RESOLVED - PC notebook UEFI problem - how to check or rebuild UEFI bootstrap

Thread Starter

Bhante

Joined Dec 15, 2009
64
While looking for a small SSD flash card compatible with my notebook a vendor appears to have damaged or deleted the UEFI boot information.

Does someone know of some good (free preferably) tools that are capable of investigating and editing/repairing/rebuilding the UEFI boot information? I'd have thought there should have been many by now, but have had no success so far. Maybe I am looking at it in the wrong way, as I am more used to traditional bootstrap code.
 

Teljkon

Joined Jan 24, 2019
267
There is a very good article on the arch linux forum that can help you understand UEFI booting. I know its not a linux OS but it taught me allot reading that wiki.

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Unified_Extensible_Firmware_Interface

Here is the questions I would ask. What level of UEFI was it using? In other words there are few levels of UEFI from what I understand one just says, hey computer use this file to boot, no real diffrence from traditional bios as fara as end function is concerned. The one that will make your day really crappy is when you start involving encryption and secure platform stuff. Other wise you should be able to clear the CMOS/Flash the bios and your good to go. All manufacturers will have instructions for doing this on there website.
 

Thread Starter

Bhante

Joined Dec 15, 2009
64
Problem resolved! Used Rescatux http://www.supergrubdisk.org/rescatux/ excellent program!

@ Alec_t
Yes, one would normally expect the vender to deal with it but in this case it was not possible - it was rather far away and I was about to travel when I discovered it could not boot, and there was no chance to go back.

@Teljkon
I will read the recommended article on UEFI with interest, thanks. It turned out that the system was installed on BIOS MBR not UEFI! I hadn't expected that. But since the BIOS settings had been interfered with and it was no longer able to boot, I could no longer use the BIOS to determine what boot structure it was using. The MBR had evidently become corrupted, but the above program rebuilds it on the touch of a button! (My only criticism is that it would be nice if the program could tell me what sort of boot structures it finds, even if they are corrupted.)
 

Thread Starter

Bhante

Joined Dec 15, 2009
64
The link on UEFI is excellent information, thanks. Looks like very good quality information, I have saved that and several related pages for future reference.
 
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