Windows doesn't boot anymore "missing operating system"

Mystical Devotion

11/26/23, 2:13 PM

Hi I used Unetbootin because I had no USB stick left and wanted to install ubuntu so I chose the hard disk option on unetbootin. It only gave me the option to do it on the windows drive so I did.

restarted my pc
got into windows boot manager with 2 options (unetbootin gave me error code 0x000007b) at this stage choosing windows still got me into windows.
Didn't care since I never wanted to dual boot in the first place and I had the option to boot ubuntu from the bios.
installed Ubuntu on a DIFFERENT completely empty hard drive, worked perfectly fine and I still have all my windows files and everything on the drive.
if I try to boot from the windows drive it tells me "missing operating system", bios also doesn't tag the drive with "windows" anymore. If I boot the ubuntu drive I get the option in grub to boot my windows drive but if I choose it same error basically just worded differently.

So in essence something happened between booting ubuntu and installing ubuntu to the windows boot loader (even though it was a completely different hard disk and I still can access all of my windows files)

I mean I am kind of annoyed, I have 0 idea what to do. I am just happy it didn't delete my whole windows drive lmao

Any help is appreciated

0 + 4

boot

oldfred

11/26/23, 3:40 PM

Please copy & paste the pastebin link to the BootInfo summary report ( do not post report), do not run the auto fix till reviewed.Lets see details, use ppa version with your USB installer (2nd option) or any working install, not Boot-Repair ISO https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Boot-Repair & https://sourceforge.net/p/boot-repair/home/Home/ The Ubiquity installer defaults to installing grub bootloader to first drive. Also are both systems UEFI or both BIOS? Report will show that.

C.S.Cameron

11/27/23, 6:08 AM

UNetbootin has not been supported for a couple of years now. Better to use Rufus or Etcher in Windows or mkusb, dd, SDC or Disks in Ubuntu. Last time I tried the Hard Disk option in UNetbootin my copy of Windows got messed up also.

karel

11/27/23, 9:58 AM

Does this answer your question? [Unable to boot into Windows after installing Ubuntu, how to fix?](https://askubuntu.com/questions/217904/unable-to-boot-into-windows-after-installing-ubuntu-how-to-fix)

C.S.Cameron

11/27/23, 11:19 AM

@karel: The OP is asking about UNetbootin Hard Disk option. This option creates a small Fat32 partition on the internal drive and extracts the Linux ISO to it. As I recall It used Syslinux to boot the Linux extraction. After installing Linux there was an option to switch back to Windows bootloader. This option did not work for 20.04 and later. UNetbootin is only mentioned in one comment on your link with 31 answers and it is not about the Hard Disk option. I think the only ways to fix it at this stage is to reinstall Windows bootloader or install GRUB. These may be on your link.

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