[SOLVED] Can't boot back into windows

Question

Been a while since I had to install Arch but my previous PC died so I tried installing it on my new one. When I installed it last time, there was no EUFI and it was a simple Grub installation. When I installed it, I disabled eufi from my bios to legacy grub. I installed Arch like normal but os-probe didn't seem to work. Although it detected my OS, it did not make an entry for windows in the grub, When I re-enable EUFI from bios, it just goes straight to GRUB cmd line.
Here's the output for fdisk:
Disk /dev/sda: 946.4 GiB, 1016218828800 bytes, 1984802400 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
Disklabel type: gpt
Disk identifier: A3D81761-F777-4399-9F81-01E346CDC93F
Device Start End Size Type
/dev/sda1 2048 1988607 970M BIOS boot partition
/dev/sda2 1988608 3708927 840M Windows recovery environment
/dev/sda3 3708928 4241407 260M EFI System
/dev/sda4 4241408 4503551 128M Microsoft reserved
/dev/sda5 4503552 1123987926 533.8G Microsoft basic data
/dev/sda6 1905238016 1953523711 23G Windows recovery environment
/dev/sda7 1953525168 1984798127 14.9G unknown
/dev/sda8 1123989504 1900040191 370.1G Linux filesystem
/dev/sda9 1900040192 1905238015 2.5G Linux swap
and os-prober
$ sudo os-prober
No volume groups found
/dev/sda3:Windows 8 (loader):Windows:chain
Arch is installed on sda8/sda9 and wndows is on sda3/4/5/6. There also seems to be a seperate "boot" drive sdb that only shows up when eufi is enabled. Can anyone help me figure out how to boot into my windows partition? thanks
edit: here's grub.cfg
# DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE
# It is automatically generated by grub-mkconfig using templates
# from /etc/grub.d and settings from /etc/default/grub
### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/00_header ###
insmod part_gpt
insmod part_msdos
if [ -s $prefix/grubenv ]; then
load_env
fi
if [ "${next_entry}" ] ; then
set default="${next_entry}"
set next_entry=
save_env next_entry
set boot_once=true
else
set default="0"
fi
if [ x"${feature_menuentry_id}" = xy ]; then
menuentry_id_option="--id"
else
menuentry_id_option=""
fi
export menuentry_id_option
if [ "${prev_saved_entry}" ]; then
set saved_entry="${prev_saved_entry}"
save_env saved_entry
set prev_saved_entry=
save_env prev_saved_entry
set boot_once=true
fi
function savedefault {
if [ -z "${boot_once}" ]; then
saved_entry="${chosen}"
save_env saved_entry
fi
function load_video {
if [ x$feature_all_video_module = xy ]; then
insmod all_video
else
insmod efi_gop
insmod efi_uga
insmod ieee1275_fb
insmod vbe
insmod vga
insmod video_bochs
insmod video_cirrus
fi
if [ x$feature_default_font_path = xy ] ; then
font=unicode
else
insmod part_gpt
insmod ext2
set root='hd0,gpt8'
if [ x$feature_platform_search_hint = xy ]; then
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root --hint-bios=hd0,gpt8 --hint-efi=hd0,gpt8 --hint-baremetal=ahci0,gpt8 6a6f6015-3793-4978-8c19-5abd44c63aea
else
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root 6a6f6015-3793-4978-8c19-5abd44c63aea
fi
font="/usr/share/grub/unicode.pf2"
fi
if loadfont $font ; then
set gfxmode=auto
load_video
insmod gfxterm
set locale_dir=$prefix/locale
set lang=en_US
insmod gettext
fi
terminal_input console
terminal_output gfxterm
if [ x$feature_timeout_style = xy ] ; then
set timeout_style=menu
set timeout=5
# Fallback normal timeout code in case the timeout_style feature is
# unavailable.
else
set timeout=5
fi
### END /etc/grub.d/00_header ###
### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/10_archlinux ###
menuentry "Arch Linux pkg-linux kernel" --class arch-linux --class arch --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os {
if [ x$feature_all_video_module = xy ]; then
insmod all_video
fi
set gfxpayload=keep
insmod ext2
if [ x$feature_platform_search_hint = xy ]; then
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root --hint-bios=hd0,gpt8 --hint-efi=hd0,gpt8 --hint-baremetal=ahci0,gpt8 6a6f6015-3793-4978-8c19-5abd44c63aea
else
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root 6a6f6015-3793-4978-8c19-5abd44c63aea
fi
echo 'Loading Arch Linux pkg-linux kernel ...'
linux /boot/vmlinuz-linux root=UUID=6a6f6015-3793-4978-8c19-5abd44c63aea rw
echo 'Loading Arch Linux pkg-linux kernel initramfs ...'
initrd /boot/initramfs-linux.img
menuentry "Arch Linux pkg-linux kernel (fallback initramfs)" --class arch-linux --class arch --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os {
if [ x$feature_all_video_module = xy ]; then
insmod all_video
fi
set gfxpayload=keep
insmod ext2
if [ x$feature_platform_search_hint = xy ]; then
