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I have got a big problem with my laptop HP 625.

When I start it is just showing the HP logo and then a blank screen with a blinking underline.

I had 2 Windows 10 and then I installed Ubuntu 15.04.

After the installation of Ubuntu, I rebooted my laptop and there was a boot menu at the start with an "Ubuntu" and a "Windows 8" options. I chose "Windows 8", pressed ENTER and it went back to the boot menu.

I can't understand why it can't boot into Windows, because it showed that Windows is on sda2, and that was right. So I used Boot-Repair on my Ubuntu live USB, but it didn't help.

I installed Windows 8.1 on the partition where I installed Ubuntu, because I thought I could fix this from this Windows and boot into my 2 Windows 10s. But now when I start up my laptop I see the logo and a blank screen with blinking underline.

Now I am using a Boot-Repair CD. Here is my boot info from the Boot-Repair program;

In short: I had 2 WIndows 10, one in sda2 and I don't care about the other Windows. All I want is to get back to my Windows 10 in sda2.

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  • Did you do a real, full, shutdown from Windows before installing Ubuntu or did you do the 'fast' shutdown which is, unless changed, the default behavior as I understand?
    – KGIII
    Oct 14, 2015 at 12:47
  • I restarted my laptop and boot from USB flash drive with ubuntu. Oct 14, 2015 at 13:01
  • If you restart windows doesn't do fast shutdown just when u shut down it. Oct 14, 2015 at 13:24
  • This looks like it may be your easiest solution: neosmart.net/blog/2015/windows-10-recovery-cd-free You probably want to do a boot repair. I think, I'm not positive, that the default restart doesn't do a complete restart but is a 'quick restart' and may leave the drive in an unusual state. Give that a try and see if fixing the boot works.
    – KGIII
    Oct 14, 2015 at 14:49

1 Answer 1

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The default installation of windows 10 requires a minimum of 4 partitions.

  1. sda1 (Recovery)
  2. sda2 (Boot/efi)
  3. sda3 (MSR)
  4. sda4 (Windows OS, usually "C")

On the other end, linux OS requires a minimum of 2 partitions.

  1. sda1 (swap)
  2. sda2 (/)

Using a live Ubuntu CD or USB you can check your disk's partition with the following command:

sudo lsblk -o NAME,FSTYPE,SIZE,MOUNTPOINT,LABEL

If you had 2 Windows 10 installed then you should have 8 partitions for windows and at least 2 more for Linux. So a total of 10 partitions. Also if you installed another Windows 10 you might have erased some of your DATA from the original Windows 10 (the one you want to recover). Using the command mentioned earlier with a live CD of Ubuntu you should be able to have a better idea of what happened to your system. Also you will be able to access your Windows partition from Nautilus and backup any data.

With the information provided, I think at this point you'll have to reinstall completely your system. If you don't want to lose any DATA, boot first with a live Ubuntu CD or USB and backup all the DATA you had on your windows partition on an external Hard Drive usually located at:

"/media/[username]/Windows"

Reinstall windows 10 completely, (Format and delete all partition) and then, after Windows 10 is working, install Ubuntu but on a different partition. So a normal installation of Windows 10 + ubuntu should look like this:

  1. sda1 (Recovery)
  2. sda2 (Boot/efi)
  3. sda3 (MSR)
  4. sda4 (Windows)
  5. sda5 (swap)
  6. sda6 (Ubuntu)

Please feel free to ask me more questions today, I'll gladly help. I'll be a little busy today though, but I'll try to check this page as often as possible.

itSp4x

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  • Than you so much for your answer! 1. But when i delete all partitions will i be able to make 2 partitions and how, because for example in windows disk manager when i delete a partition sometimes it says "free space" and sometimes "unused space". In few words tell me how to format my partitions and make just two of them. 2. After i set up my partitions and install Windows would I be able to boot into Windows? 3. Is linux Ubuntu better for games?(I just want to know). And again thank you a lot! Oct 14, 2015 at 16:17
  • Right now Windows is better for game. The reason being that not every game are compatible with Linux. However if the game you are playing are compatible with Linux, then you won't really see any difference.
    – itSp4x
    Oct 14, 2015 at 16:19
  • To reinstall WIndows and delete partition, make sure that you've first made a backup of all your DATA. After, insert a CD or USB of Windows and during installation you'll hav the option to delete volumes, partition and format. Once windows is installed you can create a new partition and then reboot on your Linux CD or USB and install linux on the second partition. To creat anew partition you need to shrink an existing one to make a new volume and then format it using the linux installation tool.
    – itSp4x
    Oct 14, 2015 at 16:21
  • Ok I will try and see if works. Have a nice day/night! Oct 14, 2015 at 16:42
  • Glad to hear it worked! Would you mind giving a +1 to my answer and selecting it? Thanks!
    – itSp4x
    Oct 14, 2015 at 20:11

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