Windows 10: Windows 10 dual boot recovery bricking BIOS

I have Windows 10 dual booted with Ubuntu on an SSD, but I recently wanted more storage space so I cloned the partitions onto another disk with Clonezilla. After installing the new disk, Ubuntu works fine but when I try to boot Windows it blue screens with an error "Boot device unreachable". So I select 'Repair Windows' to try and fix it, but it 'couldn't fix the problem'. After this I choose the shut down option, but then my PC refuses to boot again. The fans spin up and it might boot onto the motherboard screen, but the usual menu keys don't work. Then it turns off abruptly after about 5 seconds, and repeats the whole process. The only was I got it to work again is to force it to use the backup BIOS I have a dual BIOS motherboard and then it says, 'Main BIOS corrupted' and restores the BIOS, after which it boots into Ubuntu again.


Every time I try to repair Windows, whether with the installation USB or in the installed version, it corrupts the BIOS. Why would this happen? Can I recover the Windows installed on the PC, or do I have to reinstall Windows?


Thanks.

:)

 

Dual Boot?


Hello lostsoul65,

You could purchase Windows 10 online or at any brick and mortar retail store.

I would recommend to install Windows 10 without UEFI and with "Legacy and BIOS" for your current setup. The tutorial below can give you more step by step details on how to do this.

https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/2...ndows-8-a.html

 

Dual boot problem

Hi all.

I have an older PC that used to run XP. I upgraded it to Win 7 and have now upgraded to Win 10. I now want to make it a dual boot Win 10 system, using the second drive as a disaster recovery backup.

When I set up the dual boot Win XP / Win 7, the system put system boot files on the XP disk. Now I can't boot into Win 10 with that disk off line, nor can I format the XP disk to install Win 10 as it has running system files on it.

I have created a recovery USB flash drive but even after setting the boot devices in BIOS to boot from USB, it will not boot from the recovery disk. My next step is to create a recovery CD to see if that will work.

Any suggestions?

Regards,

Steve

 

Dual Booting with Windows 8.1


The procedure below will allow you to boot Windows separately or in dual boot configuration.
Here's what I recommend to do:

1. Disconnect the drive containing Windows 8.1
2. Install Windows 10 with one drive connected.
3. After step 2, reconnect the drive containing Windows 8.1
4. Boot up Windows 8.1. Open disk management and take a note of the drive letter of Windows 10 OS.
   NOTE: if you boot up Windows 10, then take a note of Windows 8.1 drive letter
5. Open Admin command prompt and type: bcdboot X:\windows where X: is the drive letter of Windows 10 (Windows 8.1 if you boot from Windows 10 in step 4)
6. Reboot the PC. You should have a dual boot screen.

NOTE: To break off the dual boot setting, Win+R->msconfig->boot and delete the none default entry on the list.