Solved. New Dual OS installation, both inaccessible

[Andow]

After installing a duel side by side system onto a new Lenovo ideapat 100s, 4GB ram, 128 ssd, running windows 10 beside, Linux Mint 18.1 cinnamon. After the reboot I got that password not recognized problem at login, also at the boot window when I try to boot windows I get an error windows image not accessible. I am unable to boot the live DVD for Mint or Windows 10 system repair disc, or boot windows recovery from usb. I have no data to be saved which is a good thing
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.Thank you for your time and patience Andow.

[prestonR]

I am unable to boot the live DVD

Why not? Even if grub messed up windows' bootloader this should not affect your bios settings. Best check that 'DVD' boot option is above 'HDD'.

Did you switch to 'legacy' before booting and installing Mint? Your Win10 is almost certainly installed in 'Uefi' mode; in order to dual-boot Mint needs to be installed in 'Uefi' mode too.

[michael louwe]

@ Andow

Try to look for a "Novo" button on the side of the laptop to access UEFI BIOS settings, as per .......
http://tuxicate.blogspot.my/2015/12/ubu ... 14iby.html

[Andow]

Thank you for your response, Yes the novo button took me to bios menu I selected recover windows, that booted up fine, all looked good, took a look at c/ drive showing 5 partitions, I will include attachment showing details, apart from that the situation remains the same, I had set bios boot order correct dvd 1st. Where should I go from here? Delete Mint and reinstall again, but how?
PS: What is grub and how do I get a grub prompt.

C- Drive Capture.PNG

[michael louwe]

@ Andow

Grub is the Linux boot-loader. There's the other Windows Boot Manager. UEFI technology requires a Windows EFI System Partition or Linux EFI Boot Partition(= fat32/about 550MB) to store boot-loader.

First, counter-check your previous install steps with these links, .......
viewtopic.php?f=42&t=163126
https://sites.google.com/site/easylinux ... ct/windows
https://sites.google.com/site/easylinux ... nt-install

For the dual-boot install of LM 18.1, ensure that Secure Boot, Fast Boot and CSM are disabled, Fast Startup is disabled in Win 10, the Live USB-stick is booted in UEFI mode and the "Device for boot loader installation" is the EFI System/Boot Partition (= fat32/550MB = usually dev/sda1, or dev/sda).

If you have misinstalled, you should do a proper reinstall.
If you have not misinstalled, try Steps 17 & 18 of this link .......
https://www.tecmint.com/install-linux-m ... uefi-mode/

To do a proper reinstall, you need to first delete the misinstalled Linux partitions. Please refer to ... viewtopic.php?f=90&t=246142&p=1324636#p1324636

[Andow]

In regards the instillation it wasn’t as smooth as expected, 2 issues arouse 1st password not recognized, 2nd windows boot loader has been corrupted (I suspect). I took the option of deleting the Mint OS and reallocating disc space back windows, on restart all I get is the grub prompt screen, so went back into windows 10 via novo button, 1st I ran startup repair no result from that, 2nd ran recovery again no result, 3rd I run reset PC again no result. On restart, each time all I get is the grub prompt screen ?

[michael louwe]

@ Andow

Originally, your UEFI Lenovo computer came preinstalled with Win 10 with the Windows Boot Manager(WBM) installed inside the Windows EFI System Partition(= ESP = fat32/260MB), ie in UEFI/GPT mode. When the computer is started, WBM boots Win 10.

When LM 18.1 is then installed alongside Win 10, the Linux Grub boot-loader is also installed inside the ESP and takes priority over the WBM. Linux Grub can read Windows files, but WBM cannot read Linux Grub files. After a proper install, when the dual-booted computer is started, the Linux Grub boot-loader Menu appears and is able to display LM 18.1 and Win 10 as boot options.

When the LM 18.1 partition has been deleted, the Linux Grub boot-loader becomes confused and could no longer work properly. To regain this function, LM 18.1 has to be reinstalled properly alongside Win 10. Since Win 10 was preinstalled in UEFI/GPT mode, LM 18.1 should also be installed in UEFI/GPT mode, ie not in Legacy/BIOS mode.
.

