[VHD][BOOT][UEFI] Boot Windows 8 From a VHD Drive On a GPT Disk Using UEFI BIOS

I had been dual booting two copies of Windows 8 prior to getting a new rig without any issues. Once I installed Windows 8.1 I can no longer boot a VHD from the GPT partitioned drive.
My PC specifications
Intel i7-4770k
ASUS SABERTOOTH Z87
16GB KINGSTON HYPERX BEAST DUAL-DDR3 2400MHz
2GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 660 Ti
120GB INTEL 520 SSD
4TB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD2002FAEX
4TB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD2002FAEX (two way mirror = storage spaces)
15x BLU-RAY Writer Drive
CORSAIR 750W PRO HX750-80
Corsair H60 Hydro Series High Performance CPU Cooler
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT
Windows 8.1 Pro x64
So I basically copied my existing VHD to the new data drive and created the relevant BCD entry, when I chose to boot from the VHD I am presented with an error saying Windows cannot boot and to choose another OS or the troubleshooting options (I’ll post the
exact error later as I am at work at the moment).
I can boot the VHD inside Hyper-V without any issues, it just wont boot natively. I also created a brand new Windows 8.1 VHD and still the same thing happens. Once I created a new VHD I used “bcdboot j:\windows /s j:” to insert the attached VHD into the BCD
store.
So existing or brand new VHD’s don’t seem to work for me, any advice would be appreciated.
Mike Park

I posted this issue on Neowin and someone kindly pointed out the answer, it's to do with storage spaces:
http://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/1191873-native-boot-vhdx-from-second-drive/#entry596152197
Quote
What types of drives can I use with Storage Spaces?
You can use commodity drives attached via Serial-Attached SCSI (SAS), Serial ATA (SATA), or USB. Storage layers that abstract the physical disks are not compatible with Storage Spaces. This includes VHDs and pass-through disks in a virtual machine, and storage
subsystems that layer a RAID implementation on top of the physical disks. iSCSI and Fibre Channel controllers are not supported by Storage Spaces.
From: http://social.techne...stions-faq.aspx
Mike Park

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Last edited by IamFuzzles (2012-08-22 04:20:56)

Terminator wrote:If I understand it correctly, what you are trying is impossible: you are trying to boot windows using UEFI on a disk with MBR partitioning. Windows 7 only supports UEFI on discs with GPT partitioning but AFAIK, extended partitions only exist in MBR partitioning.
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Last edited by e_tank (2012-08-21 11:56:15)

[Forum FAQ] Error 0xc0000428 when booting Windows 8 from Windows 7 BCD

Scenario
To better analyze this issue, I introduce my test environment firstly.
I have installed Windows 7 and Windows 8 in separate disks (Figure 1)
Disk1 (only one partition, C drive): storing BCD
Disk2 (only one partition, D drive): storing Win 7 system files
Disk3 (only one partition, E drive): storing Win 8 system files
Figure 1.
Then I performed the steps below to boot Windows 8:
Step 1: Boot the computer from Operation System installation media, then I formatted Disk1 to NTFS and activated it via Diskpart Command-Line Utility. You can use the commands
below in order to achieve that (Figure 2):
List volume
Select volume x
Format fs=ntfs quick
Active
Figure 2.
Step 2: I copied the boot files from Windows 7 disk via BCDboot command below:
Bcdboot d:\windows /s c:
Step 3: I edited the BCD file to add an entry for Windows 8 using the command below:
Bcdedit /store c:\boot\bcd /create /application osloader
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Bcdedit /store c:\boot\bcd /set {GUID} device partition=E:
Bcdedit /store c:\boot\bcd /set {GUID} osdevice partition=E:
Bcdedit /store c:\boot\bcd /set {GUID} description “win8”
Bcdedit /store c:\boot\bcd /set {GUID} path \windows\system32\winload.exe
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Bcdedit /store c:\boot\bcd /displayorder {GUID} /addlast
Steps 5: I checked the BCD files by running bcdedit command. (Figure 3)
Figure 3.
Symptom
When I rebooted the computer and selected Windows 8 Operating System to boot, then I encountered the following error message (Figure 4):
File: \windows\system32\winload.exe
Status: 0xc0000428
Info: Windows cannot verify the digital signature for this file
Figure 4.
Cause
This issue is due to the bootmgr file, we cannot use the bootmgr file of Windows 7 to find the Windows 8 Operating System files.
Solution
According to my scenario, I just need to replace the bootmgr file with the bootmgr file residing in the root directory of Windows 8 Operating System.
If you want to replace it via the command prompt, it is necessary to un-hide the hidden file in the root directory of C and E drive before coping the file. You can use the
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attrib c:\bootmgr -h -s
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More information:
A Description of the Diskpart Command-Line Utility
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/300415
BCDboot Command-Line Options
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-au/library/hh824874.aspx
Please click to vote if the post helps you. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread.

Cause
This issue is due to the bootmgr file, we cannot use the bootmgr file of Windows 7 to find the Windows 8 Operating System files.
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This is on a BIOS system
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AVO5aeaKeeE
This is on a UEFI system
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g3-K6Fyobz0
The Windows 8 bootmgr partially loads Windows 8 before offering the boot menu. By choosing Windows 7, the system must do a reboot. Using the Windows 7 bootmgr, no reboot is required.
"Let them that don't want it have memories of not gettin' any." "Gratitude is riches and complaint is poverty and the worst I ever had was wonderful." Brother Dave Gardner. "Experience is what you get when you're looking for something
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