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Will an upgrade to Windows 10 on a dual-boot system mess GRUB up?

Upgrade to Windows 10

So today is the day that Microsoft let Windows 10 out the door.

Great, but compared to how we do upgrades in Linux, the Windows 10 upgrade is nothing to rave about. But that’s another discussion that I don’t have time for now, and I don’t think I’ll ever.

This short post is for those running a system on which Windows 7 or 8 (or 8.1) is installed in dual-boot fashion with one or more Linux distributions. If you have such a system and are wondering whether the integrity of the Linux side will survive an upgrade to Windows 10, well, it depends.

Let me explain…

If the setup is on a computer with UEFI firmware, with the boot files of all systems on the EFI Boot Partition, then I don’t see anything that will mess GRUB up during or after upgrading to Windows 10. That’s because the EFI Boot Partition is like a public park, where the space occupied by each operating system’s boot files is respected. So the Windows 10 upgrade script will only update the files and directory that pertains to the Windows boot manager. That this is true has been verified by none other than a Microsoft employee in this blog post.

The same goes with the upgrade script of the installed Linux distribution(s), but you knew that already.

Where you might run into some problem is if the dual-boot setup is on a computer still using Legacy BIOS, with GRUB installed in the Master Boot Record, or MBR. On such a system, be sure to back up your file before attempting the upgrade. It could still go without a hitch, but a backup will save you some anguish if something does go wrong, which can happen, if the Windows 10 upgrade script is designed to write something to the MBR.

Upgrade to Windows 10

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aaa
aaa
8 years ago

according the advice from this article i have disabled windows\’ quick start feature and my ubuntu managed to boot up. thanks.

Alexjej
Alexjej
8 years ago

I had issues upgrading Windows 7 to 10 on a dual boot system , but not with grub, ’cause Windows installer luckily didn’t wrote my MBR.

i got the free upgrade to Windows 10 from Microsoft, and i installed it on a dual-booting system with Windows and Debian Jessie partition on the same hard-disk; result: Windows installer changed UUIDs of all partitions causing Linux to boot in recovery mode with a lot of error and failure messages.

Recovery mode leads me to a command line, both options “systemctl default” and “systemctl reboot” didn’t helped to solve issue. Anyway, system is mounted by recovery in read only mode, nothing can be really done from here.

I also red an article on-line that was explaining that Windows has a Power Option called “Quick Start” that avoid system to completely switch-off hard-disks, and put them in an hybernate state to get a faster restart of the system. This cause that those hybernated partitions can’t be mounted by Linux in read and write mode; if you have your Linux system configured to mount automatically a ntfs partition shared with Windows, this will also cause Linux to boot in recovery mode.

I solved my issues this way:
from recovery command line i opended fstab (nano /etc/fstab) to know physical addresses of Linux partitions on the hard-disk. Standard Linux installation uses 3 partitions, root, home and swap.
fstab uses UUIDs to mount disks instead physical address, and you can get new UUIDs changed by Winsows installation with “blkid” command, referring to physical addresses obtained by fstab: fstab has a commented line over every UUID used by Linux that tells that partition was sdaX during installation.
command “blkid /dev/sdaX” (substitute X with number of partition on /dev/sda) gives new UUID. Repeat command for every Linux partitions (at least 3) and write down new UUIDs.

Reboot system loading Windows 10, go to Control Panel, Power Option and disable Quick Start. I also disabled Indicization on ntfs drive i share between the two systems.
Switch Off Windows 10. Don’t Restart, SWITCH- OFF!

Power on the PC and boot a Linux installation disk, choose Recovery mode from Advanced Options.
Open a shell on root hard-disk partition: u should know exact /dev/sdaX from previous fstab editing.
Edit fstab (nano /etc/fstab): this time system is in read and write mode, so changes can be made.
Change old UUIDs whit new ones obtained by blkid.

Reboot your fully working dual boot PC!
Hope it helps.

Anbazhagan
Anbazhagan
8 years ago

use a easy BCD software.Install on it windows . choose the linux partition where u installed

Nishant
Nishant
8 years ago

I have recently upgraded from Windows 8.1 to Windows 10. I tried to install Ubuntu 15.04 in dual boot configuration.

PROBLEM: The system directly boots into Windows without the GRUB screen appearing.

Here is what I have tried till now:

1. Running boot repair. I disabled Secure Boot before running boot repair from Ubuntu image on USB stick.
URL to boot repair log: http://paste.ubuntu.com/122568

2. I tried to boot into Windows and then type the following command in the admin command prompt:
bcdedit /set {bootmgr} path \EFI\ubuntu\grubx64.efi

Please suggest some alternative method.

Trond Melvin
Trond Melvin
8 years ago

The problem is : When dualboot and you have a boot menu in grub you have to change the order so windows is the default boot. When upgrading to windows 10 it takes many hr to do and it reeboot several times. If you not have windows as default boot Then you all time need siting and watch and manually select windows boot after every time restarting.An other posibillity is to use windows start up cd or usb to fix it so it only boot to windows, and after that reinstall grub2 and make a boot menu.

Christoper Crowford
8 years ago

To reserve your free upgrade, click on the Windows 10 icon located in the lower right side of the system tray. Don’t see the Windows 10 icon?

Pete
Pete
8 years ago

Let me recount my experience of upgrading to windows 10 from 8.1 on an HP Recline 27 with a dual boot of Ubuntu 15.04.

