How to remove Mint dual booted (not working) with Win10

colorpurple21859 · 08-23-2022, 06:22 AM

Post the ouput of

Code:

df -h
cat /etc/fstab
lsblk -f

beachboy2 · 08-23-2022, 06:51 AM

Gyroman,

The EFI system partition (also called ESP) is an OS independent partition that acts as the storage place for the EFI bootloaders, applications and drivers to be launched by the UEFI firmware.

#1
Your 260MB partition is the efi (esp,boot) partition. ESSENTIAL

#4 & #5
Why you have 2 Recovery partitions, I do not know. You could keep the larger one or both. It is up to you. KEEP one or both

The C: drive (756GB) is your main Data partition. ESSENTIAL

You can ignore #6, the 160GB Linux primary partition. OMIT

I cannot see that you have an MSR Reserved partition, which is odd, but I have seen W10 drives without one.

The normal layout on a W10/W11 GPT system is:

efi system....(esp,boot)..(FAT32)......say 100MB

MSR.......(msftres)...........say 16MB

NTFS Recovery ..(hidden,diagnostic).....say 530MB

[C:] NTFS.. (OS & Data) ..(msftdata)....say 230GB/480GB/900GB etc

Gyroman · 08-23-2022, 07:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by colorpurple21859

Post the ouput of

Code:

df -h
cat /etc/fstab
lsblk -f

I think I need to fix this from within Win10.. (I can only live boot Mint from a USB..)

Thanks

beachboy2 · 08-23-2022, 08:01 AM

Gyroman,

I have just checked my W10 partitions and I have only 3.

There is no MSR partition and everything works fine.

See attached screenshot.

Note that I have a second drive [D:].

Gyroman · 08-23-2022, 08:22 AM

Thanks.. So when I 'clone' certain partitions to an SSD the size required will only be the sum of those partitions I have chosen plus a bit more?

Then when I format the Toshiba drive in what state do I leave it? Do I remove all partitions or create any partitions or does the clone software do that?

If so do the chosen partitions get put on the HDD in any special order or do I have to do that or does the order not matter?

regards..

colorpurple21859 · 08-23-2022, 09:17 AM

from the live usb

Code:

sudo efibootmgr -n 0005

reboot
does windows boot?
Assuming window boot is still 0005 with efibootmgr.

beachboy2 · 08-23-2022, 10:54 AM

Gyroman,

You really need to read up on using Macrium Reflect before proceeding any further and make plenty of written notes if you don’t have access to another computer in order to follow the instructions.

I am sure that you have already backed up your valuable personal data.

I strongly advise looking at this tutorial which gives lots of details about cloning between drives of differing sizes using Macrium:

https://dellwindowsreinstallationgui...criumreflect7/

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gyroman

So when I 'clone' certain partitions to an SSD the size required will only be the sum of those partitions I have chosen plus a bit more?

Yes. Don’t worry about any unused space on the (larger) SSD. **Ignore it!

When you clone back from the SSD to the original drive, you want it to be able to fit, without any extra fiddling about!

**If however you wish to use the “new” (larger) SSD permanently, then you need to refer to the tutorial regarding going from a small drive to a larger drive.

Scroll down the tutorial until you reach Restored Partition Properties.

Drag and Drop the last partition, then click on Maximum size so it takes up all available space on the new larger drive. Click on OK.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gyroman

Then when I format the Toshiba drive in what state do I leave it?

Personally, I would wipe it using Gparted and format the whole drive as GPT.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gyroman

Do I remove all partitions or create any partitions or does the clone software do that?

See above.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gyroman

If so do the chosen partitions get put on the HDD in any special order or do I have to do that or does the order not matter?

See below.

Install Macrium on your computer and then create USB Rescue media on a flash drive.

Make sure that the new/borrowed SSD has been formatted to GPT (use Gparted).

Connect the SSD as a USB external drive and boot the computer using the Rescue Media.

Open Macrium and then drag and drop the required partitions from the original drive to the “new” drive in this order from LEFT to RIGHT:

1. Efi (esp,boot) partition.

2. Recovery partition(s).

3. [C:] drive (Data and OS partition).

NB The C: drive must be on the extreme right.

Once the “new” SSD is installed, you can either use that as it is OR repeat the drag and drop operation back to the original drive.

computersavvy · 08-23-2022, 12:36 PM

One thing I have noted in all my windows installations with uefi and windows 10.

The windows uefi install requires a GPT partitioned device.
The partition arrangement is
1 ESP partition
2 hidden microsoft reserved partition
3 ntfs main OS partition
4 hidden microsoft recovery partition.

When I install for dual boot I shrink partition 3 from within windows and leave the remaining space unallocated.
I then install linux in that space, using the existing efi (ESP) partition as /boot/efi and creating necessary partitions for /boot, /, and /home as needed.

Note that this creates partitions 5, 6, etc and that the partitions are out of order on the disk. It is necessary to not get partition 4 renamed since windows relies on that number for storing recovery data. If you renumber it then you will have to do a windows repair process to manage windows recovery procedures.

