Linux – Issues installing Kali Linux alongside Windows 8

bootgrublinuxpartitioningwindows 8

I am running Windows 8 64-bit with an i3-3230m with 750GB HDD and 8GB RAM.

I installed Kali onto a 40GB unallocated partition.
(Note: I had to change to Legacy mode in BIOS or my computer would not be able to recognize and boot from the disc.)

FIRST ISSUE: After completing installation and rebooting my computer, GRUB would not show so I could only boot into Windows.
I attempted to fix this by booting again from the Live CD (computer is still in Legacy mode) and using boot-repair.

(Note: I encountered many issues while trying to run boot-repair but I found fixes for all of them so I am not sure if including them will be of importance.)

But after boot-repair, GRUB would still not show, even though boot-repair said the repair was successful.
I did boot-repair multiple times but still no difference.
I even deleted the Kali partition and reinstalled it, but GRUB still didn't show.

The last boot-repair gave the message that if problems persisted, I should provide this link as reference.
http://paste.ubuntu.com/6979965/

NEXT ISSUE: Now when I turn on my computer, it gives me this message with a blue screen for Windows:

The Boot Configuration Data for your PC is missing or contains errors.

File: \EFI\Microsoft\Boot\BCD
Error code:0xc000000f

I created my Windows 8 installation media but when I try to refresh the PC through troubleshoot, it says my drive is locked.

What has happened and what can I do to fix this?

Best Answer

Your initial mistake was this:

I had to change to Legacy mode in BIOS or my computer would not be able to recognize and boot from the disc.

Your other problems follow from that mistake. Basically, your computer had been booting Windows in EFI/UEFI mode. When you installed Kali Linux in BIOS/CSM/legacy mode, you had one OS in EFI mode and the other in BIOS/CSM/legacy mode. This is a combination that's awkward at best, and in some cases impossible to manage. I can't be positive, but it looks like when you ran Boot Repair, it tried adding Windows entries for both EFI mode and BIOS/CSM/legacy mode, and it messed with the Windows EFI-mode boot loaders. It looks like Boot Repair itself was not running in EFI mode, though, so it was unable to finish the job for the EFI-mode boot path -- essentially, Boot Repair broke Windows' ability to boot. Therefore, you'll need to undo Boot Repair's damage and find some other way to get both OSes to coexist.

There are several possible solutions to this problem. I recommend you do the following:

  1. Run Boot Repair again. Enter the Advanced menu and select the option to restore backed-up files. When you run this operation, it should restore the original Windows boot loader.
  2. Download and prepare a USB flash drive or CD-R with my rEFInd boot manager.
  3. If you haven't already done so, disable Secure Boot in your firmware.
  4. Boot the rEFInd medium. It should present options to boot both Windows and Linux. Test these options.
  5. If both OSes boot OK, then install the Debian-package version of rEFInd in Kali. This should fix your problem.

If you have problems, post back with details. If necessary, edit your original post so you can add as much detail as necessary.

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