GRUB not detecting Windows

kaosmagick · 2021-02-15 12:13:31

Please bear with me!

I have Arch installed on my SSD (/dev/sda2)
My EFI Partition is on the SSD (/dev/sda1)

I had windows on my harddrive (/dev/sdb)
(Then the hard drive was failing so I had to remove it)

But then, Arch won't boot, because apparently the windows bootloader too was installed on the same EFI partition on the SSD (/dev/sda1)
So every time I tried to boot, it would give me a Windows Boot Manager Error saying it can't find Windows

To fix this, I somehow got into my arch system and deleted the Windows (Microsoft) folder from the EFI partition on the SSD (/dev/sda1)
And fixed grub, and the system booted fine.

Fast forward a couple weeks, I got a new hard drive, installed windows, and the Windows Boot Manager again overlapped Grub
Somehow, I fixed that so now I had Grub back, but it won't show windows.

To boot into windows, I must choose Windows HDD from the Boot Menu and the same to boot Arch SSD (Right now I have the SDD as primary boot choice)
I tried everything in my knowledge to add Windows back to grub but to no avail.

osprober actually detects windows [But I think it is detecting the remnants from EFI folder, the Windows install that I had manually tried to remove (from HDD /dev/sdb) ]
it detects Windows on /dev/sda@ (yes, sda@) i don't really know what that means.
Windows is actually installed on (/dev/sdb1)

Please help

Head_on_a_Stick · 2021-02-15 16:09:48

kaosmagick wrote:

osprober actually detects windows [But I think it is detecting the remnants from EFI folder, the Windows install that I had manually tried to remove (from HDD /dev/sdb) ]
it detects Windows on /dev/sda@ (yes, sda@) i don't really know what that means.

You should post the actual command output rather than a vague description.

If this is a UEFI system then the EFI system partition that contains the Windows bootloader (bootmgfw.efi) must be mounted for GRUB to be able to find it and add a menuentry.

Check the UEFI boot entries with

efibootmgr -v

If this is a non-UEFI system then the bootinfoscript AUR package will help you figure out what is going on.

kaosmagick · 2021-02-17 12:53:27

kaos@arch ~> efibootmgr -v

BootCurrent: 0001
Timeout: 0 seconds
BootOrder: 0001,0000,0003,2001,2002,2003
Boot0000* HDD0: SAMSUNG MZNLN128HAHQ-000H1      PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x17,0x0)/Sata(0,0,0)/HD(1,GPT,6197305e-5b51-a747-960b-25ca864884d4,0x800,0x100000)RC
Boot0001* arch  HD(1,GPT,6197305e-5b51-a747-960b-25ca864884d4,0x800,0x100000)/File(\EFI\arch\grubx64.efi)
Boot0003* GRUB  HD(1,GPT,6197305e-5b51-a747-960b-25ca864884d4,0x800,0x100000)/File(\EFI\GRUB\grubx64.efi)
Boot2001* EFI USB Device        RC
Boot2002* EFI DVD/CDROM RC
Boot2003* EFI Network   RC

Head_on_a_Stick · 2021-02-17 19:50:56

The fact that Windows does not appear to have a boot entry suggests to me that it is installed in non-UEFI mode. If that is the case then the UEFI version of GRUB cannot chainload a non-UEFI Windows system.

And I'm still waiting for the actual os-prober command output. Did you try the bootinfoscript package?

For future reference your replies should be longer than mine, generally speaking. I don't have the energy to spoon feed you.

Arch Linux

#1 2021-02-15 12:13:31

GRUB not detecting Windows

#2 2021-02-15 16:09:48

Re: GRUB not detecting Windows

#3 2021-02-17 12:53:27

Re: GRUB not detecting Windows

#4 2021-02-17 19:50:56

Re: GRUB not detecting Windows

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