raymac46 Posted April 15, 2017 Share Posted April 15, 2017 I can answer this. You have booted from the USB drive. Go to the Terminal and type sudo -i Then you'll be at root console prompt. (Terminal is often called console.) you should see root@your computername. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
raymac46 Posted April 15, 2017 Share Posted April 15, 2017 My feeling is that Windows 10 is not playing very well with GRUB - the Linux bootloader that replaced the Windows one. You have to use a Linux bootloader to dual boot because the Windows bootloader does not recognize anything but Windows. This procedure should work. I know it's been used many times to rescue a system where the bootloader got corrupted. Again I advise to wait for Josh's input but a couple of other things to possibly try: Re-install Linux Mint as before. That may get you going again. Try Boot Repair. This is for Ubuntu but should also work in LInux Mint. https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Boot-Repair Again let's wait and see if Josh has another idea. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
raymac46 Posted April 15, 2017 Share Posted April 15, 2017 I installed boot-repair on a virtual machine running Ubuntu. It seems to work. Here is a summary of my boot config. http://paste2.org/kttPftUe Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
securitybreach Posted April 15, 2017 Share Posted April 15, 2017 My feeling is that Windows 10 is not playing very well with GRUB - the Linux bootloader that replaced the Windows one. You have to use a Linux bootloader to dual boot because the Windows bootloader does not recognize anything but Windows. This procedure should work. I know it's been used many times to rescue a system where the bootloader got corrupted. Again I advise to wait for Josh's input but a couple of other things to possibly try: Re-install Linux Mint as before. That may get you going again. Try Boot Repair. This is for Ubuntu but should also work in LInux Mint. https://help.ubuntu....ity/Boot-Repair Again let's wait and see if Josh has another idea. More than likely, a Window's update screwed up the Grub Boot loader. Usually you simply boot a linux livecd and mount the partition as /mnt and then chroot /mnt. Then you simply reinstall grub but its not working as usual. I assumed that typing sudo before each command of the link provided would be the answer to my question above. I don't know. I told you that I have no idea of how Linux terminal works... Yes, typing sudo before the command is running it with admin rights. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
raymac46 Posted April 15, 2017 Share Posted April 15, 2017 I have no experience with EFI but would the same grub install we normally do with an old school MBR disk work the same way? Can't see why it wouldn't. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
securitybreach Posted April 15, 2017 Share Posted April 15, 2017 Well with uefi, there is a small efi boot partition and he does not have that part so I assume that it is bios. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
raymac46 Posted April 15, 2017 Share Posted April 15, 2017 Right. And that would be a FAT32 not NTFS partitiion I think. If it's a regular MBR drive then I cannot see why reinstalling grub won't work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
securitybreach Posted April 15, 2017 Share Posted April 15, 2017 Exactly my thoughts Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
raymac46 Posted April 15, 2017 Share Posted April 15, 2017 Look here Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DR M Posted April 15, 2017 Author Share Posted April 15, 2017 I see that my problem is bigger than I thought... Just wondering: what if we uninstalled Linux? Would this fix the problem? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
securitybreach Posted April 15, 2017 Share Posted April 15, 2017 If you had a window's cd, you could restore the window's bootloader: http://www.dell.com/...dell-pc?lang=EN Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DR M Posted April 16, 2017 Author Share Posted April 16, 2017 Josh, could uninstalling Linux solve the problem? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
securitybreach Posted April 16, 2017 Share Posted April 16, 2017 Josh, could uninstalling Linux solve the problem? No, it would not. Look at the link above. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
securitybreach Posted April 16, 2017 Share Posted April 16, 2017 The problem isn't with either OS but it's the bootloader that got screwed up and probably was because of a window's update. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DR M Posted April 16, 2017 Author Share Posted April 16, 2017 (edited) what do you suggest me to do? I have no disc and when I try to press F8 nothing happens. I only get the same error... Edited April 16, 2017 by DR M Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
raymac46 Posted April 16, 2017 Share Posted April 16, 2017 I'd suggest you try booting the live CD of Linux Mint. Install Boot Repair and run it from the live CD. Maybe that will work. If that fails, I might try to reinstall Linux Mint alongside Windows as before. If that fails then see if you can get a Windows 10 disk from somewhere and try to restore the Windows boot loader. Until you get some sort of working bootloader you won't be able to do much. Did you watch the video? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
raymac46 Posted April 16, 2017 Share Posted April 16, 2017 This might be a way to get a recovery ISO and restore the windows bootloader. I haven't tried it though. https://www.tenforums.com/software-apps/27180-windows-10-recovery-tools-bootable-rescue-disk.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
