Windows is broken after the dualboot

[St4lwolf]

Hello to all!
I wanted to install Linux on a Windows computer, and as I didn't have the time to copy my data to an external medium, I thought I would start by doing a dualboot using the automatic installer of mint, knowing that the disk had only 20Gb of available space.

I didn't make a copy of my files, I trusted the automatic installer, I should have made one obviously

Firstly, I had no error during the mint installation process. When I rebooted, the pc booted directly to windows (which was working fine until then by the way), I went to check the bios settings and found that indeed "windows boot manager" was before "unbutu" (grub), so I moved it higher.

That's where the trouble started: Linux didn't boot with the following error:

Code: Select all

not syncing: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on unknown-block(0,0)

After this error, apart from shutting down the computer by pressing the button for 30 seconds, I could not do anything.
I went to the internet to find out about this, many people say that it is a kernel problem and that it can be fixed by selecting an older kernel in the grub menu and entering some commands after starting mint: I still got the same error when starting it this way.
As I was running out of time, I wanted to switch back to windows, and there I got a BSOD, the error code gave nothing. I then put back in the bios "windows boot manager" at the top, that didn't change anything, I tried all the recovery options in the recovery panel that opens after the "diagnosis of your computer" that appears after the bsod, the only thing I can do is to launch the command prompt that allows to recover windows. I read on the internet that my problem is probably related to the fact that the windows mbr is corrupted, so I follow a tutorial to put it back in place properly.
It's worse than better: now at startup, windows shows me that the mbr is corrupted and that I have to write it again.
I can't boot on a windows liveCD either; the liveCD tells me that because the boot sector is corrupt, it can't boot properly. However, I have found with a malekal liveCD that the files in the windows C: tree are still present (programs files, x86 programs files, users, etc.)

My priority is to have a computer on any system that works with all the files that I remember are only on that computer.
I was thinking of buying an external hard drive at the local shop, and using the liveCD to copy the entire windows tree onto it, and then doing a single clean install of mint on the computer, in order to have all my files without fear as well as to get out of this situation as quickly as possible, which I must admit annoys me a lot, do you think this would be a good idea? Do I have a guarantee that everything important (document folders, downloads, images, desktop, etc. as well as application data, especially browsers) will be copied in full by doing this? The next time I install Linux, will I get the kernel panic error again after the installation?
If this is not the right solution, what do you think I should do?
Thanks a lot, sorry if my post is a bit long, have a nice day/evening depending on when you read this!

[mikeflan]

My priority is to have a computer on any system that works with all the files that I remember are only on that computer.

If I were in your situation my first priority would be to make 2 backups of my critical files. Perhaps that is less than 10 GB of stuff, but not matter how big it is, that is what I would do first.

If you every get into windows again, I suggest you disable faststartup:
https://www.windowscentral.com/how-disa ... st-startup
viewtopic.php?p=2067102#p2067102
https://fosspost.org/prepare-your-pc-fo ... cure-boot/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CdLcJLKEMbY

Then try the Linux install again if you wish.

[motoryzen]

knowing that the disk had only 20Gb of available space

I'm sorry to sound possibly harsh, but facts are facts..

1st mistake. This isn't 8 to 10 years ago anymore. Things change...files and how things are made..evolve...they inevitably before more bloated versus previous hand fulls of years.

Linux Mint regardless of the desktop flavor needs more than 20GB....that's an absolute minimum amount and even today probably doesn't account for all the updates let alone updates to the stock-included programs.

The official site even tells you it recommends at least 80GB or bigger ..( I want to say it's now 100GB recommended )

2nd mistake was you didn't do a disc clone using a solid program like Foxclone or Macrium Reflect of that drive before you installed Linux Mint via dual boot. This way you could always boot from that particular bootable medium and do a restoration and just put everything back the way it was easily if worst case that is what you needed to do.

3rd mistake in my opinion..dual booting Windows and Linux from the same physical drive. It always presents a rabbit hole list of possible headaches and problems ranging in a variety of sizes... Even if one does all the expert setups, planning/prepping perfectly..nothing stops Microsoft from screwing with the Linux install and/or grub part via a medium or accumulative update as they've been known to mess with a person's PC even as deep as the uefi/bios. even with secure boot and fast/quick boot disabled.

You are really better off just having a separate drive for Linux and ensuring when you install Linux distro of your choice, ..that the windows drive is not connected at all. Then you can always power the system off properly upon installing Linux, reconnect the windows drive and you can choose the other OS world to boot from upon boot up if needs be and still change which auto boots via the Uefi/bios settings as well.

== =Back on direct point in trying to help though =

mikeflan is on point here on all of his comment.

Both secure boot and fast/quick boot don't do as they are advertised anyways and fast/quick boot has caused nothing but headaches for thousands of end users trying to dual boot Linux regardless of the distro.

[AH-On-Mint]

There must be something we don't understand about Secure Boot especially as it relates to business machines that were once designed for the commercial environment.
I have been using Linux Mint since Mint 7, but only ever used MBR (Master Boot Record).

But getting Linux Mint 21.1 to dual boot with UEFI with Secure Boot enabled on an old HP 6730B was initially successful but later impossible.

I decided to use an old mechanical drive in case anything went wrong.

My plan was to use Macrium Reflect to clone the mechanical drive onto an SSD once things were going properly.
It seems that Secure Boot and the HP BIOS can certainly tell the difference.

I installed Windows 10. It was booting.
Then came Linux Mint 21.1. It initially booted from a USB stick. Then came the Blue MOK screens.
Then my old 500GB mechanical drive was booting Linux 21.1, but not Windows.
What a lovely operating system Linux 21.1 is!

One more boot with my USB stick to reinstall the Windows boot loader.
Then the old HP 6730B refused to boot from USB, but would still boot from my old 500GB mechanical hard drive.
So I decided to clone it onto a brand new Crucial BX500 500GB SSD drive. This time I used Macrium Reflect, which I booted from an SD card because the USB stick now refused to boot.
Then I loaded the cloned Crucial BX500 SSD into the machine and the machine refused to boot the SSD. So I reloaded my mechanical drive, and that would not boot either.

I rather suspect that Secure Boot is just a way of forcing users to exclusively use Microsoft products and no other operating systems.
Think of the e-waste this is going to cause, especially in the developing world?

[St4lwolf]

Thank you for your answers, I'm glad to be helped!
I understand my mistake better now, I based it on the fact that I could install mint in dualboot with windows with 25Gb of free space... Except that as you said mint now needs more storage.
Also, I'm going to follow your advice, not to install mint on the same disk as windows and to make backups before anything else; this problem at least allows me to learn from my mistakes.
This computer has been in use for a really long time, so there must be over 200Gb of data on it, but as you also said no matter how big it is, you have to copy everything!
Thank you very much for your advice, I'm going to copy all my data and try to do a Linux only installation, in fact the initial goal was for this pc to run entirely on Linux, so now that windows is no longer working and I can copy the files I don't see why I should try to keep it...
Thanks again, I'll keep you posted!