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I just installed Ubuntu 12.10 on my new computer alongside my previous Windows 7 installation. Upon booting for the first time (post install) my boot menu only lists Ubuntu.

I installed using a liveCD, I had to set up my partitions myself because my Windows wasn't being detected (I set up the new partition out of free space on the drive.). I know Ubuntu did not overwrite my Windows because I can mount the Windows drive and access the files from here.

I also tried running boot-repair, as was recommended for people who didn't have Ubuntu showing up in the menu, but now I just have two different Ubuntu options. Still no Windows.

(If you require any additional data [logs, etc.], could you tell me how to find it, I am a bit new to this.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

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6 Answers 6

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The Boot Repair option worked perfectly for me. Installed 12.10 after windows 8, the install did not recognize win8, using the boot repair utility found the windows partition and successfully added it.

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Boot into Windows with the installation disk, then install EasyBCD. (I don't think there is a linux version). If set up right, you can pick a os from their menu before hitting grub.

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    Just checking what this is going to do before I do it. Will EasyBCD make a second boot menu that comes up before GRUB? Would Grub only come up if I choose to boot into Ubuntu? Am I completely misreading that?
    – Alex Samons
    Oct 28, 2012 at 5:13
  • Correct, EasyBCD creates a boot menu. If you select the Ubuntu option, it bypasses grub. When I installed 12.04 after Windows, I was unable to boot into Ubuntu, I only received the Windows boot menu. I installed EasyBCD and was able to boot into both OS's. A downside is that you cannot use grub's advanced options like safe boot and such. Getting grub to show Windows would be a better option, but if not possible, consider EasyBCD
    – d_rail
    Oct 28, 2012 at 20:22
  • A side note, I recently ran boot-repair, and now grub took over as the main boot menu and it shows Ubuntu and Windows, which may or may not pertain to you.
    – d_rail
    Oct 28, 2012 at 20:32
  • When I put in my Windows disk and boot off of it, the thing freezes on the area where I'm supposed to select my language. My mouse and keyboard don't work at all (can't even do something like turning on number lock).
    – Alex Samons
    Oct 28, 2012 at 21:31
  • I was wondering, if the EasyBCD might work because it allows me to use their boot menu instead of the GRUB one, would something like Burg that customizes the boot menu do something similar? Because I could install that from here.
    – Alex Samons
    Oct 28, 2012 at 21:53
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Try updating Grub using the steps below and hopefully it will restore your windows to boot menu

  1. Press Ctrl+Alt+T to open the terminal.

  2. Now type on terminal window 

    sudo update-grub

  3. Enter your password, wait and restart.

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  • I ran the grub updater and it said, Generating grub.cfg ... Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-3.5.0-17-generic Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-3.5.0-17-generic Adding boot menu entry for EFI firmware configuration Done I'm down to 1 ubuntu entry but still no Windows.
    – Alex Samons
    Oct 27, 2012 at 23:13
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I noticed the same thing.

I also didn't have a Windows CD to fix the MBR but found a useful utility that sorted everything out quicksticks.

  1. Open terminal and paste the following commands:

    sudo add-apt-repository ppa:yannubuntu/boot-repair && sudo apt-get update

  2. After the update, install Boot Repair:

    sudo apt-get install -y boot-repair

  3. You can run it via the menu or by entering:

    boot-repair

I used the recommended repair and my boot was back to normal.

You can check out the community documentation at: http://help.ubuntu.com/community/Boot-Repair

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  • Sorry, I did not see you mentioned trying boot-repair. Please ignore my suggestion.
    – beanaroo
    Oct 28, 2012 at 2:42
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Kinda sounds like some windows files are corrupt by the way you say that you can't boot from the disk and the Ubuntu installer could not even detect Windows. If you had installed Ubuntu to a separate drive, then I would say, disconnect it and boot into Windows and try to repair Windows from there. But if they are on the same drive, then uninstall Ubuntu and then repair Windows. Put in the Ubuntu disk, boot from your cd drive and install Ubuntu. Ensure the installer can detect Windows before continuing.

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  • Is it possible to uninstall Ubuntu from Ubuntu? Because I can't get into the Windows to do it otherwise.
    – Alex Samons
    Oct 29, 2012 at 19:01
  • I would boot into Ubuntu "Just try it out", and format the Ubuntu partitions. You might need to install gparted if you are unable to do it with the stock disk management software. I'm not sure if that would delete the Ubuntu boot files because they are usually installed on a special area on the hdd (MBR), not in the Ubuntu partitions. But if you remove grub, which is saved on your /boot partition, you should be able to boot into Windows after that.
    – d_rail
    Oct 29, 2012 at 20:47
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I asked about this on the Ubuntu forums as well and got some really good feedback from the maker of the Boot-Repair utility. I'm pasting their instructions here which worked perfectly for me in case someone else has the same problem.

This case is rare. You have no original /EFI/Microsoft/Boot/bootmgfw.efi . (presence of /EFI/Microsoft/Boot/bootmgfw.efi.grb indicates that B-R created a dummy /EFI/Microsoft/Boot/bootmgfw.efi ). I will update B-R for this case. Meanwhile, you can do this:

Please : 1) boot an Ubuntu CD, choose "Try Ubuntu" 2) open a terminal and type the following commands one by one:

sudo mount /dev/sda1 /mnt

Press Enter

sudo rm /mnt/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/bootmgfw.efi*

Press Enter

sudo cp /mnt/EFI/Boot/bootx64.efi.bkp /mnt/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/bootmgfw.efi

Press Enter

3) run Boot-Repair --> Recommended Repair , indicate us the new URL that will appear 4) then reboot the pc without CD, and tell us what you observe

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  • Actually, this isn't entirely solved because the problem returns as soon as I shut down or restart from Windows. I'll update again once I figure that out.
    – Alex Samons
    Nov 1, 2012 at 16:34

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