise apr 2/14
AJ, ouch. Without a backup, you are going to need to restore the EFI bootloader partition. That is actually a GOOD thing as there is no user data in there and Win8 has a way of restoring the partition! Follow this procedure. it should fix it for you.

How to repair the EFI Bootloader in Windows 8 | fixedByVonnie
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro 64 bit GA
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    CPU
    i7-4770K Haswell
    Motherboard
    ASUS Z87-PRO
    Memory
    16 GB of Corsair 1866
    Graphics Card(s)
    GTX 780
    Sound Card
    Cooler Master Storm Headphones
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Dell 27 inch U2711 IPS
    Screen Resolution
    2560 by 1440
    Hard Drives
    Samsung 840 Pro 250GB SSD plus 2 3 TB drives
    PSU
    Corsair-750
    Case
    Corsair White Graphite Series 600T
    Cooling
    Corsair H00i Water
    Keyboard
    Corsair K90
    Mouse
    Logitech G9 Laser
    Internet Speed
    6.3 MBps
    Browser
    Firefox
    Antivirus
    MS
John, the guide you linked is probably exactly what I need, but there's one problem: my hard drive doesn't show up in vol list. Here is a screenshot, I did del disk 0-4 and list vol for each of them, and nowhere do I see any hard drive/partition/windows/mac. If we can just get this to show up, then we would be set. I have no idea why it doesn't, hopefully you do. We're so close! As for the paragon rescue kit, it would probably work, but since I can't open it in boot (as a bootable file from a CD or flash drive), there's no way for me to use it.
photo.JPG
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Paradox
    CPU
    FX-6300
    Motherboard
    MSI 970 GAMING
    Memory
    8GBs
    Graphics Card(s)
    Sapphire Radeon r9 270
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Acer 21.5' Borderless Display
    Screen Resolution
    1920*1080
    Hard Drives
    Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM 64MB Cache
    PSU
    EVGA 500W
    Case
    Corsair 300R
    Cooling
    2 Case Fans + Stock CPU Cooler to cool VRMs
    Other Info
    Custom PC
I hope I haven't done something horrible like unmounted/broken my hard drive..
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Paradox
    CPU
    FX-6300
    Motherboard
    MSI 970 GAMING
    Memory
    8GBs
    Graphics Card(s)
    Sapphire Radeon r9 270
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Acer 21.5' Borderless Display
    Screen Resolution
    1920*1080
    Hard Drives
    Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM 64MB Cache
    PSU
    EVGA 500W
    Case
    Corsair 300R
    Cooling
    2 Case Fans + Stock CPU Cooler to cool VRMs
    Other Info
    Custom PC
if it were mine, and I did what you did , I would give up ,zero the drive ,use dvd restore disk for the laptop and start over .now im only saying this because I would not know how to fix your problem
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    win8.1.1 enterprise
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Hinze57
    CPU
    AMD FX 6100 6core 3.30gHz
    Motherboard
    gigibyte ga-78lmy-s2p
    Memory
    4gig ddr3
    Graphics Card(s)
    Radon hd5000 Series
    Sound Card
    onboard realtek hd
    Monitor(s) Displays
    19" viewsonic/ 22"Samsung
    Screen Resolution
    1680x1050
    Hard Drives
    128gig ssd Kingston
    80gig WD 10000 rpm spinner
    Case
    micro
    Keyboard
    microsoft curve 200
    Mouse
    Logitech wireless M215
    Internet Speed
    high speed 20
    Browser
    ie 11
    Antivirus
    windows defender
    Other Info
    updated enterprise apr 2/14
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