Windows 7 Windows 7 broken after Linux install.

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mooncake

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Hi!

I tried installing Debian 9 on my Windows 7 laptop this morning and have managed to break my Windows. I'd like to have it set up so I can choose which OS to boot from at start up. I used the Debian GNU installer to partition my hard drive and install. I am able to start Debian from GNU GRUB just fine, but if I select Windows 7 I get the following error:

Windows failed to start. A recent hardware or software change might be the cause. To fix the problem:

1. Insert your Windows installation disc and restart your computer.
2. choose your language settings, and then click "Next."
3. Click "Repair your computer."

If you do not have the disc, contact your system administrator or computer manufacturer for assistance.

File: \Boot\BCD
Status: 0xx000000e
Info: an error occurred while attempting to read the boot configuration data.

I'm fearful to follow the above directions without any guidance because I am afraid of breaking my Debian install in the process. Does anyone have any advice on how to proceed?
 
Solution
You can look at the BCD file from a recovery disk and see if it's trying to load a .efi file. I'd also look at the BCD file and if the device is listed as unknown then you likely have a corrupt BCD store and you can repair it from the recovery disk. The tool to look at the BCD store is bcdedit and fix the BCD with bootrec /rebuildbcd from the recovery console

The system default BCD store is on the EFI partition. You may need to use diskpart, then list vol to ID the EFI partition (it should be fat32 and small) then select it with select vol # (from list vol) then give it a letter with assign letter=z

Then you can view the store with bcdedit /store "Z:\EFI\Microsoft\Boot\BCD" /enum assuming you give it letter z
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How is the disk configured? MBR or GPT. From Debian can you post the output of lsblk -m or sudo lsblk -m if you get an error.
 
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Neemobeer said:
How is the disk configured? MBR or GPT. From Debian can you post the output of lsblk -m or sudo lsblk -m if you get an error.
Click to expand...

Thanks for replying!

Disk is configured with GPT. Check the attached image for the output of lsblk -m.
 

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Can you show lsblk -f too.

Did you change anything like boot mode from UEFI to legacy or turn off secure boot in bios?
 
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I have UEFI/Legacy set to both, with Legacy first. I might have done this when I first got the computer. I do remember making a change here when I acquired it weeks ago because I couldn't get Windows to boot. I don't remember exactly what I did, though. I have been able to boot Windows with these settings until installing Debian. Check the attached files for my boot settings and output from lsblk -f.
 

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Somethings to look at.
  • Are you booting grub or efi grub?
  • How was Windows booting configured? EFI or legacy
A possible scenario is that you're booting to legacy grub but Windows is configure for EFI which could result in the the Windows loader not detected the partitions. The 0x000e error is basically "not enough storage" or in other words it can't find disk space to continue loading.
 
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I think I'm using EFI GRUB. It's GRUB 2.02. I don't remember configuring anything when setting up Windows, and I'm not terribly computer savvy. Is there a way I can check this? I do have a Windows boot disk if that helps.
 
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You can look at the BCD file from a recovery disk and see if it's trying to load a .efi file. I'd also look at the BCD file and if the device is listed as unknown then you likely have a corrupt BCD store and you can repair it from the recovery disk. The tool to look at the BCD store is bcdedit and fix the BCD with bootrec /rebuildbcd from the recovery console

The system default BCD store is on the EFI partition. You may need to use diskpart, then list vol to ID the EFI partition (it should be fat32 and small) then select it with select vol # (from list vol) then give it a letter with assign letter=z

Then you can view the store with bcdedit /store "Z:\EFI\Microsoft\Boot\BCD" /enum assuming you give it letter z
 
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