This is what my drive on my laptop looks like.

Code:

$ sudo fdisk -l
[sudo] password for user: 
Disk /dev/nvme0n1: 476.94 GiB, 512110190592 bytes, 1000215216 sectors
Disk model: INTEL SSDPEKNW512G8                     
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: gpt
Disk identifier: 406E2318-D071-4F12-A55C-75C1711D624E

Device             Start        End   Sectors   Size Type
/dev/nvme0n1p1      2048     534527    532480   260M EFI System
/dev/nvme0n1p2    534528     567295     32768    16M Microsoft reserved
/dev/nvme0n1p3    567296  199752334 199185039    95G Microsoft basic data
/dev/nvme0n1p4 998473728 1000214527   1740800   850M Windows recovery environment
/dev/nvme0n1p5 199753728  201404415   1650688   806M Linux filesystem
/dev/nvme0n1p6 201404416  896079871 694675456 331.2G Linux LVM

Partition table entries are not in disk order.

Gyroman · 08-23-2022, 06:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by colorpurple21859

from the live usb

Code:

sudo efibootmgr -n 0005

reboot
does windows boot?
Assuming window boot is still 0005 with efibootmgr.

Thanks yes that has all been done and Win10 boots normally provided there is no live boot USB..
but I am now past the point of trying to rescue the boot sequence and Win10 from Linux.. The problem is Win10 itself..
regards

Gyroman · 08-23-2022, 07:35 PM

Thank you everyone.. much appreciated.. but got some apparently conflicting advice (actually not on further research).. all good but I think we are making assumptions about what the real problem is and the attempts so far can only work on the symptoms. It appears some changes I have made have introduced more problems for Win10 itself adding to a boot record problem!

I found @ThioJoe video "Ultimate guide to fix almost any Windows corruption (without reinstalling)" very helpful.. clearly knows his stuff but at the end admits if the problem is a boot record corruption he is not knowledgeable about that. Since all attempts to fix the boot record using recommended software or the terminal have failed and Win10 itself appears broken in some way I have less knowledge now about the root cause than when I started. Regarding cloning I have a feeling I would probably just end up cloning the problem as well.

ThioJoe spoke of a "Reinstall Repair" which does not wipe out my stuff.. and ok this may not solve a boot record problem BUT if it gets Win10 straightened out then a Win specific boot record repair tool like AOMEI might work.. any thoughts?

mrmazda · 08-23-2022, 07:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gyroman

ThioJoe spoke of a "Reinstall Repair" which does not wipe out my stuff.. and ok this may not solve a boot record problem BUT if it gets Win10 straightened out then a Win specific boot record repair tool like AOMEI might work.. any thoughts?

If getting Win10 working right is all you really care about, it should be the best way forward.

You wrote:

Quote:

Win10 boots normally provided there is no live boot USB

What exactly is the current Win10 problem?

beachboy2 · 08-23-2022, 08:23 PM

Gyroman,

A Reinstall Repair, using the original W10 installation media, will preserve all your files and some of your apps.

NB Third-party, non-Microsoft apps, will not be preserved!

https://www.laptopmag.com/uk/articles/repair-windows-10

There is plenty of help available on the Windows Ten forums:
https://www.tenforums.com/

Gyroman · 08-23-2022, 10:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mrmazda

If getting Win10 working right is all you really care about, it should be the best way forward.

You wrote:What exactly is the current Win10 problem?

Best summarised by my posts #32 and #45 basically Win10 cannot update and newly installed AOMEI and Dosbox will not run..

yancek · 08-24-2022, 04:14 AM

The EFI partition is essential as windows won't boot on a GPT drive unless it is installed UEFI. UEFI boot file are on this partition for windows/Linux systems. Additional windows boot files are on the C:\ partition. The larger Recovery partition (13GB) should be kept. I don't know what the other 'Recovery' partition is. On my computer with windows 10, there is a Microsoft Reserved partition at the beginning of the drive, right after the EFI partition. The standard Recovery partition is usually at the end of the drive. Just noticed all this info is in a post above. You can see this if you have Linux on a USB and run the command to list partitions; sudo fdisk -l That command shows sectors.

Quote:

Thanks yes that has all been done and Win10 boots normally provided there is no live boot USB

I haven't read through the entire thread so I don't know if you have set windows 10 to first boot in the BIOS firmware?

mrmazda · 08-24-2022, 06:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gyroman

Best summarised by my posts #32 and #45 basically Win10 cannot update and newly installed AOMEI and Dosbox will not run.

#32 seems to be entirely about Mint. DISM, AOMEI & DOSBox on Win10 I have no experience with. Windows 10 failing to update I do have experience with. To make it happy for resistant updates, I used to simply reconfigure bootloader temporarily to make Windows for boot purposes effectively the only installed OS. It's been a long while since I was confronted with such resistance, and don't remember whether it was necessary the last times, because instead of common/normal online updating, I used the latest installation .iso for updating - without the ethernet cable plugged in and without any wireless capability.