[SOLVED] Unable to Dual Boot Windows 7 with GRUB

TRLangley · 2016-02-22 04:15:32

[SOLVED] EDIT: Whilst I was unable to actually boot Windows 7 in the end (some issue with System Recovery Options not being compatible with the version of Windows I was trying to repair despite the repair disc correctly being a Win7 64 bit repair disc,) my original problem of being unable to boot /Windows/Boot/EFI/bootmgfw.efi because I was using the wrong path was solved somewhat as per ooo and Arachnid92's instructions.

---

os-prober seems unable to detect my Windows Boot Manager, so I tried adding an entry into /etc/grub.d/40_custom which now looks like this:

if [ "${grub_platform}" == "efi" ]; then
        menuentry "Microsoft Windows 7" {
                insmod part_gpt
                insmod fat
                insmod search_fs_uuid
                insmod chain
                search --fs-uuid --set=root --hint-bios=hd0,gpt2 –hint-efi=hd0,gpt2 --hint-baremetal=ahci0,gpt2 E06CA1486CA11A74
                chainloader /run/media/trlangley/E06CA1486CA11A74/Windows/Boot/EFI/bootmgfw.efi
        }
fi

However, when I reboot and select "Microsoft Windows 7," I am told that '/run/media/trlangley/E06CA1486CA11A74/Windows/Boot/EFI/bootmgfw.efi' does not exist. I have a feeling that I've the wrong path to bootmgfw.efi, so my question is what can I do find it? I am able to run grub-probe and $hints_string and $fs_uuid above is what I get using said path.

If it is relevant, this is the output of lsblk -f:

NAME   FSTYPE LABEL           UUID                                 MOUNTPOINT
sda                                                                
├─sda1 ntfs   System Reserved D4B09200B091E8EE                     
├─sda2 ntfs                   E06CA1486CA11A74                     /run/media/tr
├─sda4 vfat                   7A46-5CF3                            /boot
├─sda5 ext4                   db3fd4eb-6dec-4412-b545-f316021ec8df /
├─sda6 ext4                   ae599bf3-767f-4791-889f-3bbdca6d2b4a /home
└─sda7 swap                   65bb0f86-3d2c-4783-9a76-cacceb9c69b7 [SWAP]
sr0

Last edited by TRLangley (2016-02-23 01:17:37)

ooo · 2016-02-22 05:01:41

when grub is booting only /boot is mounted, so naturally it can't find bootmgfw.efi from your sda2 mount. you should copy the file to the efi partition.

Arachnid92 · 2016-02-22 05:07:37

Your partitions won't be mounted at boot time, and thus the path too the EFI file must be relative to the EFI partition's folder structure.

In your case, you probably need to replace the line

chainloader /run/media/trlangley/E06CA1486CA11A74/Windows/Boot/EFI/bootmgfw.efi

with

chainloader /Windows/Boot/EFI/bootmgfw.efi

or something similar (take a look at your EFI partions folder structure, as said).

Last edited by Arachnid92 (2016-02-22 05:08:25)

TRLangley · 2016-02-22 06:42:21

Alright, so as ooo and Arachnid92 have instructed, I copied everything from the /run/media/trlangley/E06CA1486CA11A74/Windows/Boot/EFI/ folder to a new directory, /boot/EFI/Windows/, and then changed /etc/grub.d/40_custom to

chainloader /EFI/Windows/bootmgfw.efi

When I reboot, I can successfully select "Microsoft Windows 7." Sort of. I am no longer receiving a "file does not exist error," instead Windows Boot Manager pops up saying that it failed to start and that I should insert a repair disk.
I would gladly do so except that whilst I was troubleshooting my original problem, I came across a super user post (http://superuser.com/revisions/620336/1) that ended up coming to a similar hurdle after configuring grub. The post warns against reinstalling via the Windows Repair Disk. My new question is: Is the Windows Repair Disk method safe? If not, what method should I use?

Arachnid92 · 2016-02-22 14:00:08

Yeah, Windows has a tendency of not playing nice with alternative boot configurations.

My recommendation is to backup everything not Windows-related in your boot partition (GRUB configs, etc), and then run the Windows Repair Disk. It'll probably just wipe and reinstall everything to the EFI partition, so be prepared to boot into an Arch Live DVD afterwards to reinstall GRUB and copy back the configs you backed up.

TheSaint · 2016-02-22 16:47:17

TRLangley wrote:

However, when I reboot and select "Microsoft Windows 7," I am told that '/run/media/trlangley/E06CA1486CA11A74/Windows/Boot/EFI/bootmgfw.efi'

I think you had mounted windows partition and then got wrongly configured.
You should start with the Arch iso and chroot in it, then remake the grub configuration

Arch Linux

#1 2016-02-22 04:15:32

[SOLVED] Unable to Dual Boot Windows 7 with GRUB

#2 2016-02-22 05:01:41

Re: [SOLVED] Unable to Dual Boot Windows 7 with GRUB

#3 2016-02-22 05:07:37

Re: [SOLVED] Unable to Dual Boot Windows 7 with GRUB

#4 2016-02-22 06:42:21

Re: [SOLVED] Unable to Dual Boot Windows 7 with GRUB

#5 2016-02-22 14:00:08

Re: [SOLVED] Unable to Dual Boot Windows 7 with GRUB

#6 2016-02-22 16:47:17

Re: [SOLVED] Unable to Dual Boot Windows 7 with GRUB

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