2y ago

I need help on EndevourOS, it's not recognizing the Windows boot and I don't understand how to solve it.

So, I made my bootable EndevourOS image. I installed it on my secondary SSD, while I have Win11 on my primary SSD (need it for my job).

When I installed it I booted it up and everything was ok. A bit confusing, but ok.

Wanted to get into Windows again because I needed to work on something for a design (Adobe programs), next thing I know: my computer isn't recognizing my Windows drive...

It's there. I can see it on the "disks" app on EndevourOS, I can mount the disk and even see my files in there. But it just won't boot.

Read the documentation and it mentions an "os-prober", that I needed to change GRUB_DISABLE_OS_PROBER=false in the etc/default/drub file... I don't have that file anywhere in my system...

I installed os-prober, nothing. I searched any other folder with a similar name and checked files... The only file with a mention of os-prober is grub.d that says "if GRUB_DISABLE_OS_PROBER=xtrue then random warning", but that is a set of instructions (i think), not the actual file.

I don't think I should have tried EOS/Arch when I've been learning Linux for only 2 days, can anybody help me with this? Thank you for any answers in advance.

30 comments

The issue is that grub, the bootloader, doesn't know about windows and can't boot it. You can go into BIOS and change the boot order to boot windows without figuring this out as a stopgap.
I had to create /etc/default/grub as well on arch, so do that and rerun grub-mkconfig.
As usual, the arch wiki has a great but short guide on that: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/GRUB#Detecting_other_operating_systems Read the entire article to get an idea of how to work with grub, then follow the windows section exactly.
- That's the problem not even the bios is reading windows after the EOS installation. I keep changing the order of things but when I boot from the other SSD it just says "checking media" and then "failed" and it gets looped over and over again.
  But I can still see the windows drives and partitions from EOS... It's the weirdest ting that I've seen... Would you recommend just doing a clean install of everything in that case?
  
  Sounds like there's something wrong with your windows EFI partition in that case.
  I don't know how to fix that short of a reinstall. If you do reinstall, make sure to unplug (yes, that's actually neccessary) all drives except the one you want to install windows on, otherwise the installer is almost guaranteed to fiddle around with them despite you not selecting them.
  
  It sounds like your EFI partition got fucked somehow. You could boot a live usb with windows tool like Hirens or Sergei and fix it in there. There are tools in Sergei to fix these issues, I sometimes do this at my job.
  
  I have a similar issue on my PC. My windows ssd doesnt even appear in the BIOS unless I keep my computer on for over 30 minutes.
  I know it's not a fix but you could try booting to endavourOS for sometime and then reboot the system into bios and maybe the windows boot entry will show up. (This works in my case, although when I shutdown the system and boot it the next day, I have to repeat all this)
  Whenever I install a minimal linux distro like void, arch or gentoo all my boot entries disappear somehow (even though I have configured grub correctly). But for some reason when I install a distro with the calmares installer this doesn't happen.
  I even tried reinstalling windows multiple times on different ssd's still no luck. My hunch is that the NVRAM in my MSI motherboard is causing the problem.
  I would appreciate it, if anyone more knowledgeable on this topic can shed some light on this.
  
  The checking media message is your bios trying to boot from some external network drive. I had that issue for the longest, and I realized that I misunderstood how the boot order actually worked.
  Try swapping your boot order around to opposite how it is currently? That's what I did and it solved my problem
What bootloader have you choosen during install?
Which option did you select from the options in the picture (keep in mind that systemd-boot is the default in case you did not change this setting)?
- I chose sysremd, I didn't have time to fix the issue as I needed my laptop for work so I just did a clean install of everything once again. I think I will keep trying Fedora but I will read the documentation of EOS first so I can understand what I'm doing, I can't afford to make the same mistake again lol. I think what happened is that I accidentally erased the Windows EFI partition somehow and that's why it was not going in.
  Is there an actual difference between those? Is one better than the other or it's just the OS giving options?
  