First, it was an unintended update. It started with a search for updates. I first checked the box that auto marked all of the updates. I then unchecked the box for Windows 10 and started the install process. Lo and behold after a while it was downloading Windows 10. I clicked on the cancel button, but lo and behold when I attempted to exit, the update/install window disappeared but it kept updating in the background…… I was reluctant to interfere so let it continue.

On the auto restart, Windows couldn’t connect with WiFi or Ethernet, although both the WiFi link (Ralink RT390 802.11bgn) and the direct connect Ethernet (Realtek PCIe GBE Family Controller) were shown on the list of available networks. (It may have been that the computer was defaulting to airplane mode. I didn’t think to check at the time. It may be that one could restart WiFi using the keyboard.)

After trying various methods to get WiFi or the ethernet to work without success, I decided to see if I could still access Ubuntu (and the internet). No luck — the system booted up into Windows. So I used boot-repair and clicked on the recommended fix button to attempt to fix the boot up menu. On exiting boot-repair the dual boot menu appeared as it was prior to the Windows 10 install. However, once I entered Windows, subsequently the system only booted up into Windows. However the WiFi and Ethernet worked in Windows!

I then entered “bcdedit /set {bootmgr} path \EFI\ubuntu\shimx64.efi” at the admin command prompt as suggested by boot-repair. Now the dual boot menu was restored!!

🙂

Chetan Gupta
Chetan Gupta
Reply to  Pete
8 years ago

I had the same problem of not being able to boot into ubuntu after windows 8.1 upgrade to 10. But as suggested by many and also boot-repair, I ran the “bcdedit /set {bootmgr} path \EFI\ubuntu\shimx64.efi” command in windows 10 command prompt as an admin. But now laptop doesn’t boot into any OS. It says “no boot options found. Press any key to reboot.” on a black screen. I tried recommended boot-repair in vain from live Ubuntu USB. What should I do? How can atleast get into any one OS? How do I undo the afore mentioned command?

Fox
Fox
8 years ago

I wonder what happens when I upgrade my MacBook Pro which has Arch Linux, OS X and Win 8.1 in triple boot. I assume it will go just fine but as I prefer clean installs over upgrades in Windows world, I will probably end up reinstalling it and messing my rEFInd up.

Sudipto
Sudipto
8 years ago

I had both Ubuntu and Windows 7 installed in my system & when i was updating to Windows 10, it got stuck up during reboot after 29% installation with the following error message:

error: no such partition.
Entering rescue mode….
grub rescue> _

Pls help..!!

Sudipto
Sudipto
Reply to  finid
8 years ago

I am technically a novice in this dept, so i am not able to understand what u r implying. All i remember is I installed Ubuntu on a different partition & I had to manually select Windows7 loader in the grub menu whenever i switched on my lappy.

Xicor
Xicor
8 years ago

i did a full reinstall of windows (granted i have two hdd, where the second one has grub). grub gives me an error everytime i boot up to windows saying that the partition doesnt exist, but then it boots up anyway.

lemondedestuts
8 years ago

thank you, it can still be used

MICHAEL CREAMER
MICHAEL CREAMER
8 years ago

I took the dubious plunge and upgraded my Windows 7 partition to Windows 10 on my Dell laptop that dual-boots Linux Mint 17.2 with the GRUB menu. I really had no choice: I teach a high school tech class, so I have to be familiar with what my students will be bringing on their devices. I had no issues. The installation took far too long — we’re talking hours on my wireless connection — but otherwise, all was smooth. GRUB was still there and working and needed only one tweak: Windows 10 was still identified as Windows 7, but that’s an easy fix, of course. So far, Windows 10 runs well, and I find it amusing to see so many “new” features that have been commonplace for Linux users for a good long time now. Windows 10 is something of a grudging admission on Microsoft’s part that Linux had been doing the right things, and they “borrowed” a number of those right things for Windows 10.

A
A
Reply to  finid
8 years ago

That would actually be one of the best thing that could happen to the computer world. No need to worry again about the clumsy Windows behaviour.

Abhishek
8 years ago

It will sort of.

I had dual boot of Windows 8.1 and Ubuntu 15.04.

Now after upgrading to Windows 10, it boots directly in Windows. No Grub screen anymore. Got to change a few things here and there and it should be fine but it might scare few users.

Subhajit Mirbar
Subhajit Mirbar
Reply to  Abhishek
8 years ago

Well linux/ubuntu can be easily installed/dualbooted , the main factor is windows which is a pain to install. Glad to see Win still operates fine , I can tweak those little buggers no prob

redrum781
redrum781
8 years ago

It messed up my arch install, kind of.
The upgrade process created another Windows recovery environment partition moving my linux partitions from 5 and 6 to 6 and 7 respectively.

All I needed to do was edit my EFISTUP config file moving root partition from 6 to 7, bootloader remained intact.

doctorx
doctorx
8 years ago

I did this exact thing yesterday. Make sure you have a usb with a live distro handy just in case. If you are just upgrading, it wont overwrite the mbr. If you decide to do a clean install, whole other story.

BTW the steps to recover in live xubuntu (other should work too)
sudo mount /dev/sda1 /mnt *replace sda1 with your root partition*
sudo grub-install /dev/sda –root-partition=/mnt
reboot and enjoy

I did this just in case… but not sure if needed:
boot in linux:
sudo update-grub

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