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So as the title suggests, I removed my main drive from the laptop, preventing any Ubuntu installation files from getting there and also data loss. But joke’s on me because I can no longer boot to windows after reinstalling my ssd…

I will go step by step on how I proceeded.

  1. Turned laptop off and removed ssd
  2. Plugged bootable usb and external drive.
  3. Opened bios settings and changed from Intel RST to AHCI
  4. Booted usb and installed ubuntu on external drive with no issues, it boots and works fine
  5. Turned laptop off, disconnected external drive, reinstalled the ssd and changed back AHCI to RST (yes i need to look into permanently making it AHCI)
  6. Windows won’t boot, gave it a few tries but still nothing. Startup repair is of no use and Windows just will not boot…
  7. Tried plugging external drive and booting to linux (after doing the whole storage change ordeal), no issues and I can see my ssd recognized by linux.

What the hell did I do wrong and is there anything I can do to not have to reinstall windows please? I know the ssd is not damaged because it can be recognised by linux, but I have no clue what’s happening.

Any help is greatly appreciated!

Thank you beforehand & yes I am a noob

John Paul
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  • Most systems seem to find a Windows entry even though when you disconnect a drive they often change/remove UEFI boot entry. In IV is example of using efibootmgr in Ubuntu to restore/create a new Windows UEFI boot entry. https://askubuntu.com/questions/486752/dual-boot-win-8-ubuntu-loads-only-win Note many systems now are NVMe and ESP is not on assumed default of sda1. See man efibootmgr to use correct drive & partition at end of command. VI has NVMe example for drive. – oldfred Nov 27 '23 at 15:50

1 Answers1

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First: are you using an old system with a BIOS for firmware, or UEFI? This sounds like a UEFI problem. UEFI firmware stores in NVRAM a list of boot targets. That list was likely updated when you installed Ubuntu on the external drive.

In order to boot from your original drive, try using whatever your system has for a one-time boot selection option. Some systems invoke this via .

--klode

klode
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  • My system on the reinstalled disk was a GPT/ EFI one. What exactly shall I do? Your answer contains a link. At the link target there is yet another link towards https://linux.die.net/man/8/efibootmgr, the manpage of efibootmgr. Could you please give an example of how to use efibootmgr in order to write to the NVRAM to make the reinstalled disk bootable again. And of course, the original poster probably and I definitely want to be able to boot from the external disk with its system, e.g. after selecting it after a key press on during the early boot phase, – Adalbert Hanßen Nov 27 '23 at 08:52
  • Sorry I wasn't clear. The linked post was only intended to provide background info about how UEFI stores pointers to boot targets. Your system EFI setup will have its own idiosyncrasies for managing boot targets. The first step is to see whether you can boot from the original storage by selecting it in a one-time boot menu. If yes, it may added automatically to the list of boot targets. If not, consult your manufacturer's documentation. I wish I could be more specific. – klode Nov 27 '23 at 09:31
  • What do you mean by one time boot menu? BTW: was efibootmgr the right keyword you wanted to point to? – Adalbert Hanßen Nov 27 '23 at 17:35
  • No I didn't intend to point you at efibootmgr. By "one-time boot menu", I mean the system firmware feature that lets you select a boot target when the system powers on or is rebooted/reset. On some systems, pressing brings up a menu of potential boot targets. On others, it's the key, or , or one has to navigate a general firmware setup menu. Sorry I can't be more specific but it's specific to each vendor and system. So anyway if you can get to the boot target selection feature, you should see your original Windows installation listed, though probably not by name. – klode Nov 28 '23 at 02:23