  Is there an actual difference between those? Is one better than the other or it's just the OS giving options?
  I am not a power user so I dont know much. From what I gather l, grub is more configurable and also easier to configure but is also more likely to break. Systemd-boot on other hand is more robust from what I read but less configurable and harder to configure. You can do things like set booting into btrfs snapshot using grub that I think you can't with systemd-boot. Again i am no expert so parts of this might be outdated or wrong. Better to ask a more experienced user
So wait, what happens if you (obviously) turn off the computer, unplug the second ssd, then turn on the computer? Try that and report back.
- Yes OP try this and report back. Might tell us if something in the windows install is broken
- While I was trying to fix the issue all day, this comment is one of the things I tried, but when my laptop started, it just said "checking media........ fail", then getting reset into an endless loop. I said it in other comments but I think I erased an EFI partition that I shouldn't have, I think Windows took part of my secondary SSD somehow.
Others are chiming in on how to debug the issue where your Linux bootloader isn't picking up Windows, but if you really need to access Windows for your work, you can try going into the BIOS and changing the boot order to launch from your Windows EFI partition. That usually still works even after installing Linux as its a separate EFI binary.
hi, I think EOS uses systemd-boot as a default bootloader. so grub may not matter. I don’t have much experience with systemd-boot, but for now, you could just try and boot from the primary windows drive by pressing the BIOS key and changing the boot order (or using your motherboards‘ external drive boot button)this key is different for many motherboards, so you should check google for yours. As for systemd-boot, I don’t have much experience so I’d either google (specifying the two drives) or ask gpt. Good luck!
- After reading all these comments I just decided to format all my drives and start over. I made the mistake of installing EndevourOS at 12am when the next day I had to use Windows for my job! I did enter BIOS and changed the order but not even my BIOS recognized the OS, it just said "checking media........ fail" and it fell into a permanent loop. What I said in another comment was that I thought this had happened:
  It's weird, but I had Fedora installed on my secondary SSD. Apparently when I did a clean Windows install, it installed in the primary SSD but took a part of Fedora on the secondary SSD as a Windows EFI partition. Then, when I installed EOS I selected "erase the disk" for the secondary SSD. I think it erased that EFI partition and I couldn't go back to windows, but since the primary SSD still had my files I could still see them. To be honest, something like that never happened before so I'm not even sure of what I'm saying.
  I'm not even sure if that's what happened, as I'm still not an expert in these things, but when I erased the secondary SSD there was a "EFI partition" I had not seen before.
This is a feature, not a bug. You have been freed from Windows!
- I wish, I still need to use Adobe products for my job, not even sure if I can install Adobe products in Linux yet, I'm still learning haha!
https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/systemd-boot#Boot_from_another_disk
It seems that systemd-boot does not autodetect the windows boot option if the files associated with windows boot are on another drive.
Edit : Though from your other comment reply I think there something broken in your windows install. You can try to fix it using a windows installation media or just reinstall windows as the other poster told.
Edit 2 : A guide specifically for EndeavourOS https://forum.endeavouros.com/t/tutorial-add-a-systemd-boot-loader-menu-entry-for-a-windows-installation-using-a-separate-esp-partition/37431
- This is what I think happened that I wrote on another comment:
  It's weird, but I had Fedora installed on my secondary SSD. Apparently when I did a clean Windows install, it installed in the primary SSD but took a part of Fedora on the secondary SSD as a Windows EFI partition. Then, when I installed EOS I selected "erase the disk" for the secondary SSD. I think it erased that EFI partition and I couldn't go back to windows, but since the primary SSD still had my files I could still see them. To be honest, something like that never happened before so I'm not even sure of what I'm saying.
  Tbh I'm not even sure if that's what happened, I just didn't find an easy solution apart from starting over.
Oof. Sounds really stressful. I hope you figure this out. Try installing refind and running “refind-install”. It searches your system for bootable disks and gives you a big menu to choose from.
- At the end I just erased all my disks and started all over again :( figured it was the easiest and quickest way to deal with it because I urgently needed W11 for my job, I'll just be more ready for next time and read more about the OS before making a move so sudden like that
  
  Shit, it'd take me days if not weeks to get my windows install set back to how I have it. Well, I'm guessing you have a better system than I for reseting your OS from scratch.
Consider boosting up from a live Linux(for example Ubuntu) and using boot-repair. I have had similar problems and managed to at least get the Windows boot going again.
Also are you using UEFI or MBR?
- I was using UEFI I think? I used Rufus to make the bootable flash drive and it just gave me either MBR or GPT, when I selected GPT it showed me the UEFI option to the right (iirc). I spent all day seeing these comments and at the end of the day I had to delete everything in my hard drives and start over again...
  It's weird, but I had Fedora installed on my secondary SSD. Apparently when I did a clean Windows install, it installed in the primary SSD but took a part of Fedora on the secondary SSD as a Windows EFI partition. Then, when I installed EOS I selected "erase the disk" for the secondary SSD. I think it erased that EFI partition and I couldn't go back to windows, but since the primary SSD still had my files I could still see them. To be honest, something like that never happened before so I'm not even sure of what I'm saying.
USE. SYSTEMD-BOOT. ALREADY.

30 comments