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I have Ubuntu 16.04 installed alongside Windows 10. I have been able to use both, however recently after shutting down windows I am unable to find any OS installed in the system.

The output of the sudo fdisk -l is

Disk /dev/sda: 698.7 GiB, 750156374016 bytes, 1465149168 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
Disklabel type: gpt
Disk identifier: 80E0E76C-2FE1-4280-8631-B7CD3392DE91

Device          Start        End   Sectors   Size Type
/dev/sda1        2048    2050047   2048000  1000M Windows recovery environment
/dev/sda2     2050048    2254847    204800   100M EFI System
/dev/sda3     2254848    2516991    262144   128M Microsoft reserved
/dev/sda4     2516992  715181108 712664117 339.8G Microsoft basic data
/dev/sda5   715182080  716124159    942080   460M Windows recovery environment
/dev/sda6   716124160  716840959    716800   350M Windows recovery environment
/dev/sda7   716840960 1093474303 376633344 179.6G Microsoft basic data
/dev/sda8  1257979904 1267744767   9764864   4.7G Linux swap
/dev/sda9  1267744768 1268721663    976896   477M Linux filesystem
/dev/sda10 1268721664 1428858879 160137216  76.4G Linux filesystem
/dev/sda11 1428858880 1454657535  25798656  12.3G Microsoft basic data
/dev/sda12 1454657536 1465135103  10477568     5G Microsoft basic data
/dev/sda13 1465135104 1465147391     12288     6M Linux filesystem
/dev/sda14 1093474304 1257979903 164505600  78.5G Microsoft basic data

Partition table entries are not in disk order.

and the output of the sudo lsblk -o NAME,FSTYPE,SIZE,MOUNTPOINT,LABEL is

NAME    FSTYPE     SIZE MOUNTPOINT LABEL
sda              698.7G            
├─sda1  ntfs      1000M            WinRE
├─sda2             100M            
├─sda3             128M            
├─sda4           339.8G            
├─sda5  ntfs       460M            
├─sda6  ntfs       350M            
├─sda7  ntfs     179.6G            New Volume
├─sda8  swap       4.7G [SWAP]     
├─sda9  vfat       477M            
├─sda10 ext4      76.4G /mnt       
├─sda11 ntfs      12.3G            HP_RECOVERY
├─sda12 vfat         5G            HP_TOOLS
├─sda13 vfat         6M            FORRAID
└─sda14 ntfs      78.5G            
sdb               14.9G            
└─sdb1  vfat      14.9G /cdrom     UBUNTU 16_0
sr0               1024M            
loop0   squashfs   1.3G /rofs

The above output indicated that the EFI partition(sda2) does not have a filesystem type as well as the 340G partition(sda4) (where windows was installed ('C' drive in windows)) does not have filesystem type.

Also on running Gparted from live Ubuntu USB, following error is generated and the scanning process of Gparted is stalled.

Libparted Error: input/output error during read on /dev/sda

The above problem as found on Google may be due to hardware malfunction in Hard Drive.

Please suggest if the problem looks more like a software problem or the corruption of EFI and 'C' Windows partition may be due to Hardware problems.

If a software issue please suggest on how to repair the EFI partition.

zenosama
  • 11

2 Answers2

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  1. Firstly you're going to need a Windows installation media. If you don't have one burn Windows manually to a flash drive.

  2. Next you're going to have to boot the Windows installation media in UEFI mode from your BIOS. Do this by adding a new boot entry for your flash drive. Locate the bootx64.efi file which should be inside the boot or EFI folder in your USB flash drive and select it.

  3. Give your new boot entry a name and make sure to add this new entry to the top of the boot priority list.

Windows installation media will now boot up in UEFI mode.

  1. Select repair your computer

  2. Then troubleshoot

  3. And finally startup repair

Then restart your computer Windows should boot up again.

Ahmed K.
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0

This sounds like a problem that may have been caused by a failure to disable Fast Startup and/or a failure to disable Hibernate, both in Windows. When left enabled, these features can cause filesystem damage on shared filesystems, including the EFI System Partition (ESP), which can manifest as lost or damaged boot loader files. If this hypothesis is correct, you should disable these Windows features as soon as you can get Windows to boot; but to do this, you may need to follow Windows-specific repair procedures best discussed on a Windows forum, rather than here. If Ubuntu won't boot, you could use Boot Repair to get it fixed; but this is best done after disabling the problem-causing Windows features.

As you suggest, a hardware fault is also a possible cause. You can check this by checking the SMART status on your disk. Note that a SMART check will find some, but not all, types of hardware failure, so even if the SMART check comes back OK, you might still be looking at a disk problem, or a problem with some disk-related hardware like a disk data cable. If the root cause is a hardware fault, chances are you'll need to replace the hardware. If that's a disk, you'll need to transfer as much data as possible from the failed disk to a new one, then use tools like Boot Repair and Windows-specific tools to fix the boot process.

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Rod Smith
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