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A friend of mine asked me to fix his laptop, and to be honest I'm completely stumped, but he doesn't want to take it to a repair shop. I'm hoping I can get some help here. I haven't done much with Ubuntu, but I don't want to continue any further and mess things up more.

So here's the rundown, I guess.

Specs:

  • Toshiba Satellite C55-C5241
  • Windows 10
  • Intel i5 2.2GHz Quad-Core
  • 1TB Hard Drive 5400 rpm
  • Mobile Intel HD graphics 5500

What he was trying to do is make a dualboot for Windows 10 and Ubuntu, and apparently messed up quite a bit in doing so.

I was told:

  • Made new partition, rebooted to Ubuntu through USB ISO to install on new partition
  • When he tried to reboot to Windows 10, it would NOT load, gave him NTFS_FILE_SYSTEM error
  • Ubuntu would work, but only trial would allow him to connect to internet.
  • Tried to "merge" Didn't quite understand what he meant by this, but I'm guessing he deleted/resized the partitions until they were one large partition.
  • Ended up with one partition, either unallocated or NTFS (he said he couldn't remember which)

So he gave up, handed it to me, and basically good luck have fun.

I start to take a look and realize I have absolutely NO idea what to do to fix this. I made a windows 7 installation USB to try to at least get him back on to use the laptop. However, I am completely stuck in Grub, and I'm not familiar with the commands.

I tried changing the boot sequence to put USB first, but it still goes straight to Grub. When I try to load the HDD, I get Error 0xc0000225.

I would like to try and get this fixed for him before his college classes start, but I don't think I can do it without help. I'm hoping someone here has an answer of some sort.

FreakyZee
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  • That is a new UEFI system, so is/was Windows UEFI and then did Ubuntu get installed in UEFI mode? May be best to run Summary Report. Boot-Repair can only fix minor Windows issues. If Windows 10 you may need a Windows 10 repair flash drive. https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Boot-Info This site is not Windows but: http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/insider/wiki/insider_wintp-insider_install/how-to-perform-a-repair-upgrade-using-the-windows/35160fbe-9352-4e70-9887-f40096ec3085 – oldfred Aug 19 '15 at 20:16
  • He said he downloaded it from the Ubuntu website, so it's whatever version that id. I can't boot USB so I can't do the repair. – FreakyZee Aug 19 '15 at 20:58
  • The version you down load is both UEFI or BIOS installer depending on the way you boot it from UEFI boot tab. Try total cold boot, or power down, remove battery, hold power switch for 10 sec & reboot and immediately press correct key for getting into UEFI/BIOS for your model system. – oldfred Aug 19 '15 at 21:38

3 Answers3

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What Ubuntu version is it? The 14.04 installers have a known problem with UEFI boot. I wrote a guide on how to install 14.04 with UEFI boot here: How to install Ubuntu 14.04 64-bit with a dual-boot RAID 1 partition on an UEFI/GPT system?. You should be able to use the guide, ignoring the RAID stuff (everything referring to mdadm/RAID).

Community
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Niclas Börlin
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  • I'll take a look at it. He also said he was getting permission errors like "only root can do this" or something and he could not mount the partitions. – FreakyZee Aug 19 '15 at 20:58
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There are several issues here ..

Do you really want to install Windows 10?

This needs to be activated, and so needs to be either a 'free upgrade' from Windows 7 or 8.1 (and already activated) or you need a full retail install license for Windows 10.

Also, for best results, any upgrade needs to overwritten (once activated) by a fresh install of Windows 10.

Your laptop is crippled by its hard-drive.

Strongly recommend replacing with (at very least) 7200 rpm or better SSHD (or SSD) drive.

You will get much better performance with at least 4GB or RAM.

Don't be too ambitions ..

Unless you are willing to muck with partitions, just install Windows (whatever version) first, and then use the Ubuntu installer to install alongside.

General comment:

If you are (giving up and) returning to Windows 7, you need to revert to pre-UEFI (Legacy) setting in BIOS and may need to use the Ubuntu installer to remove (delete) any existing partitions (and formatting).

david6
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  • It's not my say as to what the specs of the laptop are, I'm only trying to fix it. I did forget to mention that it has 8GB RAM. My bad. I believe he wants to install windows 7, not 10. I don't honestly blame him for that though. How different is installing window 7 than 10 though...? I suppose i don't quite understand your last part. – FreakyZee Aug 20 '15 at 01:20
  • Windows 7 is pre UEFI, so uses 'Legacy Boot' options in BIOS. So they are very different to install. – david6 Aug 20 '15 at 01:31
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I'm not honestly sure what I did, but I got Ubuntu to load up correctly. It wasn't allowing me to connect to wifi at first though. I plugged it up to LAN and it seemed to recognize the driver then.

Everything seems to be working fine though. Thank-you for the information though, guys (:. I should be able to fix it from here.

FreakyZee
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