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I installed Ubuntu on an old Thinkpad SL300 laptop. I partitioned out space from the Windows 10 partition (which also is the boot-partition. This is a legacy system, so no separate EFI boot partition). I booted live-disc and installed Ubuntu, selecting the Windows primary partition for GRUB-installation.

Once Ubuntu is installed, I realized that the Windows partition is in hibernation mode because Windows decided to hibernate when I told it to shut down. That leaves the partition in a read-only state. Whenever I select Windows 10 from the GRUB-menu, it just loops back to GRUB. I suspect this is because Windows' boot partition is in a read-only state?

I tried boot-repair, but it didn't help. Is there a way I can fix this issue without reinstalling either of the OS's? At least without reinstalling Windows?

Thank you.

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  • No, it's not because Windows is hibernated. It's because you told the installer to install the bootloader in the Windows partition. In BIOS/Legacy installations Grub is to be installed in the MBR and that is actually the default setting. The difference is selecting the drive instead of a partition within.
    – user692175
    Aug 14, 2017 at 22:11
  • @MichaelBay Alright. Is it possible to reinstall GRUB to the MBR and fix this problem then? If so, how is that done?
    – vegarab
    Aug 14, 2017 at 22:13
  • Yes, it's possible and quite easy if you can boot Ubuntu. (Assuming you have a single drive, adjust the dev otherwise) Just run sudo grub-install /dev/sda followed by sudo update-grub. However, Windows may still not boot in which case you'll need to recover its bootloader first (or repair) with Windows installation media.
    – user692175
    Aug 14, 2017 at 22:17
  • @MichaelBay The Windows option still loops back to GRUB. I guess I'll have to use a repair-USB and fix the Windows bootloader. Is bootrec /fixmbr and bootrec /fixboot enough from the CMD, do you think?
    – vegarab
    Aug 14, 2017 at 22:31
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    If you installed grub to the NTFS partition you damaged the NTFS as well as potentially having Windows 10 fast boot on. You may be able to restore a backup of the NTFS partition BS - boot sector. help.ubuntu.com/community/BootSectorFix & cgsecurity.org/wiki/… If that does not work you may need your Windows repair or install disk and use bootsect.exe to create a new one, but it may not even see it.
    – oldfred
    Aug 14, 2017 at 22:34

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