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Recovering an inaccessible Windows intallation

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Paul A.

I just bought a Dell Inspiron 16 (which I'm extremely pleased with). It came with Windows 11 preinstalled. One of the first things I did was to install Kubuntu, with the intention of having a dual-boot system. But I botched the installation, leaving me with a first-rate Kubuntu system --but no Windows. -:(.

When I start up the machine, it runs Grub, not the Windows loader. I can choose among Ubuntu, Advanced options for Ubuntu, Windows Boot Manager on /dev/0n1p1, or UEFI Firmware Settings. Choosing Windows Boot Manager gets me into a Boot Repair loop; Reset doesn't work and the various options for restoring Windows, including restoring the factory configuration, don't work either. I've tried all the forms of Restore that I can discover and none of them work, probably because Reset doesn't work. And yes, I also tried restoring from the Cloud. Nada!

os-prober gives me this:

/dev/nvme0n1p1@/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/bootmgfw.efi:Windows Boot Manager:Windows:efi /dev/sda3:Mac OS X:MacOSX:macosx

So I have a first-rate Kubuntu installation and a Windows installation yearning to break free. The system starts up with Grub, and none of the other startup options (I've tried many) can get me past that.

So how can I get to run Windows? If I could add the right menu option to Grub, I'd be home free.

Update: I'm going to try retrieving the Windows menu entry from a different installation, modifying it by replacing its partition reference by the partition reference provided by os-prober, add that modified menu entry to boot.config, and then use update-grub to install it. Wish me luck!

Update: The menu entry I'm working from is

menuentry 'Windows Boot Manager (on /dev/sda1)' --class windows --class os $menuentry_id_option 'osprober-efi-DE3E-67A1' { savedefault insmod part_gpt insmod fat set root='hd0,gpt1' if [ x$feature_platform_search_hint = xy ]; then search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root --hint-bios=hd0,gpt1 --hint-efi=hd0,gpt1 --hint-baremetal=ahci0,gpt1 DE3E-67A1 else search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root DE3E-67A1 fi chainloader /EFI/Microsoft/Boot/bootmgfw.efi }

and the os-prober information is, as I indicated above,

/dev/nvme0n1p1@/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/bootmgfw.efi:Windows Boot Manager:Windows:efi /dev/sda3:Mac OS X:MacOSX:macosx

My apologies for the lack of formatting -- I couldn't get blockquote to preserve the spacing. Appareently the forum's use of blockquote is dfferent from the HTML version.

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oldfred avatar
cn flag
oldfred
Can you directly boot Windows from UEFI boot menu? Same key you used to boot Ubuntu live installer, probably f12 with Dell.
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cc flag
ubfan1
Did you try oldfred's suggestion to use the EFI boot menu and bypass grub completely? grub and bootmgfw are separate bootloaders and may be run separately.
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us flag
Paul A.
Unfortunately, Windows does not appear in the EFI menu, because the Kubuntu environment doesn't even know it exists. It's in a partition unknown to Grub. My hope is to make that partition visible by adding a menu entry for it in grub.cfg.
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cc flag
ubfan1
There are several reasons grub might not "see" Windows, from the simple "Windows is hibernated" to the Ubuntu install changing a TPM register needed for Bitlocker to decode the Windows partition. Still, maybe we are just misunderstanding each other -- the EFI menu relists the UEFI Settings boot order, and allows you to select one -- Typically it says 1)ubuntu (p0... 2)Windows Boot Loader (p0... Select the Windows Bootloader to boot Windows with no grub involvement at all. Fix Windows from Windows, then the grub menu with Windows may work (no real changes needed for grub).
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us flag
Paul A.
I should have mentioned earlier that the purported Windows Boot Manager entry in Grub does not lead me into Windows -- it takes me to the dreaded Boot Repair and its loop. Nice try, though. As far as I can tell, the Linux environment is totally unaware that Window exists at all.
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us flag
Paul A.
I didn't know that the EFI menu even existed. That might be related to the fact that Windows still doesn't boot even though I've now provided a menu entry for it. It could be that the menu entry I constructed is defective, but even if that's the case, I wouldn't expect it to fail silently and pass the baton to one of the Ubuntu menu items. I verified that those menu Items are seen by making minor changes to their names.
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nineninesevenfour avatar Ubuntu
in flag
nineninesevenfour

I think unfortunately you cannot get rid of the "Boot Repair Loop" through grub.

There is a lot of information around on the internet about the boot repair loop, one of the most helpful ones seems to be this one: https://helpdeskgeek.com/windows-10/how-to-fix-a-windows-10-automatic-repair-loop/ Here the third point "Run the Windows 10 DISM tool" seems to be the most interesting one. For more results: https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffab&q=windows+repair+mode+looping&ia=web

I'd also recommend to check the BIOS security settings, if TPM (Trusted Platform Module) is on and secure boot is enabled.

If all that doesn't work, I can think of two more options: 1) Maybe Dell did put a sticker with the product key on the bottom of you laptop. If that's the case, you can download the Windows ISO from Microsoft and do a fresh install (instead of recovery). After that check the device manager if some drivers are missing and fill it up from the Dell support page 2) Ask Dell support to reset the laptop for you.

BTW my personal recommendation to get Kubuntu is through installing Ubuntu first and then patch KDE onto it with sudo apt install kubuntu-desktop. The ISO image of Ubuntu is better up-to-date than the Kubuntu one.

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us flag
Paul A.
If at all possible, I'd like to awaken the system that's already there. I think this can be done with the boot-repair utility, but I don't know how to use the available information to set it up. Then the initial boot of Windows could be done with Grub. Is this doable?
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nineninesevenfour avatar
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nineninesevenfour
I think it is possible. I also think that your grub is OK and the boot repair loop can be fixed through Windows on-board tools. The F8 key is your friend. Please go through the steps in the first link i provided (helpdeskgeek), the description is really detailed there. If you are stuck at one specific point then, let me know.
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Paul A.
My plan is to get Windows running and then pick up the pieces of the boot repair oop if it's still there. Does that seem reasonable to you?
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Paul A.
Pressing F8 after bootup is useless. After pressing the Power On button, I immediately land in Grub, and once I'm in grub, none of the F-key options are relevant. Everything I've seen so far confirms that the solution lies in constructing the right menu entry, which is some variation on the menu item from a different Win10 installation. Part of the variation consists of changing the disk partition designation to be the partition on my new Inspiron, but that does not seem to be sufficient.
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