Grub2win hijacked my computer
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I just installed Dual boot ChromeOS on my WIN 10 computer (Lenovo M93p). I updated Grub2win menu so that it gave me the option to start ChromeOS instead of the default WIN10. It worked and I can boot into ChromeOS successfully. When I wanted to fall back to my WIN 10 by picking WIN 10 on the grub2win boot selection menu, I got the 0xc000000e error ("Your PC/Device needs to be repaired". I am supposed to press F1 to enter the recovery environment to start the repair. When I pressed F1, the computer restarted and once again I got the Grub2Win boot selection manual instead of getting into the Windows recovery environment. I went into my BIOS (EUFI firmware setting) to check. The normal start-up sequence was Grub2win followed by Winodws Boot Manager. I updated the sequence to Windows boot manager followed by Grub2win. I saved the settings and reboot. But it still went to Grub2win menu. I checked the EUFI firmware setting and found out that it was changed back to Grub2win first (not sure what changed it back ?). Another thing I tried was updating the boot sequence to USB before the hard drive and powered up with a WIN10 RE bootable key in place. But the Grub2win boot selection menu still came up first. I am stuck now. I now only have ChromeOS working. Is there anything that I can do using ChromeOS to prevent Grub2win from interfering with the boot sequence so that I can get to the Windows recovery environment? Hopefully, I don't have to reinstall from scratch. If I have to trash any data, I like to keep my WIN 10 because ChromeOS is something I just added.
Hi Kelvin,
I suspect that Chrome trashed your Windows boot records. I have been reluctant to support Chrome in Grub2Win because of issues like this. The 0xc000000e error indicates bad Windows boot records. Grub2Win never touches the Windows boot records.
That said, let's fix your problem.
Your firmware is trying to boot Windows, but since the Windows boot records are messed up, it then attempts to boot the only remaining viable EFI module - which is Grub2Win.
So we gotta fix your Windows boot records.
Here's a very nice set of instructions for the repair.
I realize these are Dell instructions, but they should work on any Windows machine.
https://www.dell.com/support/kbdoc/en-us/000124331/how-to-repair-the-efi-bootloader-on-a-gpt-hdd-for-windows-7-8-8-1-and-10-on-your-dell-pc#GPT
I hope this works for you. Please let me know.
Thanks,
Dave
Thanks Dave for the quick response. But the problem is I cannot boot to a Windows recovery environment because Grub2win seem to take control first whatever I did . As I mentioned in my post, I did two attempts to get to the recovery environment.
1. Change boot Device to USB first then Hard drive. I then power up with a bootable WINRE USB plug in. But the Grub2win boot selection menu came up first.
2. Change the UEFI start up to use Windows boot manager before Grub2win. Again, Grub2win boot selection menu came up first.
Without booting into a standalone windows environment, I will not be able to do any recovery action as suggested in the link you provided.
Hi again Kelvin,
Something is very wrong here. You should always have the ability to tell your firmware to boot a USB before anything else. This is now sounding like a firmware issue.
Your firmware is not honoring your boot sequence preference.
One thing you can try. Enable secure boot in your EFI firmware setup.
Grub2Win can not load if secure boot is enabled.
Another possibility is to reset your firmware to factory settings.
This may clear up your boot sequence problem.
Most EFI firmware has this option.
FYI I will be away on vacation starting tomorrow returning August 8. With very limited computer access (iPad only).
Please let me know how you fare.
Thanks,
Dave
I excluded my SSD from the boot devices. Now it boots the USB key and I got into the Windows RE. I am now able to follow the steps in your your suggested link. I have a question here. One of the steps is to identify the EFI partiton. It is suppose to be a 100M FAT32 partiton with label EFI. My DISKPART 'list vol' output contains two 100M FAT32 hidden partitions. One with no label and one has a label 'Clone'. How can I tell which one is the EFI partition.
Hey Kelvin,
Your EFI partition will have a directory named efi in the root of the partition. Subdirectories within the efi directory should include boot, microsoft and grub2win.
If both partitions are efi partitions, I suggest you delete one of them.
Multiple efi partitions cause many boot problems.
Dave
Hi again Kelvin,
It's been a couple of days now.
Have you had any luck with this?
Please let me know.
Thanks,
Dave
Sorry, I was tied up with a few other things.
I enabled secure boot and Grub2win did not start.
I booted WINRE with a USB key. Following was the command prompt output
bootrec.exe /FixMbr
The operation completed successful
bootrec.exe /FixBoot
Access is denied.
Not sure what to do next
diskpart> list volume shows
volume ### Ltr Label Fs Type Size Status info
Volume 0 G Realtek CDFS CD-ROM 8000 KB Healthy
Volume 1 C NTFS Partition 90 GB Healthy
Volume 2 D ChromeOS NTFS Partition 19 GB Healthy
Volume 3 E Clone of E NTFS Partition 1019 M Healthy
Volume 4 FAT32 Partition 100M Healthy Hidden
Volume 5 FAT32 Partition 100M Healthy Hidden
Volume 6 F WIN10_BOOT FAT32 Removable 29GB Healthy
IN order to look at the contents, I used diskpart to assign letter w to volume 4 and v to volume 5.
diskpart> list volume shows
volume ### Ltr Label Fs Type Size Status info
Volume 0 G Realtek CDFS CD-ROM 8000 KB Healthy
Volume 1 C NTFS Partition 90 GB Healthy
Volume 2 D ChromeOS NTFS Partition 19 GB Healthy
Volume 3 E Clone of E NTFS Partition 1019 M Healthy
Volume 4 W FAT32 Partition 100M Healthy Hidden
Volume 5 V FAT32 Partition 100M Healthy Hidden
Volume 6 F WIN10_BOOT FAT32 Removable 29GB Healthy
When I displayed the directory of the drives (volumes), Drive E, W and V all have the EFI folder.
Drive E has directory EFI with subdirectories Microsoft and Boot
Drive W has directory EFI with subdirectories Microsoft, Boot and grub2win
Drive V has directory EFI with Sub directory grub2win
Which one of these three should I keep ?
Interesting that the label for your E: drive is "Clone of E". lol
What are the dates for the EFI folders and their subfolders? It will help put them in perspective.
The EFI folder on the W drive looks like the one on my EFI drive.
To test booting the various EFIs rename the ones you want to exclude rather than deleting them or the whole partition.
Hi Kelvin,
I agree with Ed. The W: partition looks like the best bet.
However, I feel that you should completely delete the V: partition.
Here's why.
When EFI partitions are created, they are given a special type UUID
c12a7328-f81f-11d2-ba4b-00a0c93ec93b and hidden.
At boot time your EFI firmware searches for any and all partitions with that UUID.
If you don't completely remove the offending partition, your firmware may try to access it.
I have seen several cases where the firmware chokes in this situation, even it the partition is empty and reformatted. The firmware gets confused and Windows doesn't boot.
For the E: partition, it should be sufficient to simply remove or rename the \efi directory.
I hope this helps,
Dave
Yes, the W drive is the good one. After I renamed the EFI folder of the other two drives, Windows came up no problem. Thank you so much for all the help.
Glad it worked out for you.
Thanks,
Dave