Is there a way to create a bootable flash drive support for both MBR and GPT?

[Zucc]

I am trying to boot live Linux OS using a flash drive. I use the Rufus tool to copy the OS to the flash drive.

 

Here is the problem.

When I select 'Partition Scheme' as MBR and 'Target system' as 'BIOS or UEFI' (this cannot be changed after selecting the target system) it can boot in my computer and the laptop cannot. When I select 'Partition Scheme' as GPT and  'Target system' as 'UEFI (non CSM)' it starts on my laptop and computer cannot.

 

Is there a way to boot the computer and laptop using one method?

 

[Gamer4714]

Take a loot at this https://www.slivermetal.org/2016/09/18/how-to-create-an-hybrid-uefi-gpt-bios-gptmbr-boot-usb-disk/

[TrigrH]

37 minutes ago, trueThari said:

MBR and 'Target system' as 'BIOS or UEFI

This should work for both. I've only tested it on windows.

 

 

Make sure you select the relevant option for the mode you wish to boot for, note the same device will show up twice.

[C2dan88]

Disable secure boot on your laptop?

 

Alternative method to Gamer4714 is to use ventory usb

[Zucc]

50 minutes ago, Gamer4714 said:

Take a loot at this https://www.slivermetal.org/2016/09/18/how-to-create-an-hybrid-uefi-gpt-bios-gptmbr-boot-usb-disk/

I looked at it and had a headache. It's so hard 

[Zucc]

38 minutes ago, TrigrH said:

This should work for both. I've only tested it on windows.

 

 

Make sure you select the relevant option for the mode you wish to boot for, note the same device will show up twice.

MBR and 'Target system' as 'BIOS or UEFI

 

That doesn’t work for me. I tried.

[Zucc]

38 minutes ago, C2dan88 said:

Disable secure boot on your laptop?

Yes I disabled it before

[TrigrH]

1 minute ago, trueThari said:

MBR and 'Target system' as 'BIOS or UEFI

 

That doesn’t work for me. I tried.

Then the issue is likely your boot image or bios settings.

[Kilrah]

Ventoy

[PianoPlayer88Key]

On 3/28/2021 at 10:56 PM, TrigrH said:

This should work for both. I've only tested it on windows.

 

 

Make sure you select the relevant option for the mode you wish to boot for, note the same device will show up twice.

How did you get Windows Boot Manager to show which device/partition it's booting from? 
I need to clean mine up (have several showing, some of which no longer exist or get directed to a black hole) and it'd be nice if it would say what drive it's booting from.  (Laptop is a Clevo P750DM-G, desktop has an ASRock Z97 Extreme6 board.  I'd be fine with using a Linux tool; also was going to make my own thread at some point, maybe I should do that?)

[TrigrH]

Just now, PianoPlayer88Key said:

How did you get Windows Boot Manager to show which device/partition it's booting from? 

Thats dependent on your bios. head to MSCONFIG.EXE in windows, it should help you clean it up.

[PianoPlayer88Key]

2 minutes ago, TrigrH said:

Thats dependent on your bios. head to MSCONFIG.EXE in windows, it should help you clean it up.

Under the "boot" tab, I'm guessing?  Nothing shows up there, although in BIOS IIRC it shows like 4 or 5 WIndows Boot Managers on my laptop.  When I restart (last time was 135 days ago) I often have to trial and error which one it is.
Windows 10 shows up on my desktop, although when I first boot it goes to a grub menu.
 

For now, if I want to boot Windows on my desktop, I select Windows Boot Manager (I forget if there's 2 or 3 or more, there used to be a while ago IIRC, also a UEFI OS.)

Interestingly both / all 4 / however many would work.

A few years ago when I had backups / clones on a couple hard drives ... if I had one of those HDDs plugged in, then even if I selected the SSD to boot from, it would still boot to Windows off the HDD.  (Probably because it was a total bit-for-bit clone.)  In order to boot off the SSD and access that hard drive, I had to boot with the HDD unplugged, then hot-plug it after I was at the Windows desktop.

 

For booting to Linux, I select my SSD (Crucial CT256M550SSD1.)  Windows is currently on a 1TB Samsung 970 Evo (desktop, btw), but shows as "Windows Boot Manager" not "1TB Samsung 970 Evo" or whatever.

As for my laptop, I only have 1 OS installed at a time (cause of issues with shuffling drives around).  Windows is on a 1TB WD Blue 3D 2.5" SSD; also I have a 2TB Seagate Barracuda 120 2.5" SSD, plus a 1TB & 2TB Silicon Power P34A80 M.2 NVMe SSDs, for data storage.  (I have Linux installed, IIRC, on a 250GB Crucial MX200 M.2 SATA SSD, but I'd have to unplug one of my NVMe SSDs to use it.  Also my remaining 2.5" SATA SSDs are used for other things, like desktop OS backups/clones, VMs, etc.)

(I think having 3 or 4 or 5 or however many Windows Boot Manager is cause I've done a few clones to various SSDs, and had multiple drives plugged in a couple times when I was booting, or something, idk.  The OS itself hasn't been reinstalled since I first set it up in 2016, would be a pretty big hassle to do so with how I have everything set up, accumulated, etc.)

[TrigrH]

2 minutes ago, PianoPlayer88Key said:

Under the "boot" tab, I'm guessing?

Nope, only certain bioses / motherboards (generally newer ones) show the device next to windows boot manager. There is no setting for it.

 

I'm not really an expert here but the windows boot manager is a partition on the drive. If you install windows to a machine that already has an install on it, it will create an install without those partitions and update the info to the other drive. (generally bad behavior)

[PianoPlayer88Key]

Just now, TrigrH said:

Nope, only certain bioses / motherboards (generally newer ones) show the device next to windows boot manager. There is no setting for it.

 

I'm not really an expert here but the windows boot manager is a partition on the drive. If you install windows to a machine that already has an install on it, it will create an install without those partitions and update the info to the other drive. (generally bad behavior)

Ahh. Hmm ... I was thinking there was like some text file I could edit (that might require privileged access, like admin rights in Windows, or booting into Linux cause Windows won't let me read those files even as admin) to change the boot names, where it directs to, etc.  (Kind-of like you can edit the grub config file in Linux.)

[Kilrah]

You can change the names of multiple OSes that a single Windows Boot Manager can let you choose between, but you can't change the "Windows Boot Manager" name itself if you have multiple of them AFAIK. 

 

 

[Akeo]

To answer OP's question (though I will assume that what they mean is both BIOS and UEFI rather than both MBR and GPT, which actually makes no sense, but I know lot of people seem to equate MBR with BIOS and GPT with UEFI), yes there absolutely is, and this is answered in the Rufus FAQ.

 

First of all, the reason why Rufus does not let you choose dual BIOS + UEFI boot by default, for Windows ISOs, is explained in this FAQ entry.

 

You can however enable dual BIOS + UEFI through the Alt-E cheat mode.

[cretsiah]

probably  to late now .....

just wondering how OP was trying to access the USB?

 

using F8 or F12 (at least on my systems) gives me the option to select whether i use the MBR or gpt styled booters from rufus

 

usually in boot options shows something like

 

usb 2 whatever linux (bios/mbr version)

or

usb 2 whatever linux uefi (self explanatory)