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04-21-2017, 10:06 PM
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#1
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LQ Newbie
Registered: Apr 2017
Posts: 10
Rep: 
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Tried to install Linux Mint 18.1 Serena for Dual Boot - now Windows won't boot
Hello,
I have a new Acer Aspire E 15 laptop that came installed with Windows 10 and I wanted to create a dual boot with Linux Mint. I downloaded Linux Mint 18.1 Serena Cinnamon 64-bit and created a live usb drive using rufus. I also did a shrink volume on my C: drive to make sure I had plenty of room. I restarted my computer and turned off secure boot, which rebooted it. If I have the USB drive in the computer I can boot into mint (which I have not installed yet) and in mint I can see that I still have the windows boot files. However I am completely unable to boot Window. If I remove the USB drive I get a no Bootable Disk error. Windows is not listed as an option in grub or in my boot screen.
Did I accidentally ruin Windows on my PC? I bought this PC mainly for Windows games but I also do software development and I thought I would experiment with Linux. How can I get Windows 10 working on my PC again? Please advise!
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04-22-2017, 05:04 AM
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#2
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LQ Guru
Registered: Nov 2008
Location: Pictland
Distribution: Linux Mint 21 MATE
Posts: 8,048
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04-22-2017, 07:08 AM
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#3
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LQ Guru
Registered: Apr 2008
Distribution: Slackware, Ubuntu, PCLinux,
Posts: 11,420
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If you haven't installed Mint yet, how about going into the BIOS and changing the boot priority back from the usb drive from which you aare booting Mint to the hard drive where windows is. You do specifically state that you did NOT install Mint yet so I can't think of any other logical problem. Did you actually do more than boot Mint from the usb? I'm not sure why you would expect to see a Grub menu if you did not install Mint?
If you don't resolve this, get the boot repair software and run it and post the info here.
Incidentally, make sure you turn off fastboot and anything related to hibernation and also that you boot and install Mint the same as windows 10, probably UEFI.
Last edited by yancek; 04-22-2017 at 07:11 AM.
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04-22-2017, 07:24 AM
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#4
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LQ Newbie
Registered: Apr 2017
Posts: 10
Original Poster
Rep: 
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@yancek, I have changed the boot priority back to the hard drive but mint still launches. Mint launched the first time and it has the "install mint CD" there, I clicked on it but did not complete the installation because it indicated it would destroy any other OS I had on the machine. When I reboot the machine if I'm in secure boot, the grub menu does show up. Maybe it did get installed? Is there a way to check if it did get installed? I'm very new to this so I am unsure. It looks like I will have to put the boot repair utility on a usb? I don't have another one right now so I'll go buy one today. I'm actually not certain how I'll make the drive as the only other computers I currently have access to are Macs...
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04-22-2017, 08:03 AM
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#5
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LQ Addict
Registered: Dec 2013
Posts: 19,872
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Quote:
Originally Posted by noeladd
Is there a way to check if it did get installed?
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yes, enter these commands:
Code:
sudo fdisk -l
mount
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04-22-2017, 01:33 PM
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#6
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LQ Guru
Registered: Apr 2008
Distribution: Slackware, Ubuntu, PCLinux,
Posts: 11,420
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It will take about 20-30 minutes for the installer to complete the installation so after clicking on the Install Mint icon, I guess it depends upon how long you let it run. You should also have had several options in the installer so which one did you choose? You should be able to use unetbootin which is suggested on the boot repair page as it has a version to run on a Mac.
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04-22-2017, 01:35 PM
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#7
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LQ Newbie
Registered: Apr 2017
Posts: 10
Original Poster
Rep: 
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Ok @yancek I definitely did not fully run the installer. I got to the screen with the choices and pressed cancel at that point. I should be able to run boot repair here soon and I will see what it tells me. Thank you for your help!
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04-22-2017, 02:47 PM
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#8
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LQ Newbie
Registered: Apr 2017
Posts: 10
Original Poster
Rep: 
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well the unetbootin is not working to create the liveUSB - keeps freezing when copying the files. My PC is basically a brick. Everything I read said that installing Linux would be easy. Apparently that is not true.
Now I was finally able to get the unetbootin to make the boot-disk-repair drive and nothing at all is happening when I try to boot from this drive. Just the flashing white underscore. I've gone into BIOS and changed the boot order and still nothing.
Last edited by noeladd; 04-22-2017 at 03:00 PM.
Reason: Additional Info
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04-22-2017, 02:59 PM
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#9
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LQ Addict
Registered: Dec 2013
Posts: 19,872
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don't use unetbootin.
on windows, you can use e.g. http://rufus.akeo.ie/
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04-22-2017, 03:04 PM
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#10
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LQ Newbie
Registered: Apr 2017
Posts: 10
Original Poster
Rep: 
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@ondoho as I stated earlier I don't have access to any Windows PCs besides this broken one. Just Macs.
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04-22-2017, 03:12 PM
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#11
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LQ Addict
Registered: Dec 2013
Posts: 19,872
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fact remains, unetbootin is broken.
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04-22-2017, 03:20 PM
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#12
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Senior Member
Registered: Jan 2007
Location: Wild West Wales, UK
Distribution: Linux Mint 22 MATE, Peppermint OS-Devuan, EndeavourOS, antiX
Posts: 4,545
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noeladd,
See post #3 on:
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...op-4175542837/
You need to set a Supervisor password temporarily, get Mint installed and then remove the password later.
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04-22-2017, 03:24 PM
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#13
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LQ Newbie
Registered: Apr 2017
Posts: 10
Original Poster
Rep: 
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No as I edited in the post above I was eventually able to get it to work. Interestingly when I re-enabled Secure boot I was finally able to get Boot Repair Disk to run and connect to the internet from there. I am attaching the readout I got from the Boot Repair Disk and will now try restarting the machine and see if I can get Windows to boot. Thanks for all your help!
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04-22-2017, 03:29 PM
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#14
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LQ Newbie
Registered: Apr 2017
Posts: 10
Original Poster
Rep: 
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@beachboy2 will this allow me to boot back into Windows? That is the main issue I am having right now. Honestly I'm about ready to give up on Linux all together. This is extremely frustrating.
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04-22-2017, 03:30 PM
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#15
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LQ Guru
Registered: Jan 2005
Location: USA and Italy
Distribution: Debian testing/sid; OpenSuSE; Fedora; Mint
Posts: 5,524
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To make a boot USB drive
Code:
$ dd if=/home/sam/live_linux.iso of=/dev/sdb bs=2048
where the iso file is any live Linux or installation iso file (cd/dvd format). That command will write the iso as a bootable image on the USB drive. Mac OS has dd.
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