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I've got a frustrating problem with some old hardware. Due to some awfully designed firmware which hasn't had a new release since 2016, I can't boot from a USB stick containing an unpartitioned UDF filesystem (or similar). The firmware will only accept that on physical DVD.

I've tried converting the Windows image into FAT32, but there's a file greater than 4GB so it won't fit on FAT32.

To make matters worse I don't have a dual-layer DVD burner and MS Windows ISOs are larger than single layer DVDs.

All I'm actually trying to achieve is to restore the boot loader into EFI which accidentally got deleted by a dual boot OS.

I have both Linux and Mac machines available. I don't have a spare Windows PC.

Just incase someone has seen similar hardware its an Aspire E5-573 Part Number NX.MVJEK.016

Is there any possible way to restore the EFI boot loader without using a bootable drive.

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    – DavidPostill ♦
    Commented Oct 19, 2023 at 7:21
  • If you have a valid ISO file could you boot and install Windows in a VM, and then use USB pass through to let that VM create a valid bootable stick using the proper Windows Media Creator?
    – Mokubai ♦
    Commented Oct 19, 2023 at 9:44
  • @Mokubai yeah, I was going to try that this evening, but in the now moved comments, what's come out is the suggestion that I use third party boot software to chain load EFI. That should in theory work around the really stupid old firmware failing to understand the MS Windows ISO. I'm still curious how cross-compatible the EFI binaries from Windows are, so I'll give the VM idea a go when I have a spare moment and write up the results here.
    – Philip Couling
    Commented Oct 19, 2023 at 10:27

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Is there any possible way to restore the EFI boot loader without using a bootable drive?

No, there isn't.

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