Reinstalling 8.1 with UEFI boot. Avoiding duplicate firmware entries

[betamax]

I have an existing UEFI install of windows 8.1 and it's time for a reformat and clean install. In the past I would just blow away the partitions and start fresh. But, from what I hear, this causes duplicate entries to appear in the NVRAM.

 

Is there a better approach for this? Could I keep the partitions in tact and just format the primary partition that windows is installed to? Or do I have to blow away all the partitions and recreate them, then deal with the duplicates later?

[Tripredacus]

I've reinstalled Win8 on UEFI many times and not seen any problems. Are you referring to this article?

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc749510%28v=ws.10%29.aspx

Note it is for Vista and UEFI 2.0. UEFI 2.3.1 (the one certified for Windows 8) didn't start showing up on consumer desktop boards until early 2012.

[betamax]

Yes, exactly.  And also this http://www.overclock.net/t/1156654/seans-windows-7-install-optimization-guide-for-ssds-hdds/220#post_15563816 (mainly the point that the boot manager is stored on the NVRAM)

 

So when you reinstall Win8 on UEFI are you blowing away all the partitions and starting fresh or just reformatting the Primary partition?

[Tripredacus]

Well I don't really *use* Windows 8, but I do a lot of testing with it. I always just use Diskpart to clean the disk and reapply the image with DISM. I should do some testing whether or not I can replicate this duplicate BCD thing, but it will have to wait until next week.

[betamax]

let me know what you find out.. i will be eagerly checking this thread!

[HarryTri]

 

Could I keep the partitions in tact and just format the primary partition that windows is installed to? Or do I have to blow away all the partitions and recreate them, then deal with the duplicates later?

 

You can do both of them, whichever fits more to you.

[betamax]

 

 

Could I keep the partitions in tact and just format the primary partition that windows is installed to? Or do I have to blow away all the partitions and recreate them, then deal with the duplicates later?

 

You can do both of them, whichever fits more to you.

 

 

have you done this with a UEFI install of windows 8 and checked if it creates duplicate firmware entries?

[Tripredacus]

I just did some testing. After my first deployment there were 10 Windows Boot Manager entries.

Firmware Boot Manager---------------------identifier              {fwbootmgr}displayorder            {bootmgr}                        {27fa5fbc-e5c1-11e3-a481-0090f5e7d27f}                        {27fa5fb4-e5c1-11e3-a481-0090f5e7d27f}                        {27fa5fb5-e5c1-11e3-a481-0090f5e7d27f}                        {27fa5fb6-e5c1-11e3-a481-0090f5e7d27f}                        {27fa5fb7-e5c1-11e3-a481-0090f5e7d27f}                        {27fa5fb8-e5c1-11e3-a481-0090f5e7d27f}                        {27fa5fb9-e5c1-11e3-a481-0090f5e7d27f}                        {27fa5fba-e5c1-11e3-a481-0090f5e7d27f}                        {27fa5fbb-e5c1-11e3-a481-0090f5e7d27f}                        {27fa5fb3-e5c1-11e3-a481-0090f5e7d27f}timeout                 2

And when I reinstall, I have 10 again.

Firmware Boot Manager---------------------identifier              {fwbootmgr}displayorder            {bootmgr}                        {4e026ab9-e5c7-11e3-acb3-0090f5e7d27f}                        {4e026ab1-e5c7-11e3-acb3-0090f5e7d27f}                        {4e026ab2-e5c7-11e3-acb3-0090f5e7d27f}                        {4e026ab3-e5c7-11e3-acb3-0090f5e7d27f}                        {4e026ab4-e5c7-11e3-acb3-0090f5e7d27f}                        {4e026ab5-e5c7-11e3-acb3-0090f5e7d27f}                        {4e026ab6-e5c7-11e3-acb3-0090f5e7d27f}                        {4e026ab7-e5c7-11e3-acb3-0090f5e7d27f}                        {4e026ab8-e5c7-11e3-acb3-0090f5e7d27f}                        {4e026ab0-e5c7-11e3-acb3-0090f5e7d27f}timeout                 2

I used Windows 8.1 Pro x64 with Update 1, disk cleaned by Diskpart, image applied by DISM. I don't currently have a system that hasn't had an EFI deployment done to it to see what a new system would be like.

[HarryTri]

 

have you done this with a UEFI install of windows 8 and checked if it creates duplicate firmware entries?

 

No but why would it create duplicate firmware entries, you just keep the same partitions.

[betamax]

Maybe it doesn't.

 

Trip- can I send you a PM about DISM images?  I've always done the vanilla CD or USB based installed.  But I was interested in creating an actual image and throwing that in a recovery partition for easy reformats in the future.  I just wasn't sure about all the steps, including the deployment of a reference PC.

[NoelC]

On a tangent subject...  Those of you reinstalling Windows because of "wearing it out" - e.g., making it less than perfect by testing, or installing bunches of software for evaluation...

 

I'm sure many of you already know this, but for those of you who don't: 

 

You might want to consider using a virtualization package, and do your testing/evaluation in a virtual machine to help maintain the integrity of your host system.  One thing the VMware package provides is the concept of "snapshots".  You can save the state of a machine, and within seconds restore a corrupted machine to a saved snapshot.  Or even to a snapshot saved right after a fresh installation.  You can maintain multiple snapshots as long as you have the disk space.  Darned handy!

 

I've been doing this for a long time (I have all the systems going back to XP in VMs I can boot up in seconds), and my main desktop system just runs and runs forever without flaw.  It's quite nice never to have to redo all the tweaks and installs on your main working system.

 

As far as licensing cost, if you can't justify buying separate licenses to run in the VMs, consider...  Even though Microsoft does not allow the installation of a Windows 8.1 VM from the same license as you have on the desktop, there's always the Windows 8.1 Enterprise Evaluation, downloadable for free from Microsoft and which will run for 90 days (and can be rearmed for another 90).

 

Just my 0.00000002 cents worth of handy advice for today. 

 

-Noel

Edited May 29, 2014 by NoelC

[HarryTri]

 

You might want to consider using a virtualization package, and do your testing/evaluation in a virtual machine to help maintain the integrity of your host system.  One thing the VMware package provides is the concept of "snapshots".  You can save the state of a machine, and within seconds restore a corrupted machine to a saved snapshot.

 

Of course you can do this with any disc imaging software (Acronis True Image, Macrium Reflect (free edition available) etc. also.

[NoelC]

Yes, but you usually can't do it in seconds, which (honest) is how long it takes with VMware.  That opens up a whole new set of possibilities.

 

-Noel

[HarryTri]

I don't get it. Can VMware backup all these GBs of files and restore them in seconds?

Edited June 4, 2014 by HarryTri

[NoelC]

In a nutshell, yes.  Near as I can tell it works on deltas (each snapshot is, generally speaking, stored as just the changes to the previous one).  Taking a Snapshot happens in literally just a few seconds (not even 10) and last time I restored an old snapshot I don't think it took even 20 seconds.  I have a fast I/O subsystem, but the technology of the Snapshot process is the real hero.

 

-Noel