Delete EFI partition on external drive.

Anonymous
2024-06-18T13:31:49+00:00

I've been having problems regarding SSD cloning. Macrium have been very helpful. It appears that I'm booting from the 2 installed internal hard drives (!?!).

It was working OK for ages but obviously something subsequently has happened.

It was recommended I clone to an external drive.

Fortunately I had a another SDD that I could use. I reformatted this and connected externally . Checked with file folder that it could be read and was empty. All good.

Used Macrium to clone but was concerned that if supposedly booting form 2 internal drives, what am I copying, and would it work?

It didn't!

Both drives had 3 partitions; An EFI System partition (100MB), Windows 11 Home partition (465 GB) and a Recovery Partition ((610MB)

To cut long story short, the external drive now consists of 2 partitions, The EFI partition and an unallocated partition.

The external SDD is no accessible !!. I get the message "You currently don't have permission to access this folder" and continuing, "You have been denied access to this folder" " to gain access to this folder you will have to use the security tab"

Don't understand what to do next.

Using Disk Management and right clicking on greyed out EFI partition gives a greyed out window

Can anyone help in getting this 'external' drive accessible again ?

Windows for home | Windows 11 | Recovery and backup

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  2. Anonymous
    2024-06-28T13:12:58+00:00

    Hi Remesh,

    Snipping working again.

    This is my boot configuration. As we know, booting from Disc 1 (MSI M390); Boot Option #1. I don't see in any of the other boot options reference to disk 0 ()Samsung EVO)

    I've included UEFI disc priorities. Can't say I understand what these mean but I note both boot option #1 and #2 have the MSI M390 (disc 1) as the boot drive (?)

    You ask to disconnect disk 1. This is not easy as fixed to the mother board with tiny screw. I fear I might cause damage in attempting to remove. If you don't think there is any other option, I might risk it.

    Image

    Image

    Image

    Image

    ** EDIT ** Viewed online install video. haven't got tiny screwdriver so will need to get one. Should be able to remove. Will post with result

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  3. Ramesh Srinivasan 87,435 Reputation points Independent Advisor
    2024-06-25T16:17:14+00:00

    By the way, you can share screenshots on imgur.com and post the link here.

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  4. Ramesh Srinivasan 87,435 Reputation points Independent Advisor
    2024-06-25T16:11:03+00:00

    No, that won't work.

    Disk 1's EFI references Disk 0's OS partition.

    So, what you want to do now is:
    <repost>
    disconnect disk 1 and boot from disk 0.

    If disk 0 boots fine, clone disk 0 to disk 1 and detach disk 0.

    </repost>

    (or)

    Boot into WinRE and rebuild the BCD to fix the EFI partition on Disk 1 (so that it doesn't point to Disk 0's OS partition).

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  5. Anonymous
    2024-06-25T15:53:59+00:00

    Remesh,

    Used app called Disc Genius to copy data partition of Disc 0 (Samsung) to Disc 1 (MSI). Told successful. We seem to agree that boot is using disk 1 EFI and disc 0 data. Now with a copy of Disc 0 data expectation Disc 1 will boot.

    No! Fails !!??

    Loath to take screwdriver to MSI M390 fixed to motherboard.

    Taken pictures/snipped of BIOS and all boot options. There on PC but no 'seen' when try to upload and insert. They appear to have vanished (but they haven't. Seen when I close edge ??)

    It should be noted that option 1 boot is MSI M390. of the 7 options Samsung not mentioned

    I'll try and find out why can't upload.

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