0

I recently installed Arch on my new SSD after my other one died, and in the process I accidentally wiped the EFI partition and the Windows recovery partition.

Before I had rEFInd in place, it booted without issue, so I didn't think much of it, but now that rEFInd is in place I'm unable to boot into Windows.

The menu entry is missing, and I assume that's because Windows 8 doesn't have an EFI entry on the EFI partition?

The output of efibootmgr implies that it should still be bootable, as the bootloader for Windows is still intact.

➜ ~ efibootmgr
BootCurrent: 0005
Timeout: 1 seconds
BootOrder: 0005,0000,0001,0002
Boot0000* Windows Boot Manager
Boot0001* Hard Drive 
Boot0002* UEFI: Built-in EFI Shell 
Boot0005* rEFInd Boot Manager

I've tried manually setting the next boot to the Windows Boot Manager using sudo efibootmgr -n 0000, but without much success. All it does then is flash the screen, then it goes straight back to rEFInd.

The SSD is all GPT, so everything goes through the EFI stuff.

1 Answer 1

0

The fix for this is surprisingly easy. If you were unfortunate enough to wipe your own EFI partition, all that is needed to fix it is a bootable USB or DVD with Windows installed on it.

It's as simple as using the automatic repair and it should reboot you into rEFInd with Windows and all of your other stuff intact. Super easy fix!

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .