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I was running the big Windows 10 1903 feature update that just came out this May from my old Windows 10 1803. It was going through the typical “restart several times” procedure, and I made it about 75% of the way through before I got hit with the grub rescue command window on one of the restarts. I am assuming that this occurs because the Windows update messes with wherever grub is stored.

I’ve done a lot of internet searching and I see that this is a common problem. My problem is when I run ls to see what I got, which is the following:

(hd0) (hd0,msdos5) (hd0,msdos2) (hd0,msdos1)

each of these give me the Filesystem is unknown. error when I try to do anything with them, including setting them as the boot, the prefix, or the root. I even tried numbers after msdos that don’t show up from ls and, obviously, I get the no such partition. error, because, indeed there is no such partition I’m sure.

So here is my issue, all of the partitions recognized by grub rescue aren’t working, and I am in the middle of a Windows 10 update. My question is, what is my simplest option at this point? If there isn’t a good solution, I do still have my Ubuntu install CD, and am willing to reinstall grub or Ubuntu if I have to. The only thing I am not willing to lose is at least a small, recoverable, trace of my Windows 10 partition, so that I don’t run into any issues with product licensing and don’t have to pay to reinstall Windows. I am able to access BIOS but that is about it at this point.

Chris Wong
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  • Is it Windows did not write the Linux partition(s)? Parted rescue seems easier than testdisk https://askubuntu.com/questions/665445/upgraded-to-windows-10-on-dual-boot-and-cant-boot-to-ubuntu-partition We now also have seen where Windows adds another small recovery partition after its main install & destructively damages next partition. – oldfred Aug 27 '19 at 03:32
  • status please... – heynnema Sep 07 '19 at 13:19

1 Answers1

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Unfortunately you've been hit by the Windows "feature" updater bug... and it effectively wiped out your Ubuntu partition where GRUB resides. Microsoft has known about this bug for years, but has chosen not to fix it. Actually, it changes the partition type from ext4 to something unknown. You probably have a MBR formatted disk, yes?

You can try and use testdisk to recover.

  • boot to a Ubuntu Live DVD/USB

  • start the terminal app

  • sudo apt-get update # update the software databases

  • sudo apt-get install testdisk # install testdisk

  • sudo testdisk # start testdisk

See http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk_Step_By_Step for help on using this tool.

heynnema
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