6 Ways to Fix Windows 10 Not Booting up on Linux.windows 10 won’t boot up.windows 10 startup problems.
Using Windows 10 and Linux on the same computer is painful. Sometimes UEFI Secure Boot breaks GRUB, and sometimes GRUB cannot just boot Windows 10. I recently upgraded Ubuntu to 19.10 Beta from Ubuntu 19.04. Ubuntu 19.10 now ships with the new GRUB 2.04, which reportedly has a lot of bugs. In my case, GRUB somehow messed up the Windows MBR location and now I can’t boot into Windows 10. To fix the situation, I followed a couple of steps and here is a detailed guide on how to fix Windows 10 not booting into Linux.
Fix Windows 10 not booting on Linux
If you are using Ubuntu 19.10 Beta, there are many bugs in GRUB 2.04. It would be better to upgrade to Ubuntu 19.04, or upgrade entirely to Windows. Go to this step to see how to change the default bootloader on Windows NT.
1. Reconstruct the larva
Sometimes GRUB cannot find the Windows MBR file on your drives. The first step is to check if Windows 10 can be detected by Linux. To do this, run the following command. sudo os-prober
The above command will look for other operating systems installed on your drives. If Windows is detected, you will get the output as shown below.
If the above command can find the Windows 10 operating system, we can rebuild the GRUB configuration file. To do this, use the following command. sudo update-grub
The above command runs a scan of all partitions on your local drive and looks for the various operating systems installed. If it detects Windows 10, you should get a result similar to the one below. The command will also automatically create a Windows entry in the config file.
2. Repair the boot
If you don’t like the command line, you can also try the graphical boot repair tool. Sometimes the GRUB file doesn’t work. Boot Repair Tool automatically searches for other operating systems on your drive. It also repairs and rebuilds the GRUB configuration file. It’s like starting os-prober manually and rebuilding the GRUB config file.
First, use the following commands to add the required repository and install Boot Repair. sudo apt-add-repository ppa: yannubuntu / boot-repair && sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install -y boot-repair
Then run the boot repair tool. It will take a minute or two to scan all disks and partitions. After that click on “Recommended Repair”. This option will delete the previous GRUB file and rebuild it from scratch.
On the next screen, you will be presented with a set of commands that you must copy and paste into the terminal. Just follow the onscreen instructions provided by the boot repair tool and it will repair the GRUB file for you.
Boot repair will throw an unexpected error if you are using a beta Linux distribution.
If this method doesn’t work for you, chances are the Windows Boot Manager file cannot be detected by GRUB. Hence, we will need to create an entry for it in the GRUB config file.
3. Use the GRUB customizer
In general, I would not recommend manually updating anything in the GRUB config file. We’ll be using an open source tool called Grub Customizer. Run the following commands to download and install the tool. sudo add-apt-repository ppa: danielrichter2007 / grub-customizer && sudo apt-get update sudo apt install grub-customizer
Next, we need the location of the Windows 10 boot loader. To find it, run the following command in a terminal. lsblk
Find the partition with mount point “/ boot / efi”. This is the section where Windows Boot Manager is installed. We need the device name of a particular section. In my case it is sda1, hence the location of the boot file is “/ dev / sda1”.
Alternatively, you can also install gnome-disk-utility, which is a graphical tool for mapping disks and partitions. In the menu, you can find the EFI system partition. The section description should look something like this.
Then go to the GRUB configuration tool and click the page icon at the top to record.
In the pop-up entry editor select the type “Chainloader” and the partition as “/ dev / sda1”. You can also provide a suitable name for the entry. Post this, hit Enter.
You should now be able to see the entry you created in the Grub customizer menu. However, you need to click the Save button to sync the changes back to the original GRUB configuration file.
Finally, reboot and you should now be able to boot into Windows 10. If you cannot, most likely the Windows MBR is an intermediary or the boot files are corrupted.
4. Startup Repair
If GRUB cannot load the Windows MBR, the file is most likely corrupted. We can restore it using a Windows ISO file and a USB stick. You can use any USB bootable Linux software. I would recommend WoeUSB as it is simple and gets the job done quickly. When the USB stick is ready, boot from it. Click “Next” on the first screen and then click “Repair your computer” on the next screen.
On the next page, click on Troubleshooting Options and finally click on Startup Repair. It will take time to fix the boot files and MBR.
In most cases, Startup Repair fixes the Windows boot file. If successful, restart your computer and GRUB can boot Windows. If the problem persists, we will need to switch the bootloader back to Windows NT.
5. Change the default bootloader
If you are sure that the Windows boot file is not corrupted and you have not deleted the data from the C drive by mistake, we can change the boot loader to Windows NT again. To do this, boot from the Windows USB drive, click Next on the first screen. Then click on “Repair your computer” and then “Troubleshoot”.
On the Advanced Options page, click Command Prompt.
At the command prompt, run the following command. bcdedit / set {bootmgr} path WINDOWS system32 winload.efi
The above command will change the boot loader from GRUB to Windows NT. Now, when you reboot your system, it should boot directly into Windows. If you are using Ubuntu 19.10, you will need to revert to the stable version of Ubuntu 19.04 as there are many bugs in GRUB 2.04.
6. Fresh install of Windows 10
If none of the above methods work for you, chances are you accidentally erased data from Windows. The last resort is to do a fresh install of Windows 10. The good thing is that you only need to format drive C and data on other drives will not be lost. But, nevertheless, you will lose files on the desktop, in the folder “Downloads” and “Documents”.
Closing words
These are some of the ways to fix Windows 10 won’t boot on Linux. If you have any additional questions or questions regarding Linux or GRUB, let me know in the comments below.
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windows 10 startup repair not working
windows 10 startup repair not working