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My pc has two (internal) drives:

  1. The original HDD it came with - with Windows 10 Home;
  2. An SSD - with Ubuntu 22.04 LTS OS.

The HDD had Windows 10 Home on it;

The SSD has Ubuntu 22.04 LTS on it.

When booting the machine, a screen would ask which I wanted to boot into, either the HDD (Windows) or the SSD (Ubuntu).

Whilst I was wrestling with a problem on the SSD, using GParted, I accidentally formatted the HDD and lost the entire contents, including the boot sector, so that when I boot the machine, my only option is to boot into the SSD (i.e. the Ubuntu OS) - the option to boot into the HDD has gone.

I would like to re-establish the Windows 10 HOME on the HDD - I do have the product key.

I have downloaded the Windows 10 iso to a USB but can't get it to open on the pc, nor on my Ubuntu 22.04 laptop.

Do you have any suggestions as to how I can:

  1. make the wiped HDD bootable?
  2. Get Windows 10 Home back on the HDD?

Many thanks for your time. Duncan

Duncan
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    So you need to install Windows on your HDD, I cannot see how askubuntu can help you with it. Only how to restore Grub Menu after you installed Windows. – pLumo Jun 18 '23 at 12:56
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    New versions of Windows have a .wim file that is too large for FAT32 & you have to use FAT32 for UEFI boot. Windows installer to flash drive automatically splits .wim. Only a few newer instructions are correct for using Linux to make bootable flash drive. https://help.ubuntu.com/community/mkusb/v7#Making_a_USB_drive_to_install_Windows https://superuser.com/questions/1355604/boot-win10-from-an-iso-image-on-a-certain-partition-using-grub2 Be sure to install in same boot mode probably UEFI, and best to remove Ubuntu drive so Windows does not see it. – oldfred Jun 18 '23 at 15:20
  • Thank you very much - most helpful and kind of you. – Duncan Jun 18 '23 at 15:53
  • Thank you very much. The .wim file is indeed to large for FAT32 - worked fine when I formatted the USB to ntfs then copy and pasted the files to the USB. Managed to load Windows by physically disconnecting the SSD (with Ubuntu OS) - the Win-usb would not boot with the linux distro "in sight" - bastard Microsoft! Once again, many thanks for your help. – Duncan Jun 19 '23 at 10:24

1 Answers1

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I solved this problem by:

  1. creating a bootable Windows 10 usb using a friends Windows pc - many descriptions on how to do this - on YouTube and AskUbuntu, etc; However, note, I had to format the USB ntfs - the .wim file was too large for FAT format.
  2. The Win10-usb would not boot with the Linux OS "in sight" - so, I physically disconnected the SSD (with Linux OS on it - Ubuntu); the Win-usb would then boot - and thus installed Windows on the Hard Disk. I suspect Microsoft somehow prevents use of Windows - even on a bootable USB - when it "sees" the Linux OS. I wonder if the same happens with Apple stuff?
  3. Then reconnected the SSD with Linux OS.
  4. When I boot the pc into BIOS, I am offered the option of booting into the Linux OS or Windows. If I don't enter BIOS, the pc boots straight into Windows. I am happy with this.

THANK YOU ALL FOR YOUR HELP - GREATLY APPRECIATED.

Duncan
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