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I have a dual-boot setup: Windows 10 + Ubuntu 20.04. I have 2 SSDs (both are Samsumg 860 EVO 1TB, in case it matters), but since I bought them at different times I made my partitions a bit weird:

SSD-1: (i believe there were also 2 or 3 tiny system reserved partitions, like Windows Recovery and EFI partition)

(NTFS) Windows 10 C: partition (~260GB) (NTFS) Data partition (~670GB) SSD-2:

(NTFS) Data partition (~850GB) (ext4) Linux root partition (~20GB) (ext4) Linux home partition (~55GB) One day, I was using Ubuntu and I shut down my PC. Later that day, I booted just to be met with the UEFI BIOS setup screen, because it couldn't find any boot devices.

At first, I thought that I messed something up with the bootloaders so I inserted a Windows 10 installation disk and went into recovery mode. The built-in recovery tool proved to be useless (as it always does), so I started Command Prompt and found that drive C: is my SSD-2 data partition. It couldn't find the first SSD!

I decided to boot into a Linux live session, since it has more tools available. GParted showed me that /dev/sdb only had the NTFS partition (the 75GB of ext4 were unallocated space), while /dev/sda was corrupted entirely: about 40MB of unallocated space at the beginning and the rest of it was a single partition with an unknown filesystem.

I took SSD-1 out to another Windows computer and the Disk Management tool shows the same thing. I should mention it was a GPT disk, but I don't know if that helps (usually, if a PC cannot read GPT disks it reports it as a single unknown partition, but my PC is very much GPT-aware).

So my question is: What can I do? Can I recover my 2 SSDs? (especially that data partition)

UPDATE: I used AOMEI Partition Assistant to recover all partitions. Now I am able to boot into Linux, however Windows still gives me some weird error on a blue screen (it's not a BSoD, it doesn't have the sad face): A required device isn't connected or can't be accesed.

Bijay Poudel
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    When such issues happen the first thing to do is to open UEFI settings > Boot and confirm the correct boot options are still there. A simple firmware update that can happen automatically both in Windows or Ubuntu, may have changed/reseted settings. Probably you want UEFI only/CSM disabled, the drive containing the ESP (EFI partitions) to be first in order and in another setting "Ubuntu" should be selected. If this is correct and one or both OS don't boot, via Grub or directly, that's when you (1) make sure "Windows" is selected (boots Windows directly) and if it gives an error then (...) – ChanganAuto Oct 28 '21 at 17:26
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    (...) (2) boot Windows installation media to repair it. Then change again to "Ubuntu" and check whether or not you can boot both. If not then - and only then - it makes (same) sense to use Boot Repair. – ChanganAuto Oct 28 '21 at 17:27
  • Ubuntu does not see hibernated Windows & Windows often turns hibernation back on with updates. And Windows does not see Linux partitions. https://askubuntu.com/questions/843153/unable-to-mount-windows-10-partition-it-is-in-an-unsafe-state & https://askubuntu.com/questions/145902/unable-to-mount-windows-ntfs-filesystem-due-to-hibernation Boot-Repair cannot repair UEFI Windows, but does have a good report to show details of installs. You probably need a Windows repair/recovery drive. Also have you updated UEFI & SSD firmware to latest available? – oldfred Oct 29 '21 at 03:43

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