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Install.nsh is Not Recognized as an Internal Command: 4 Possible Fixes

Install.nsh is Not Recognized as an Internal Command: 4 Possible Fixes

In this article, we will learn some methods to fix the Install.nsh is Not Recognized as an Internal Command error. We have tested the above methods, and somehow they tend to work differently on different systems.

Why do we get- Install.nsh is Not Recognized as an Internal Command?

UEFI requires intervention because EFI firmware on Mac’s motherboard can’t find valid OS-specific EFI boot firmware in the disk’s standard location. However, assuming you have a macOS recovery partition on that disk, it should contain a copy of boot.efi (macOS-specific boot firmware) that you can boot into the OS with.

Your immediate objective is to help EFI locate and execute os-specific boot firmware. Ultimately, the objective is to provide a boot partition that contains macOS boot.efi. By now, you may have surmised boot.efi is an EFI standard filename that lives at an EFI standard path in a disk partition, and it contains os-specific boot firmware (e.g., Windows, Linux, etc… have their flavors of boot.efi).

Install.nsh is Not Recognized as an Internal Command: FIX 1

In my case, after installing macOS Catalina into a Virtual Machine according to these instructions (running macOS installer from an ISO downloaded from Apple), on the first boot, the boot partition was present but unconfigured (probably no boot image installed). You can probably look for the FIX 2 below if you have the boot image. After manually directing EFI to boot into macOS for the first time, macOS automatically fixed up the boot partition, and subsequent boots worked properly.

I was able to fix the UEFI problems as follows (credit to VirtualBox forum):

  1. At UEFI prompt: Type exit
  2. You’ll be brought into an EFI text-mode GUI.
  3. Select Boot Maintenance Manager and click.
  4. Select Boot From File and click

You should see two entries in a list (they are cryptic-looking PCI bus paths).

The first PCI path in the list is probably the boot partition that doesn’t contain bootable firmware. The second PCI path is probably to the recovery partition, which you must boot from. If the 2nd partition isn’t the recovery partition, look under the paths in the list to see if one of them is. If the recovery partition isn’t present and valid, these instructions won’t work.

Click the 2nd entry, and you should see (and then click):

macOS Install Data

Then click:

Locked Files

Then (if present), click

Boot Files

And finally click:

boot.efi

The installation will continue, or you will boot into the OS or get the Recovery Utilities menu (where macOS can be reinstalled from or Disk Utilities run). The ambiguity of that last statement is I did that a while before writing this comment, and I don’t recall what I booted into first, only that it worked and was not hard to figure out what to do. If you have a recovery partition, to boot directly into the Recovery Mode, turn on the Mac and immediately press and hold (⌘)-R

Install.nsh is Not Recognized as an Internal Command: FIX 2

When you experience EFI internal shell, you will see a mistake or a note. Do not worry since nothing is wrong with your operating system. This mistake can occur due to a lot of factors. Some of these are-

After creating the virtual machine, you forgot to run the CMD commands for the VirtualBox. You need to run those codes. Here are the codes to use- download here.

The 2nd most frequent reason users experience this dilemma is due to Apple File System (APFS). APFS is currently Apple’s new file system to get Apple items like MacOS, ipadOSs, watchOS, TVOS, and other Apple goods. APFS does not work flawlessly using a VirtualBox, especially with macOS Catalina. This could encounter this also can appear various other issues. If you’ve attempted to set up or upgrade macOS using APFS on VirtualBox, you’ll likely be stuck at the casing. When you confront such issues, you want to boot up the ISO in the APFS boot image and then load a driver out of that. After downloading, you could boot into some macOS.

To solve this issue, turn off your virtual machine. At the top, click the Close icon and then click on Power of the device.

Go to Settings and add the APFS EFI Boot Image on the virtual machine.

Now click “Storage”, select the CD/ISO file, click on the CD icon at the top right of the settings, and choose “Virtual Optical Disk File”.

Now select the downloaded Boot file and upload it here.

Now, switch on the virtual machine, and you will boot into Shell. Enter the following commands-

edit startup.nsh

You will be directed to startup.nsh screen. There you can change, edit or delete items.

Type these commands there and when you are done, press Ctrl-Q and then press Enter.

echo -off 
load fs1:\EFI\drivers\apfs.efi
load fs1:\EFI\drivers\AppleUiSupport.efi 
load fs1:\EFI\drivers\ApfsDriverLoader.efi 
map -r
fs2: 
cd System\Library\CoreServices\
boot.efi

Type EXIT.

Click Continue.

Now you will be redirected to the installer screen of your macOS and proceed with the installation.

Install.nsh is Not Recognized as an Internal Command: FIX 3

If you then get messages along the lines of ‘\macOS Install Data\Locked Files\Boot Files\boot.efi’ missing or not recognized:

run setup.nsh

now run, fs0:\System\Library\CoreServices\boot.efi

Install.nsh is Not Recognized as an Internal Command: FIX 4

Here is another fix for Install.nsh is Not Recognized as an Internal Command. You need to test all the above methods and see which works for you.

Directory ‘FS2:\System\Library\CoreServices\’ was not found. ‘boot.efi’ is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program, or script file.

If you encounter :not found error. Use the following method to fix.

1) TYPE: FSx: (where x is 3 or 4 or 5… in my case was FS4:) and press enter.

2) TYPE: ls (LS in small letters and press ENTER)

3) If you see one directory path with an alpha-numeric name that looks like

(for i.e.):

ABCDEFGH-ABCD-1234-ABCD-123A12B34567

Copy this name in a notepad. You need to write it down one by one and you won’t be able to copy the text directly.

If NOT, got to 1) and try with next number.

4) Edit the file startup.nsh and replace the line

fs2:

With the correct number (in MY case 4) so after it looks like:

fs4:

5) Finally, replace the line

cd System\Library\CoreServices\

with

cd ABCDEFGH-ABCD-1234-ABCD-123A12B34567\System\Library\CoreServices\

(of course, ABCDEFGH-ABCD-1234-ABCD-123A12B34567 is a random name, replace it with your directory name)

6) CTRL-Q and Y to save

7) Restart the VM

8) After the shell countdown, the machine will perfectly start.

Conclusion: Install.nsh is Not Recognized as an Internal Command

I hope you were able to fix the install.nsh error. We have tested the above methods, and somehow they tend to work differently on different systems. If you are still facing these issues, we advise you to look for other installation macOS X alternatives on VMWare. It is a much easier setup and is painless.

If you have any queries, comment down below.

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