I'm an up and coming MSP technician trying to learn the world of Linux! A few months ago I purchased a Windows 8 laptop and have been using it for work related tasks and to familiarize my self with the OS since some businesses will eventually adopt it when XP goes end of life in April. I've used Linux multiple times in the workplace, dual booting on Windows machines, creating FTP servers, and restoring old laptops to usable states.
Today I decided I wanted to dual boot Linux on my personal work laptop, because I've never really just sat down and used Linux for personal use. So after I installed the Linux OS from bootable USB I was good to go... until..
I ran into a few issues. such as Windows enabling secure boot with the latest UEFI bios which restrict dual boot right out of the box. Doing further research I knew it wouldn't be that simple because I still could not access my Linux OS just by simply restarting and choosing an OS.
So I went to Uncle Google to find some article to assist me, and Voila, I ran into EASYBCD. It could do eveything I ever wanted to create a Windows 8 dual boot environment. It's even listed within the Microsoft technet forums. So After following the guide located here:
How to dual-boot Windows 8 and Linux
I began my journey. Everything was working fine, until I got to the point of restarting my system and now I get an error that says Windows Boot Loader could not be found
. Specifically:
File\BCD
0xc0000098
Info: The Windows Boot Configuration Data file does not contain a valid OS entry
So I decided to try and boot from a LiveCD, USBLiveCD, and Factory Restore Disc, all the same error. I can access the bios, I've tried resetting the bios, resetting the CMOS battery jumper, still nothing. I cannot boot to anything without getting the Windows Boot Loader error screen.
Luckily I did create a backup EASYBCD file within my harddrive before making any changes for the dual boot system. So I decided to put my harddrive in another system, load the BCD store, repair/restore the previous BCD configuration, and still after doing so and entering the harddrive back into my laptop I get the same error.
I'm two seconds from reformatting my drive... however I would not like to do so because It would be valuable information to myself that If I figure this out, I can deal with it in the future if I ever run into the issue again.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
TL;DR: Dual booted Windows 8 Laptop with Linux Mint 15, used EASYBCD to create a Boot for Linux Mint 15, Get Windows Boot Loader Error on Startup, cannot access any bootable media, can access bios. Can access hard drive easily in another machine. Trying to get laptop to boot back into Windows 8.
Today I decided I wanted to dual boot Linux on my personal work laptop, because I've never really just sat down and used Linux for personal use. So after I installed the Linux OS from bootable USB I was good to go... until..
I ran into a few issues. such as Windows enabling secure boot with the latest UEFI bios which restrict dual boot right out of the box. Doing further research I knew it wouldn't be that simple because I still could not access my Linux OS just by simply restarting and choosing an OS.
So I went to Uncle Google to find some article to assist me, and Voila, I ran into EASYBCD. It could do eveything I ever wanted to create a Windows 8 dual boot environment. It's even listed within the Microsoft technet forums. So After following the guide located here:
How to dual-boot Windows 8 and Linux
I began my journey. Everything was working fine, until I got to the point of restarting my system and now I get an error that says Windows Boot Loader could not be found
. Specifically:File\BCD
0xc0000098
Info: The Windows Boot Configuration Data file does not contain a valid OS entry
So I decided to try and boot from a LiveCD, USBLiveCD, and Factory Restore Disc, all the same error. I can access the bios, I've tried resetting the bios, resetting the CMOS battery jumper, still nothing. I cannot boot to anything without getting the Windows Boot Loader error screen.
Luckily I did create a backup EASYBCD file within my harddrive before making any changes for the dual boot system. So I decided to put my harddrive in another system, load the BCD store, repair/restore the previous BCD configuration, and still after doing so and entering the harddrive back into my laptop I get the same error.
I'm two seconds from reformatting my drive... however I would not like to do so because It would be valuable information to myself that If I figure this out, I can deal with it in the future if I ever run into the issue again.
Any help would be greatly appreciated
.TL;DR: Dual booted Windows 8 Laptop with Linux Mint 15, used EASYBCD to create a Boot for Linux Mint 15, Get Windows Boot Loader Error on Startup, cannot access any bootable media, can access bios. Can access hard drive easily in another machine. Trying to get laptop to boot back into Windows 8.