P S - Normally, when the "Install LM alongside WBM" method is chosen, there is no need to shrink the Win 10 partition, ie shrinking is only needed when "Something else" is chosen.
....... Shrinking is also not needed when you reinstall LM 18.1 over a broken install of LM 18.1 or over an old install of LM 17, in a dual-boot configuration.

[gold_finger]

If you want to try re-installing Mint in UEFI mode, have a look at this tutorial: Installing Mint on a Windows 8/8.1/10 Computer. If you'd feel more comfortable having us take a look at current state of hard drive before you attempt install again, boot computer with your Mint DVD, open GParted program and post a screenshot of what it shows back here for us to look at. Here are instructions for posting a screenshot back to forum. (NOTE: a screenshot from GParted will be more informative to us than one from Disk Management in Windows.)

If you don't want to re-install Mint, there may be a way to restore Windows booting anyway. My guess is that UEFI has Mint's grub boot loader set in higher priority order than Windows boot loader, therefore always tries booting from that. To list current boot order settings, boot from Mint DVD and run the following command in a terminal:

Code: Select all

sudo efibootmgr -v

Copy/Paste full output of that command back here for us to see using instructions posted here.

Another possibility may be to push your "Novo" button to get into UEFI Settings and look to see if any area dealing with boot options shows the order that things are executed in and whether there is a way to change that order if you find that Mint/(Ubuntu) is listed higher in priority than Windows. (Maybe there will even be a way to delete the Mint/Ubuntu entry?)

[Andow]

Hi again.The code you suggested I am unable to use because LM has been deleted, I'm unable to boot live mint usb, as you suspect
it must have a higher boot order, can I change the boot order via windows?

[michael louwe]

@ Andow

After you press the Novo button, it should take you to the UEFI BIOS settings. Try to go to the BOOT Order menu and change the boot order to boot the computer first from UEFI USB devices or UEFI USB HDD or UEFI USB Flash-drive, in order to boot the Live LM 18.1 USB Flash-drive.
....... By default, the internal HDD where Win 10 has been preinstalled, is the first boot device but this can be changed by the user.

After you are done with the Live LM 18.1 USB and shutdown, on start-up you need to again change the Boot Order back to the internal HDD, in order to be able to boot Win 10.

According to the Boot Order set by the users, the computer will try to boot first from the 1st boot device. If unsuccessful, it will try to boot from the 2nd device, then the 3rd, and so on.

The Boot Order menu is how users choose to boot first from various bootable devices, eg from DVD-drives, USB Flash-drives, external USB HDD, external USB DVD-drive, Network-drive(on another computer), internal HDD/SSD, etc.

[gold_finger]

After you press the Novo button, it should take you to the UEFI BIOS settings. Try to go to the BOOT Order menu and change the boot order to boot the computer first from UEFI USB devices or UEFI USB HDD or UEFI USB Flash-drive, in order to boot the Live LM 18.1 USB Flash-drive.

That should give you ability to boot Mint USB. (I was assuming you were still able to boot from that when I replied before.)

Just to clarify, the boot order I was referring to in my prior post is something different than the general boot order of devices noted in quote above, so boot into live Mint USB and post back with output from command I noted before: sudo efibootmgr -v.

can I change the boot order via windows?

Maybe/Probably, but unfortunately I don't know how to do that. If pressing "Novo" button and looking at Boot Order there not only shows just devices to boot from, but also boot loaders to boot from in the EFI System Partition (ESP), that IS what I'm looking for. If it shows that and you see that an entry for Mint/Ubuntu boot loader in the ESP is higher in priority than the Windows boot loader, change that so Windows is above Mint/Ubuntu in priority.

[Andow]

Ok that’s done, it was my error, I missed the full stop between move device up or down and shift + 1, didn’t know that you could move it physically I presumed number 1 assigned it to highest order. I am a newbie to this.
Since I deleted Mint off the main drive several days ago I now need to remove Ubuntu from UEFI boot order list to avoid conflicts before I reinstall LM again.