Dual Boot - MX and Win11 - Windows No Longer Boots

[fehlix]

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mx64@mx64:~
$ sudo grub install --force /dev/sda3 
[sudo] password for mx64:     
sudo: grub: command not found
mx64@mx64:~

Opps, my bad the command would be "grub-install" with a hyphen:

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sudo grub-install --force /dev/sda3 

But this was meant after you have repaired windows boot loader.

I tried the Windows Repair and Recovery Tools and each time it fails
I also tried using chatgpt for guidance to use Ventoy BCDE PE tool but no progress

Although I am not a Windows user, but there are quite a few forum members who may know how to repair the Windows bootloader.

Note, it may sometimes good to show the commands and the way you tried to fix windows.
B/c that may help someone here in the forum may spot the issue.

It did work last night as mentioned and I successfully booted to windows butwhen i tried to reinstall grub it stopped working.

That's rather an indication either something wrong with windows bootloader, or maybe with the drive/disk,
esp. with the start of the drive wehre all those boot sectors are located.

I guess I will need to try and do a new install and lose all of my apps.
I also think its time maybe to just sureender to the mighty microsoft and build a new machine that is compatible with Widows 11.
(I had to do workaround to install Win11 on the legacy boot machine)

Ohhe, a "workaround", that may well be the reason Win11 does not like this anymore.
Suggest you reinstall windows11 with UEFI mode, which has the benefit to use GPT partition table.

[Eadwine Rose]

@fehlix Back when I lost the bootloader due to drivedeathiness I got this bit saved in my files after asking for help on the forum, which solved it for me.

Maybe this is of use for you.

Don't ask me what I did anymore... I don't remember, as this was likely a year ago or something. It was very confusing and I'd much rather forget that whole ordeal but I thought maybe the info could help so I am doing a straight copy/paste from my file.

Strong urge to OP to NOT use this unless vetted by someone in the know.. might be that your code lines need to be different or whatever else needs adjusting. Could be not the solution for you at all. Just sharing this for fehlix so he might know what you need to do / can try.




If you lose the Windows Boot Partition (drive broken)

In /boot/efi/EFI/Microsoft there are two folders, one is Boot. In it the file
bootmgfw.efi

If that is there you can make a custom bootloader:

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sudo tee -a /boot/grub/custom.cfg <<!
menuentry "Windows 10" {
     insmod part_gpt
     insmod fat
     insmod chain
     set root=(hd1,gpt1)
     search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root F22E-D9D6
     chainloader /EFI/Microsoft/Boot/bootmgfw.efi
}
!

where F22E-D9D6 is the UUID of the Fat32 partition.


Best way is to regenerate the boot loader into the partition.

Grab the Windows 10 USB key and boot to it using F8 to get to the Bios boot menu

From the Windows Setup screen, select “Next”.
Choose “Repair your computer”.
On the “Choose an option” screen, select “Troubleshoot”.
Then select “Advanced options”.
Choose “Command Prompt” from the list of options.

Start diskpart by entering diskpart in the terminal
list disk to show an overview of all the disks on the computer that can be detected
select disk X (where X is a number, 0, 1, 2, etc.)
list volume to show the content
I have found that no matter what disk I selected, the volume output remained the same
I did select the windows install disk number, and then went list volume and found that was 4 in this case

The sequence
diskpart
list disk
select disk X (the disk that holds the windows install)
list volume
select volume Y (the fat32 partition)
assign letter=S (this gives the letter S to the partition as drive name)

then exit out of diskpart, and run

bcdboot X:\Windows /s S:

The X in that line, replace it with the found drive letter in diskpart and list disk and such. I found it was assigned D, so the line became:

bcdboot D:\Windows /s S:

Which means save the bootrecord found in D Windows on drive S (that Fat32 partition).

When completed successfully it will say so, boot files sucessfully created. If you don’t see that, check that you have assigned everything correctly. I had the bcdboot line set at X first, and that needed to be D. It gave me “failed to set element application device. Status = [c00000bb]

Type exit again to close the command prompt, and shut down the system. Remove the USB disk. Reboot.

Now it either just works when you press F8 to boot from the Bios boot menu, and getting into Windows. You might need to use mx-boot-repair to reinstall MX bootloader if that doesn’t start from the Bios menu.

If you can boot into MX and there is a /boot/efi/EFI/Microsoft folder, with in there content, then you could just run

sudo update-grub

and it should bring Windows back into the grub menu. You might have to change the boot order in MX Boot Options if Windows boots first now.

[Fairway]

Note, it may sometimes good to show the commands and the way you tried to fix windows.
B/c that may help someone here in the forum may spot the issue.

Here are some of the many attempts I have tried - all with the guidance of chatgpt. That may not have been a good guide but I didnt know any better
They may not be exact in order but it is hard to copy the guided commands from chatgpt to show you

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diskpart
select disk 0
list partition
select partition 2
active
exit
bootsect /nt60 all /mbr

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diskpart
list vol
exit
bootrec /fixmbr
bootrec /fixboot
bootrec /scanos
bootrec /rebuildbcd

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lsblk
sudo mkdir /mnt/mx
sudo mount /dev/sda3 /mnt/mx
cd /mnt/mx/home/mx64/Downloads/ms-sys-2.8.0
sudo ./build/bin/ms-sys -7 /dev/sda
sudo reboot

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sudo mkdir /mnt/windows
sudo mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/windows
sudo mkdir /mnt/boot
sudo mount /dev/sda2 /mnt/boot
sudo ntfsfix /dev/sda1
sudo reboot

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lsblk
sudo mount /dev/sda3 /mnt
sudo mount --bind /dev /mnt/dev
sudo mount --bind /proc /mnt/proc
sudo mount --bind /sys /mnt/sys
sudo chroot /mnt
grub-install /dev/sda
update-grub
sudo reboot

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sudo os-prober
sudo update-grub
sudo grub-install /dev/sda
sudo update-grub
sudo reboot

Ohhe, a "workaround", that may well be the reason Win11 does not like this anymore.
Suggest you reinstall windows11 with UEFI mode, which has the benefit to use GPT partition table.

This a 16 years old HP Z400 it does not use/have UEFI it is legacy boot sytem

[Fairway]

If you lose the Windows Boot Partition (drive broken)

In /boot/efi/EFI/Microsoft there are two folders, one is Boot. In it the file
bootmgfw.efi

Thank you for responding.
Machine is ~16 year old HP Z400 - no UEFI it is legacy boot only
I have spent many hours trying to repair this problem and weary - as you can see i have managed to even botch this reply to your response!

[Fairway]

Update - I bought a new samsung evo ssd and installed. Allowed win11 to prep and install a win11 rufus patched iso since this is a non-complinat legacy boot machine. Installed win11 on the new disk and kept MX on the other disk. Dual boot worked, installed all of my apps on win1 and everything worked great for about 4 days. This morning i did a reboot and bam... same fng DISK ERROR as before. Though I have been running a rufus patched version of win11 for 6 months I am wondering if they are purposefully inserting into updates or features that break the installations on these older non-compliant machines.

[Germ]

I am wondering if they are purposefully inserting into updates or features that break the installations on these older non-compliant machines.

I updated my wife's laptop (non-compliant hardware) to win 11 using rufus and she has had zero problems. That was at least a year ago. I really don't think M$ will stoop to that yet. Probably will after win 10 support stops.

[Germ]

An interesting read:
https://www.techspot.com/news/91783-you ... -dont.html