securitybreach Posted April 16, 2017 Share Posted April 16, 2017 I agree with RayMac Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DR M Posted April 16, 2017 Author Share Posted April 16, 2017 (edited) I'd suggest you try booting the live CD of Linux Mint. Install Boot Repair and run it from the live CD. Maybe that will work. If that fails, I might try to reinstall Linux Mint alongside Windows as before. If that fails then see if you can get a Windows 10 disk from somewhere and try to restore the Windows boot loader. Until you get some sort of working bootloader you won't be able to do much. Did you watch the video? Hello...I tried Boot repair, but didn't work. Then I reinstalled Linux Mint. I am not sure if I did this correct. Now, when I press Computer, I see only one disk there. I hope I didn't erase Windows... I press on it, and I think that I'm seeing my Windows components, but when I enter Users, I don't see my User name. I could not see it before re-installation either. After the restart the computer enters Linux. I started to worry, because I have files that I want to save in Windows! Edited April 16, 2017 by DR M Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
raymac46 Posted April 16, 2017 Share Posted April 16, 2017 (edited) What do you get if you enter Linux Mint go to the terminal and type blkid? You should see the partitions as before. You should have installed Linux Mint alongside Windows and not wiped out the disk. The installer should give you that option. Make sure you removed the USB or DVD you installed Linux Mint from before restarting. Did you try sudo update-grub again? This time do it from within Linux on the hard drive. If you see your Windows files, back up onto a USB or external drive. If you don't have a Windows rescue disk or a backup of your essential files this is indeed a problem. Edited April 16, 2017 by raymac46 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
securitybreach Posted April 16, 2017 Share Posted April 16, 2017 Yeah if the window's installation was fine before you reinstalled Linux Mint, you would of been asked if you wanted to install along side Windows as that is part of the installation. None of the commands we have given you would of affected the window's partitions so they would of had to be messed up when you first started having the issue. But they did show when you ran blkid before so the files would still be accessible. Linux can mount window's partitions even if you cant boot into Windows. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
raymac46 Posted April 16, 2017 Share Posted April 16, 2017 (edited) @Josh I don't know what grub is saying to him after a reboot. If he's still getting grub-rescue or the grub command shell there's some interesting info here. https://www.linux.co...ng-grub-2-linux I still think if he can get into Linux on the hard drive and update-grub grub-install --recheck /dev/sda update-grub Things should work unless the Windows O/S has been corrupted by the update. It shouldn't be this hard to get grub fixed. I just tried the above commands in Ubuntu in VirtualBox as root and it worked OK. No harm done and I could reboot no problem. Edited April 16, 2017 by raymac46 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DR M Posted April 16, 2017 Author Share Posted April 16, 2017 Hi, raymac and Josh. Thank you you are still here with me. To sum up: I re-installed Linux and ran the command sudo update-grub. Now, when the computer starts, there is a black screen with these options: Linux Mint Advanced Linux Mint Options Memory Test ... Memory Test... Windows Recovery Environment Windows Recovery Environment I think that Windows 10 is presented by the last line. When I click it, it seems that the computer will boot in Windows, but after some seconds, I see the message that Windows are going to previous version. Meanwhile, I saved all my documents via Linux, and I'm ready even for a format if you think that it's necessary. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
raymac46 Posted April 16, 2017 Share Posted April 16, 2017 I would do the following. Boot Windows Recovery, let Windows roll back to previous state. After that is done, Shut down. Reboot in Linux. Update-grub again. Reboot and see if Windows is back to normal. That update really messed things up. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DR M Posted April 16, 2017 Author Share Posted April 16, 2017 I started doing the above you suggested. If it fails, I will re-install Windows... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DR M Posted April 16, 2017 Author Share Posted April 16, 2017 The good news is that instead of Windows Environment I see now Windows 10 loader. The bad news: 1. I tried the one of the two Windows 10 loader. It tried to go into a previous version and then suddenly boot in Linux. This happened three times and then I tried the other loader. 2. The other loader, went to the previous version of Windows. Finally, I saw my Windows desktop, but not the Creator's update. 3. My computer warns me in boot that it has to run check disk to fix drive errors. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
securitybreach Posted April 16, 2017 Share Posted April 16, 2017 Well basically when you install Linux, it over writes the Windows Bootloader so you can boot into both of them. Well the Linux bootloader (grub in your case) got screwed up so unless you reinstall the windows bootloader, you will see errors like that. The command in Windows 8/8.1/10 for fixing the mbr bootloader is bootsect. bootsect /nt60 C: /mbr this fixes boot record of partition mapped to C: (replace with correct drive letter of window's installation) and the MBR of the disk where the partition is placed. https://superuser.com/questions/949219/how-to-fix-windows-10-boot-loader-from-windows Yes, I know... helping with Windows... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DR M Posted April 16, 2017 Author Share Posted April 16, 2017 Well basically when you install Linux, it over writes the Windows Bootloader so you can boot into both of them. Well the Linux bootloader (grub in your case) got screwed up so unless you reinstall the windows bootloader, you will see errors like that. The command in Windows 8/8.1/10 for fixing the mbr bootloader is bootsect. bootsect /nt60 C: /mbr this fixes boot record of partition mapped to C: (replace with correct drive letter of window's installation) and the MBR of the disk where the partition is placed. https://superuser.co...er-from-windows Yes, I know... helping with Windows... BOOTSECT: COMMAND NOT FOUND... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
securitybreach Posted April 16, 2017 Share Posted April 16, 2017 Did you try bootsect.exe? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
securitybreach Posted April 16, 2017 Share Posted April 16, 2017 Full path: C:\Windows\System32\bootsect Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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