Clover Efi Bootloader Hackintosh

[Taneka Tarring]

Im going through the process of doing this for my first time on a laptop that i have no regrets destroying of it doesn't work im trying to install mojave in the hopes i can use xcode but currently I've hit my first roadblock

I'm using virtualbox to make my bootable USB and so far I've successfully put it through MRB and it has mojave on it and ready to go im now looking at it in clover and I've mounted the USB stick/Disk so i can access the EFI partition to add my EFI folder however now im currently trying to install the Clover EFI bootloader and when choosing my installation destination the USB Drive/Disk isn't part of the list of drives it can be installed on as a matter of fact its not even on the list so im not sure what to do it appears in my disk utility's and also in the Clover configuration so why not in the bootloader any help would be appreciated thank you

the VM can access the USB as i made the USB within the virtual machine, but the part im stuck on is not mounting the USB as i can successfully mount it with no problems my issue is the step right after that for installing the EFI into the EFI partition as when i go to follow his steps it doesn't show the USB in the list of drives i can install the EFI contents into using the installation

As for the support side of things as this is my first time i wasn't exactly sure how else to get support on the matter so I simply googled it and you guys here where the top rated support option for hackintosh support, The only time I've used 'insanelymac' was simply for downloading the tool

so I've done as you have said i checked using 'diskutil list' and even through that its coming up its still appearing in clover configurator and it can still be mounted to access the EFI partition but it still won't appear in the bootloader installer i have provided pictures to show that's its in the clover config and disk util but not in the clover bootloader installer

g-force thanks for that tip the only issue with that is my VM is only running Mac OS sierra and upon attempting to install the efi onto that drive im presented with a message that reads something along the lines of "not compatible however you can try but doing so may break the system" so im hesitant but if its only going to break the VM that's not really a problem i suppose

For the next step, you'll need to mount the EFI partition for both the hacktinosh and the backup drive. You can either do this via Terminal, or using the handy EFI Mounter GUI app (free account required to download).

That shot is from my iMac, which has many drives attached. On your hackintosh, you'll probably just have two. It doesn't matter which order you mount them in, so mount one, relaunch EFI Mounter, and mount the other.

I don't think this actually works as you intended. I think you're using the OLD Clover bootloader from the pre-existing drive to boot. By copying over the contents of one EFI folder to another, I don't think you've actually installed a bootloader onto the new drive.

It worked flawlessly on a P9X79-E WS Hackintosh running Clover, Sierra with XEON 3 GHZ 10 Core and two Nvidia GTX 770.

Now I just need to figure out how I get the 2nd Cinema 27" LED Screen working on that Setup. Any ideas?

Worked great for me. The first time I forgot to read ahead and copy the EFI and recovery. Once I redid that it worked fine. Wanted to make sure the TP Link WIFI adapter would work with my Hackintosh without screwing it up. So made a backup and booted into it and got the WIFI adapter working fine. Went ahead into my main install and installed the drivers with Kextbeast onto the main drive and got WIFI working. Now I have the main bootup and a bootable backup without any USB drive which is great.

Thank you for that guide :)) Worked like a charm, now i have a working El Cap OS and can now safely attempt to update to Sierra. I only update to Sierra to be able to install a TB card that works for my Antelope Audio D8 Interface's TB connection. On EL Cap that's sadly not possible, as i had to learn.

Do you have a guide to update from El Cap to Sierra via App Store?

Have a good day and thanks again:))

This has been a slightly longer post, but I hope it is useful. The steps involved can take a while, but they are quite simple to follow. As always, if you need me to clarify anything, let me know in the comments.

Hey Hamish,

Thanks for the wonderful guide. I am currently stuck on the step of adding the .efi driver to the USB. Once I use Rufus to install the image of refind on my USB my windows 10 no longer recognizes the USB stick.

I think this can be resolved by either using the Windows Command Prompt, or using a Linux live disk. Are you comfortable with either of these options? If it comes to it, I could just upload an image of my USB stick that has the driver pre-installed.

Thanks for such a quick response! I have a basic understanding of Linux terminal. If you have an image of your USB stick that you can upload that would be amazing for me and it might also help other people that follow your guide in the future.

Hi- the title and contents of this post suggest that you are using rEFInd, yet the file paths you give are for the Clover bootloader, and the .img file seems to only contain Clover bootloader-related files. Am I crazy, or does this not have anything to do with rEFInd?

