Mint 20.1-TestDisk restored most partitions; Boot Repair except /usr/local
 

Mint 20.1 (was) in BIOS - MBR dual boot w/ Windows. For now it's "all Linux, all the time." At least it boots.

Boot Repair Disk "reinstalling" GRUB2, didn't recognize Windows OS on a 2nd, internal hdd (as dual boot was setup). It's a single boot for now.
Maybe the old GRUB install needed "purging" before reinstalling? That's one option under Boot Repair Advanced Options.

On the Mint /sda drive, partition table got messed up, so didn't try to force mounting or writing to /sda, before using a recovery util.
TD recovered most of the ext4 partitions / created new partition table.

Except now, probably - one of the found partitions used to be /usr/local. Guessing TD either said it was corrupted or didn't like when that partition was selected along w/ the others. Only some small apps were installed in it.

It was booting slower than before. Found a journal error - timed out mounting /usr/local w/ the UUID & automated fsck on it failed (cause doesn't exist).
Sure enuf, a /usr/local entry & UUID is still in FSTAB, but not GParted or using ~$ blkid. Will edit fstab. I don't think (now) it's worth creating another partition for it, unless someone knows a reason, since it was separate before.

In THIS older BIOS version (2008 American Megatrend), there's no setting for booting BIOS or UEFI, or their order. Doesn't show UEFI, anywhere, AFAIK.
IMPORTANT point: Nothing's changed in BIOS from it dual booting a few days ago, till now.

Running: #lshw shows: In "computer" section,
configuration: boot=normal chassis=desktop family=103C_53316J sku=NE504AV#ABA uuid=D8736EA6-6202-DE11-8426-B73629D7CA22.
That [d87...a22] isn't a partition UUID (now) on either HDD. Maybe it's the 'puters device UUID.

Under the lshw section:
*-firmware
description: BIOS
vendor: American Megatrends Inc.
physical id: 0
version: 5.21
date: 12/17/2008
size: 64KiB
capacity: 1MiB
capabilities: isa pci pnp apm upgrade shadowing escd cdboot bootselect socketedrom edd int13floppy1200 int13floppy720 int13floppy2880 int5printscreen int9keyboard int14serial int17printer int10video acpi usb ls120boot zipboot biosbootspecification
Notice, there's no "UEFI" capability. The capability boot in BIOS, is cause that's all it can do. Unless there are "hidden" options. It's a very simple BIOS menu.

My guess is, to get dual booting working, GRUB will need installing again. Maybe first purge the existing GRUB2 installation? Are there any amens on that?
I've never seen a setting for boot type: normal. Just boot order, which is as it was.

I guess that your computer has only legacy BIOS and does not have UEFI BIOS. Post your computer model, or your motherboard model.
I guess running "update-grub" will place the Windows entry in grub. Don't do it until you see some more replies from other members.


For someone to help you here they need a clear picture of what's going on. Post the output of the following in code tags. Code tags can be found when you hit the "Post reply" button. It is the "#" symbol.

Since you have windows on a separate drive, have you tried booting it by setting the windows drive to first boot priority in the BIOS?

Since you already have boot repair, try running it and selecting the Create BootInfo Summary option. Post the link you get when it finishes here to get help.