Windows 10: Upgrade to Win 10 v10586 from 10240 on GRUB-based system fails

I had Windows 10 build 10240 running on my older computer but the upgrade to build 10586 failed.

This is an older system - non-UEFI - with a MBR boot volume.

The boot volume has 4 partitions: Windows 10 Pro (NTFS), Data (NTFS), Linux (ext4) and Linux swap. There are none of the extra 'normal' special partitions like the small EFI and MSR one usually finds on more modern systems.

The system boots from grub to either windows or Linux.

This has worked on Windows 8 and the upgrade to Windows 10 build 10240.

But when I install the newest Windows build 10586, the new version of Windows 10 destroys the grub loader and I get an MBR load error.

The volumes seem to be OK, but the boot info gets trashed.

I've restored back to Windows 10240 and tried on a different hard disk and I got the same results.

I tried restoring the MBR and also tried using 'bootrec /fixmbr' but nothing seems to work.

I am restoring a third time back to Windows 10 build 10240 and I will try something else.

Perhap I should try to remove grub before the next upgrade attempt.

Has anyone else encountered this issue and have any ideas?

:)

 

Updating Win 10 from 10240 to 1511 fails

Three attempts to update my 10240 to 1511 have all failed at exactly the same point. It reaches 32% Installing apps and drivers 6% and fails with the error: 'System tread execption not handled' All the various apps have been updated including the Nvidia
and firewall and antivirus. The machine is virtually the same as when it was upgraded from Win 7 to Win 10.

It works very well under 10240 but really does need to be updated.

I hope that you can help.

System summary saved.

Bob

 

Windows 10 upgrade and UEFI GRUB

I'm currently dualbooting Lubuntu and Win 7 Home Premium. Will GRUB cause any difficulties during the Win 10 upgrade process?

 

See this Multiple OS Installation - and also this MultiOSBoot - Community Help Wiki

 

See this also for Grub2. How to Configure the GRUB2 Boot Loaders Settings

 

Thank you, bro67.

From what I read those instructions are to fix the grub loader entries after Windows updates clobbers grub.

I wonder why the upgrade from 8 to 10240 did not clobber grub, but the 10586 upgrade did.

Anyway, since I rarely use Linux, and could boot a LiveCD from a flash drive for recovery purposes if needed, I think I will try to remove the Linux partitions and get this to be a standard Windows disk so that I don't have to do this again.

 

It is because Windows wants to always use its own boot loader. There are better ones out there.

You can also use a Pen Drive with the latest. UEFI is still a work in progress with Linux.

 

It should be better to have GRUB2 in partition boot sector instead of MBR, and to add Linux boot entry into Windows BCD using VisualBCD program. If you have Windows under GRUB2, hibernation and Recovery probably will not work correctly (according to my own experience).

 

I decided to start from scratch with a clean install beginning with my original Windows 8 Pro DVD.

 

You did not need to do that - you could have just installed 10586 and use 8 key.

 

The mediacreationtool thumb drive will not do a clean install unless you are already logged into windows.

At least that's what happened to me.

I did upgrade from 8.0 Pro to 10 10586 directly with the mediacreationtool image.

At the moment I am doing a clean install of Win 10 in that upgrade.

 

You are confusing a clean install with an ugrade not keeping files.

A clean install wipes all traces of previous OS and you have tou boot from a bootable usb stick or dvd OUTSIDE of windows i.e. same way as if the hard drive was blank.

 

Perhaps I am confused. My installation was setup with the parameters to not save anything from the previous install - no settings, applications, user profiles. That is clean enough.

Using the DVD tool by booting directly into it will not allow a clean install. It refused to install on any drive.

 

Hi there

UEFI works 100% perfectly on most decent Linux distros --no probs myself in using it on CENTOS 7.

As far as the boot loader is concerned I would tend to have Linux on a separate (even external) HDD / SSD - you can set the boot loader / grub2 so it boots totally from its own HDD -- whether internal or external.

Doing it that way you can keep Windows native boot mechanisms.

To reset the HDD for windows --if it's non UEFI a FIXMBR command will do -- otherwise for GPT you need to use Windows recovery disk to fix the boot.

Linux works surprisingly well but I'd keep the two OS'es on separate HDD's rather than partitions of the same drive.

Most Linux Distros run quite snappily even from a USB2 external HDD -- a really cheap way is to get a cheap 320GB 2,5 inch laptop HDD and connect to the computer via an USB-->SATA connector. A USB3 drive connected to a USB3 port will yield even better results and an SSD whether connected via USB2 or USB3 will yield a performance as good as Native windows running from an internal HDD / SSD.

Use the computers Boot menu (Bios / boot menu) to choose your boot system. A Linux UEFI system can run 100% from an external HDD. The latest Linux kernels have just as good plug 'n play as Windows and Networking is far simpler (and works !!).

An external Linux HDD is usually quite portable too --you can run it from a variety of different machines.

I have a Windows VM on one of these Linux systems --makes a great recovery disk too - as well as being able to run different versions of Ms Office etc in different languages depending on what client's site I'm working.

Cheers
jimbo

 

You do not have to enter a key, as long as that machine stays in your Live profile.

You just tell it to skip the activation. When it gets done installing, it will activate.