Arch Linux

nowrys

Member

Registered: 2026-02-02

Posts: 1

rEFInd messes with the EFI partitions any time I fix either OS's ESP

I recently reinstalled Arch Linux using archinstall due to being sick of the prior complications with rEFInd, Windows 11, my AMD GPU, and NetworkManager. I set the boot loader to rEFInd, set KDE Plasma as the DE, went through the rest fine, and booted into my new Arch Linux install. However, when I rebooted into rEFInd, it did not show my previous Windows 11 boot that had been there before during my prior rEFInd + Arch install. I investigated to find out that my EFI partition for Windows had either disappeared or been corrupted. So, I repaired it with a Live USB of Windows 11 (specifically tiny11 as the standard Windows 11 ISO I had did not work). After that, I was able to boot into Windows. However, now rEFInd has disappeared and I can't boot into either it or my Arch Linux install even in the BIOS.

I'm still fairly new to Arch (been a few months now), so I'm unsure of how to proceed as I don't want to mess anything up again. I have decided to ask the Arch Linux forums to see if anyone here can help.

PC Specifications (if needed):
AMD Ryzen 5 5600G
AMD Radeon RX 6700XT
ASUS TUF GAMING B550M-PLUS WiFi
16 GB RAM
HDD (EXT4) x2
SATA SSD (Windows 11)
NVMe SSD (Arch Linux)
NVMe SSD (EXT4)

Lone_Wolf

Administrator

From: Netherlands, Europe

Registered: 2005-10-04

Posts: 14,803

Re: rEFInd messes with the EFI partitions any time I fix either OS's ESP

For clarity : you have followed the recommendations on https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Dual_boot_with_Windows (esp disabling windows fast startup and hibernation ) ?

Enter the system firmware setup , check boot > fast boot . Is it disabled or enabled ?

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Disliking systemd intensely, but not satisfied with alternatives so focusing on taming systemd.

clean chroot building not flexible enough ?
Try clean chroot manager by graysky