Repair Windows 8 after install ubuntu using Install alongside windows 8

Question

I installed Ubuntu 12.04.1 on my laptop. I knew that installing using the option install alongside windows 8 will screwup windows's bootloader. But I ended up installing it in that way because I was not paying any attention. So now I have a GRUB, a working ubuntu and a broken windows 8. I dont have a windows 8 installation disk as it came preinstalled. Is there a way to repair windows bootloader?

A broken windows in the sense when i try to boot windows it gives me a screen saying "windows failed to start" and "boot configuration data missing" and asks me to insert windows installation disk. But i dont have one.

Answer 1

Try using Boot repair from a live CD. Use option 2 here: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Boot-Repair

should fix your problems.

Answer 2

I am having Ubuntu 12.10 and Windows 8 installed together without any issues. Both OS's work just fine.

But anyway.. since your computer came preïnstalled with Windows 8, there is a big change that there is a hidden recovery partition somewhere. Pay close attention during boot if there is an option to get into recovery mode (most of the time you need to press F12 or DEL or something during startup).

If there is no option during boot, you might have received a recovery CD from the PC vendor itself.