Windows 10 Problem with bootloader (I think)

[Sausage]

So I had Linux mint installed on my Laptop, dual booting with Windows 10, and decided I wanted to get rid of it. So without research I just deleted the partition and extended the windows partition. I was then left with GRUB, the Ubuntu bootloader. I spend some time trying to get rid of this: I researched and found a load of stuff about
Bootrec.exe /_____
So I tried this but nothing worked. So I felt the only option was to reset my machine completely. When I tried this I got an error. It just stopped. It got rid of GRUB bit now I'm left with no bootloader. I've tried using commands like:
Bootsect /nt60 ALL
Bootrec.exe /rebuildbcd
And pretty much everything thing under Bootrec.exe and Bootsect that I felt would help at all but nothing is working.
I'm stuck with a lump of plastic, essentially. Although it isn't essential to my livelihood, but I would like to have a working laptop.
Any help would be appreciated and thanks in advance.

 

[Neemobeer]

You will need to have access to another computer.

• Go into Control Panel > Backup and Restore
• Create a System Recovery disc or usb
• Boot to that disc or usb
• Go into troubleshooting Advanced > Command Prompt
• Type the following in order
  • bootrec /RebuildBCD
  • bootrec /fixmbr
  • bootrec /fixboot
• Reboot

 

[Sausage]

You will need to have access to another computer.

• Go into Control Panel > Backup and Restore
• Create a System Recovery disc or usb
• Boot to that disc or usb
• Go into troubleshooting Advanced > Command Prompt
• Type the following in order
  • bootrec /RebuildBCD
  • bootrec /fixmbr
  • bootrec /fixboot
• Reboot

After I type bootrec /RebuildBCD it says there isn't any Windows installations identified. Why is this? Is there a problem with my recovery drive?

 

[Neemobeer]

You can probably skip that step, it's for rebuilding the bcd data store. If you do need to rebuild it you need to type

• C:
• cd boot
• rename bcd bcd.old
• then bootec /RebuildBCD

 

[BIGBEARJEDI]

Yeah; we've had about 3 or 4 Linux people with similar problem with W10 in dual-boot mode. I've written a few posts on how to solve it and you can use our Search feature to read those. If neem's solutions don't work, you can always replace the drive you have the dual-boot W10-Mint setup in and simply rebuild your laptop with a single OS, for testing purposes, on either Mint or W10 your choice. Make sure you use a brand new hard drive for this test, as if it fails it could indicate further hardware failures in your laptop such as a bad RAM stick or your Mobo. Then, once you can get a single OS to boot on your laptop, you can then attempt the dual-boot build by installing the 2nd OS (Mint or W10) and you should be good to go at that point!

I personally haven't done anything with Mint; but several of the people here use and like it. I've done most of my work on Ubuntu and some variants such as Kubuntu and Lubuntu with dual-boot W10 machines. I understand from our Linux gurus that they are quite similar in most respects. Have also done a W10-Zorin dual-boot system last year.

Both W10 and Linux can be tough to get off the hard drive if you try to erase and start over; so it's best to use a good drive wipe program such as DBAN (on the free UBCD.com boot disk). The free version is good enough to remove W10 and Linux (most versions I've seen). Substituting your hard drive with a new replacement is of course the easiest way to certify your laptop hardware is Ok. You could skip that step and spend days or weeks trying to fix it. Just a suggestion.

Cheers!
<<<BIGBEARJEDI>>>

 

[MikeHawthorne]

Hi

This is something I learned the hard way years ago.
For future use, if you are dual booting you have to remove the OS that you are going to remove from the computer, from the boot order before you do anything else..

I use EasyBCD, once you remove the unwanted OS and reboot to make sure it boots directly into the OS that you want to use, then you can remove the unwanted OS from the hard drive.

Anyway just follow Neemobeer's instructions and create a Windows Recovery Disk, and boot to that to repair the boot sector.

With any luck you'll be back up and running in no time.

Good Luck

Mike

 

[BIGBEARJEDI]

@Mike: I haven't tried this method before. Looks promising. I'll have to give it a try. On a related topic, recently I was fooling around with benchmarking my portable devices using speedtest.net, and I found that my Acer netbook I mentioned above that has W10-Ubuntu14.04LTS dual-boot had a severe slowdown in the dual-boot mode. Slowdown was from 18-21Mbps with only W10 single OS installed. After adding the Ubuntu in dual-boot mode, speed throttled down to 3-5Mbps! Could be due to the fact that my Acer netbook uses an Intel Atom processor, and the Wi-Fi gets seriously overloaded. In W10 I plugged in the Ethernet cable to the netbook (in W10) with Ubuntu also installed, and I got the same slowdown! Anyway, that netbook is pretty slow in W10, so I completely removed the Ubuntu from the netbook and went back to single OS mode, at least now W10 has somewhat faster speeds (18-21Mbps). I now have W10-Ubuntu16.04LTS dual-boot on one of my Dell desktop test machines, so I'm going to test that and see if I get the same slowdown on the desktop (which is an Intel Dual-Core CPU). I mentioned this a few weeks back, but if you have an underpowered netbook or laptop, it might be worth knowing about this dual-boot slowdown issue. Don't know if it's also true with W10-Mint dual-boot or not as our OP has, but it's worth mentioning.

Good post there!
BBJ

 

[Sausage]

So I've tried everything that @Neemobeer has said. After using 'rebuildbcd' it says that there is 1 identified windows installations and asks if I want it added to the boot list. I select yes but then it tells me that 'the requested system device cannot be found.'

Sorry for the delayed response

 

[BIGBEARJEDI]

Hi again,
Sorry it's not working for you. Did you try Mike's EasyBCD he mentions in his Post #6 above?? With what result? If you haven't tried that, give it a go and let us know if you are still stuck or not.

Remember what I said about having to use DBAN to completely erase your HDD and start your OS installs again from scratch? I would try Mike's suggestion first, as of course that would be easier than wiping your entire system out and starting over again. But, sometimes, that's just what you have to do!

Let us know how it goes.
<<<BBJ>>>