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I have a Dell laptop which came with Windows 8.1 pre-loaded.

I decided to dual boot with ubuntu 14.04.10 and everything was working fine. I was able to boot to both windows 8.1 and ubuntu 14.04.10 from the boot menu.

Then I decided I wanted to make the boot menu (grub or whatever it is called) to look good so I heard of a program named BURG. I downloaded and install BURG on my Ubuntu OS, I restarted my laptop, and now Windows is no longer appears.

I went to check the hard drive via Ubuntu since that still loads up and found the partition still exists. I looked around in the boot setup/options etc as asked by a program named boot-repair. Here is the boot-repair info btw: http://paste.ubuntu.com/9944807/

Can anyone please help me? I really want Windows back, it has a lot of important files that I need.

Please!

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  • I already tried it, but didn't work still
    – KevB
    Jan 29, 2015 at 23:47
  • Have you backed up your data? You should be able to 'read' your windows partition from Linux. Do that first.
    – David
    Jan 29, 2015 at 23:47
  • I am currently in process of backing up the data, what's next?
    – KevB
    Jan 29, 2015 at 23:47
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    You have Ubuntu installed in UEFI booting and it looks like Windows was also UEFI. But the efi partition now only has Ubuntu boot files, no Windows files as if partition was erased before Ubuntu install. A full set of Windows repairs from your Windows repair flash drive (you did create one?) will restore the Windows boot files to the efi partition. Be sure to always boot in UEFI mode. Boot-Repair cannot fix missing Windows efi boot files.
    – oldfred
    Jan 30, 2015 at 1:14
  • If you have a system back-up of sda1 restore that... If you don't: you have 2 Windows recovery partitions... back up all of your data first, including Ubuntu's! and try to boot those... (probably you will get the laptop back as if it came straight from the factory, I have BIOS, no UEFI...)
    – Fabby
    Feb 2, 2015 at 19:38

2 Answers 2

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I don't have enough points to comment to request clarifications so I'll post what I do suggest, and then check back for updates from you:

First: Make sure to backup any vital information! When dealing with boot, anything and everything can go wrong.

I would simplify things a bit by making sure to uninstall burg by purging it's config:
sudo apt-get purge BURG

I would love to see your partition information clearly, in particular which partition is your boot partition as would be seen by running
sudo fdisk -l

From there I would suggest you run boot-repair again and make sure you are running the 'Recommended Repair' option. As you run through it make sure to read each step carefully and let me know if there are any error messages.
Common mistake: When you get to the part where it asks you which partition you want to install grub to, make sure to choose one by pressing spacebar (you will see it checked off with an asterisk like so: [*]) THEN press enter, many people press enter and have not actually selected a place to install grub.

I would also like to know what happens when you run boot-repair, perhaps it entirely skips the above step?

You also likely have changed your boot order so make sure to have returned it to a desired state.

If this hasn't helped (which it has always solved my grub-gone-wrong issues) I will try and help further in investigating. Good luck!!

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  • Here is the result after using 'sudo fdisk -l': pastebin.com/ws5zWhkn
    – KevB
    Jan 29, 2015 at 23:55
  • Although everything seems to go fine with the boot-repair, it still doesn't seem to show windows in boot menu
    – KevB
    Jan 29, 2015 at 23:56
  • @KevB Sorry if this is basic, but boot-repair should be asking you to run commands in the terminal. Are you seeing that and are you running those commands? I added to the beginning of my answer a suggestion of making sure to purge the burg config Jan 30, 2015 at 0:02
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This simple tutorial shows you how to repair your Windows 8 boot loader (MBR) from Ubuntu dual boot or Ubuntu Live CD / USB. This can be useful if you don’t have a Windows CD or DVD on hand.

To do so, first boot into your Ubuntu system. When you’re in Ubuntu, press Ctrl+Alt+T on your keyboard to open terminal and follow below steps:

1.) First run below command to check your disk:

 sudo fdisk -l

The output tells you the disk information and from there you should be able to identify what /dev is Windows

2.) Now run commnad to install syslinux, which is a suite of lightweight IBM PC MBR bootloaders for starting up computers with the Linux kernel.

 sudo apt-get update; sudo apt-get install syslinux

3.) Once installed, you can fix your Windows bootloader by running below command in terminal:

 sudo dd if=/usr/lib/syslinux/mbr.bin of=/dev/sda

You can also do this with Windows CD or Recovery. Just go to advanced and there is a fix boot option there, but then you might need to fix grub.

update

more info here

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  • When I type ' sudo dd if=/usr/lib/syslinux/mbr.bin of=/dev/sd? ' it shows a failed to open error: "failed to open ‘/usr/lib/syslinux/mbr.bin’: No such file or directory"
    – KevB
    Jan 29, 2015 at 23:59
  • What should I change my dev line to? sorry I am quite new to this!
    – KevB
    Jan 30, 2015 at 0:00
  • Update your answer with output of sudo fdisk - l. Also if you installed syslinux, can you navigate to /usr/lib/syslinux and see the mbr.bin?
    – geoffmcc
    Jan 30, 2015 at 0:01
  • Actually nevermind first line of your pastebin says no boot loader /dev/sda, so that what you want to use
    – geoffmcc
    Jan 30, 2015 at 0:06
  • Install is UEFI and this is a bIOS fix. Do not use.
    – oldfred
    Jan 30, 2015 at 1:11

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