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root --hint-bios=hd0,gpt8 --hint-efi=hd0,gpt8 --hint-baremetal=ahci0,gpt8 6a6f6015-3793-4978-8c19-5abd44c63aea
else
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root 6a6f6015-3793-4978-8c19-5abd44c63aea
fi
echo 'Loading Arch Linux pkg-linux kernel ...'
linux /boot/vmlinuz-linux root=UUID=6a6f6015-3793-4978-8c19-5abd44c63aea rw
echo 'Loading Arch Linux pkg-linux kernel fallback initramfs ...'
initrd /boot/initramfs-linux-fallback.img
### END /etc/grub.d/10_archlinux ###
### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/10_linux ###
menuentry 'Arch Linux' --class arch --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os $menuentry_id_option 'gnulinux-simple-6a6f6015-3793-4978-8c19-5abd44c63aea' {
load_video
set gfxpayload=keep
insmod gzio
insmod part_gpt
insmod ext2
set root='hd0,gpt8'
if [ x$feature_platform_search_hint = xy ]; then
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root --hint-bios=hd0,gpt8 --hint-efi=hd0,gpt8 --hint-baremetal=ahci0,gpt8 6a6f6015-3793-4978-8c19-5abd44c63aea
else
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root 6a6f6015-3793-4978-8c19-5abd44c63aea
fi
echo 'Loading Linux linux ...'
linux /boot/vmlinuz-linux root=UUID=6a6f6015-3793-4978-8c19-5abd44c63aea rw
echo 'Loading initial ramdisk ...'
initrd /boot/initramfs-linux.img
submenu 'Advanced options for Arch Linux' $menuentry_id_option 'gnulinux-advanced-6a6f6015-3793-4978-8c19-5abd44c63aea' {
menuentry 'Arch Linux, with Linux linux' --class arch --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os $menuentry_id_option 'gnulinux-linux-advanced-6a6f6015-3793-4978-8c19-5abd44c63aea' {
load_video
set gfxpayload=keep
insmod gzio
insmod part_gpt
insmod ext2
set root='hd0,gpt8'
if [ x$feature_platform_search_hint = xy ]; then
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root --hint-bios=hd0,gpt8 --hint-efi=hd0,gpt8 --hint-baremetal=ahci0,gpt8 6a6f6015-3793-4978-8c19-5abd44c63aea
else
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root 6a6f6015-3793-4978-8c19-5abd44c63aea
fi
echo 'Loading Linux linux ...'
linux /boot/vmlinuz-linux root=UUID=6a6f6015-3793-4978-8c19-5abd44c63aea rw
echo 'Loading initial ramdisk ...'
initrd /boot/initramfs-linux.img
### END /etc/grub.d/10_linux ###
### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/20_linux_xen ###
### END /etc/grub.d/20_linux_xen ###
### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/30_os-prober ###
### END /etc/grub.d/30_os-prober ###
### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/40_custom ###
# This file provides an easy way to add custom menu entries. Simply type the
# menu entries you want to add after this comment. Be careful not to change
# the 'exec tail' line above.
### END /etc/grub.d/40_custom ###
### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/41_custom ###
if [ -f ${config_directory}/custom.cfg ]; then
source ${config_directory}/custom.cfg
elif [ -z "${config_directory}" -a -f $prefix/custom.cfg ]; then
source $prefix/custom.cfg;
fi
### END /etc/grub.d/41_custom ###
### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/60_memtest86+ ###
if [ "${grub_platform}" == "pc" ]; then
menuentry "Memory Tester (memtest86+)" --class memtest86 --class gnu --class tool {
search --fs-uuid --no-floppy --set=root --hint-bios=hd0,gpt8 --hint-efi=hd0,gpt8 --hint-baremetal=ahci0,gpt8 6a6f6015-3793-4978-8c19-5abd44c63aea
linux16 /boot/memtest86+/memtest.bin
fi
### END /etc/grub.d/60_memtest86+ ###
Last edited by giok13 (2014-04-24 15:20:31)

Answer 1

dice wrote:
As you have disabled UEFI during arch installation your grub was installed in mbr mode and not EFI.
Your Windows installation is probably installed in UEFI mode.
So when you enable UEFI grub doesn't work correctly. And in legacy mode Windows won't boot.
See here for details https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/UEFI
Yea, I figured it out last night after spending hours on it. For anyone that might be having the same problem as me: Re-installed grub with os-prober and it detected windows successfully. Added the entry into grub correctly as well. But when I tried to boot into windows, it said my bcd was corrupted. Apparently when I was trying everything, I formatted the entire /boot partition so there was no way for windows to boot. After hours of trying to figure out how to restore the partition, I went into bios and re-enabled UEFI, safe boot, fast boot. It restored the /boot partition and let me get into windows. Then disabled safe boot and fast boot, booted arch live cd and installed gummiboot.