Question

1

Windows 7 doesnt boot after installing Ubuntu 12.10 (Asus Zenbook Prime / UEFI problem)

rated 0 times [ 1] [ 0] / answers: 1 / hits: 4163 / 2 Years ago, sun, october 30, 2022, 11:18:40

Today I installed Ubuntu and since then i cannot boot into Windows anymore. I used the "standard" option (didnt change any partitions manually, just entered the size) but used the UEFI-mode.

At first the GRUB entries for Windows did not work at all, after reading this thead i was able to add a new Grub entry - now i can get into the "windows-loading" screen for a few seconds but then i always see some kind of bluescreen for a fraction of a second and the laptop reboots.

I can get into the windows recovery partition but the only option there is to reset everything to factory settings (+erase all data). I have no idea how to get into the Windows 7 repair mode which was mentioned here (tried everything else in this thread too - no success).

My boot info can be found here:
http://paste.ubuntu.com/1411573/

I have no idea what went wrong (there is even an extra page for the Zenbook Prime where no installation problems are mentioned).

I would appreciate any help/ideas, many thanks!

Update

After further investigation and GRUB optimization (without final success) i think that the problem is most likely a corrupted Windows partition (or just the start sector? I CAN see/mount the windows partition from ubuntu).

Ubuntu works perfectly and Windows gets to the "Loading" screen (with the fixed GRUB entries) but crashes instantly afterwards (there is a bluescreen for a fraction of a second, afterwards the laptop reboots).

I tried several Windows recovery tools (Windows 7 Recovery disk etc.) but i cant get anything to load nor fix the problem - apparently Win7 recovery tools still have big problems with UEFI.

Does anyone have an idea how to fix or investigate a corrupted windows partition from Linux? As described i can see/edit the partition from ubuntu.

Thank you!

Update 2

For my Windows partition (/dev/sda3) GParted shows me a size of 86.2GB (with 72.36 used and 13.84 unused) while the mounted drive shows a size of 92.6 GB with 77.7 used and 14.9 unsused - could that be a reason for the corruption? Any idea how to fix this from Ubuntu (still couldnt get any Windows recovery tools to start from an USB stick..:)?

Thanks!

Final Update

The problem was in fact a corrupted start sector in Windows. After trying around for hours and manually creating an EFI-enabled Win7 USB stick (repair disk did NOT work, full disk was needed!) i was able to fix the bootsector.

Many thanks for your help!

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moloy

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2 Years ago

answered 2 Years ago skaing · Accepted Answer

It's possible that your Windows installation has been damaged -- for instance, if you resized your Windows partition(s) when installing Ubuntu, the resize operation might have corrupted your data. (It sounds like you did not resize partitions, but that's not 100% clear, so I mention this as a possibility.) If the problem is in Windows, your best bets are:

Try the Windows recovery tool (boot from an emergency disc if necessary -- they are available legally for download, although I don't have any links handy).

Ask for help on a Windows forum.

OTOH, it's possible that there's a subtle problem with your boot loader configuration. I don't see anything obviously wrong in what you've posted, but it looks like something may have created backups of some of your Windows boot files. If Ubuntu did this during installation, it's conceivable that it's accidentally damaged some of those files. You should check out the various .efi files in what is, from Linux, /boot/efi/EFI/Microsoft/Boot. Check them against their like-named .bkp files. If the installer (or whatever created the .bkp files) did what seems logical, I'd expect these files to be identical. If the bootmgfw.efi file, in particular, is empty or seems damaged, that could be the problem.

Another comment along these lines: GRUB 2 can be weird sometimes, and configuring it manually can be tricky. Therefore, you might try using another boot manager instead of or in addition to GRUB 2. The easiest to install and configure is probably my rEFInd, but gummiboot is another possibility. To use rEFInd, you should be able to install it just by running its install.sh script from your Linux installation. When you reboot, you should see a boot menu with Windows and Ubuntu listed as options, and probably another for whatever's in the ESP's EFI/boot/bootx64.efi (most likely that's a duplicate of the Windows boot loader, but I can't be positive of that). If Windows works from rEFInd, then you can continue using rEFInd. If not, then rEFInd at least probably won't hurt, except to add a step to get to Linux. (You can easily uninstall rEFInd by removing the /boot/efi/EFI/refind directory; or you can reconfigure your system to boot Ubuntu directly from rEFInd, bypassing GRUB. See rEFInd's documentation on booting Linux for details.)