Thank you so much for such an informative post. I have cloned my Win 10 OS to an NVMe drive but my older computer can only see the drive as storage.

I tried to go the easy route that you included in your post and tried to download your file:

I left a reply earlier but it seems to have been deleted.

I followed your instruction for a Win 10 USB Clover boot disk, but no matter what I do I get no result.

My motherboard is an ASUS A88X Pro with an AMD A10 780K Processor. I have installed a WD Black SN750 1TB.

I downloaded your file: and followed your instruction, but not having any luck.

PS: if you were to supply this setup on a USB disk for Win 10 I would gladly pay for it. I have spent all day today trying to create the USB boot drive to be able to boot the NVMe which I have cloned my Win 10 OS onto.

When you have t waste that amount of time you have to consider it it is really worth the trouble.

I would have loved to have got this to work. Do you have any suggestions that may help.

One reason for this is that the USB method is a little fragile, meaning that if my kids leave their USB headphones or another thumb drive plugged in then it often stops the computer from booting up and I have to be there to troubleshoot.

Dear sir,

I have Linux loaded on a M2 and in adapter in PCIe slot. When clover boot screen comes up, I see see a picture of a hard drive and Boot Linux from Whole Disk Boot. The hard drive is highlighted and I push enter and the screen flashes and nothing happens.The Linux drive will work from a USB M2 holder.Appreciate any help, Dennis

Hello Hamish,

It is a Asus Z87-A. The Linux version is Manjaro Xfce 64bit with a Twister for PC loaded on top[Twister is used on Pi4]. And I have tried rEFind and did the same thing. Any further help would much appreciated, Dennis

What error or symptom do you have? Does the Windows installer tell you that no drives are detected? Please note that you will probably need to boot the Windows installer from Clover as well for it to know that the PC can boot from that drive, and offer to install on it.

Curious what firmware you have on your HP 800 G1. I have one too and I can install Linux on the M.2 drive however it is not available to boot no matter what settings I choose in the bios and use Clover or Refind. The drive never shows up.

I had difficulties installing Clover to boot on an NVMe SSD I installed on a 2008 Gigabyte MB. But I finally succeeded ! I created the Clover USB key using Boot Disk Utility v.023 and Clover v.4961. Nothing else worked for me.

Mr Hamish Mcintire-Bhatty,

Please tell me if the mainboard configuration GA B75M D3H, CPU INTEL G840 can boot from a PCIe slot with AXAGON COMPACT PCEM2-1U adapter and SSD M2 SPG256 after the changes in the article or other methods.

THANK YOU

CONSTANTIN BAZ

Would love to boot from my NVME SSD. I used AOMEI Back Upper to disk clone my sata SSD to my new NVME SSD. Last month I used AOMEI Back Upper to disk clone my windows 10 mechanical sata drive to my sata SSD. Been using the sata SSD about a month. I love the zippiness of the sata SSD & hope to get further improvement by making the new NVME SSD my bootable drive.

Though I double-checked the download, it appears to be good, it appears that the refind picture is faulty. Are there any instructions I may follow to include the NVMe driver in the refind image?

Chris

Since I have no experience whatsoever of making partitions in solid state drives, nor with the latest GPT, GUID, etc formats that I have currently been reading about. Things have changed from creating a Primary partition and an extended partition with several partitions within it and I feel confused, hesitant to format the Kioxia drive I have now installed.

Later when I am ready to to proceed to additional Linux installation, I assume that Ubuntu will take care of file format as it is installed, If I remember well Ubuntu / Linux requires a swap partition which it creates on installation and Win 7 will require an NTFS formatted partition.

I would appreciate your thoughts on this and perhaps point out any pitfalls I might encounter.

I have been reading up on all this stuff now for the last month and it seems that every time I try to research something, another link appears pointing out yet something else I need to take into consideration. ???

Happy to report that this guide is working perfectly, the only thing I would add somewhere is to specify clearly that in order for the stick to be detected at boot is to disable Secure Boot from BIOS.

Back to disabling Secure Boot, it might not be an issue for most people, but with Windows 11 demanding more and more secured environments, especially if you plan to join your device to the work environment (Entra or Azure AD for example), this might become an issue.

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