Background
System is self built, so no OEM stuff. Windows 8 was installed first, hard drive was also newly set up as GPT. Later on, I installed Fedora 20 which installed GRUB on a BIOS Boot partition.
GRUB was loading Fedora fine but wasn't loading Windows properly so I've decided to scrap my Fedora installation and just set it up on a separate hard drive. After wiping my Linux partitions, I've done:
bootrec /fix
bootrec /fixmbr
bootrec /scanos # doesn't recognize any installation
bootrec /rebuildbcd
Which wiped out GRUB, but now I boot to a missing operating system error.
Now
Current disk layout from gdisk:
Number Size Code Name
1 300MiB 2700 Basic data partition # WinRE partition
2 100MiB EF00 EFI system partition
3 128MiB 0C01 Microsoft reserved partition
4 136.7GiB 0700 Basic data partition
The ESP contains:
/Boot/
BCD
BCD.LOG, BCD.LOG1...
BOOTSTAT.DAT
memtest.exe
Localization, resource, and fonts folders
/EFI/
Boot/
bootx64.efi
Microsoft/
Boot/
BCD
BCD.LOG, BCD.LOG1...
boot.stl
bootmgfw.efi
bootmgr.efi
bootstat.dat
memtest.efi
Localization, resource, and fonts folders
/bootmgr
/BOOTNXT
bcdedit also reports:
Windows Boot Manager
identifier {bootmgr}
device partition=I:
path \EFI\Microsoft\Boot\bootmgfw.efi
...
Windows Boot Loader
identifer {default}
device partition=C:
path \Windows\system32\winload.efi
....
I've also tried following the directions here but after rebooting it still gives a missing operating system error. (I've done the procedure both with and w/o secure boot)
rEFInd also does not detect any bootloader.
Is there any other way to repair the bootloader?
Best Answer
First, you could have almost certainly fixed your initial problem by either installing Fedora 20 in EFI mode or installing the EFI-mode Linux boot loader of your choice on your computer. Of course, with Fedora wiped, that doesn't really do you much good; I mention it simply in the hope of helping you learn, or helping somebody else who might need that advice.
As to your problem, it sounds as if your EFI System Partition (ESP) has been damaged, but you haven't presented information on its contents. I'm also unfamiliar with the format of the Windows partitioning tool you've used. It shows a FAT32 partition (which is presumably the ESP), but it's unclear if it's marked with the correct type code. The ESP should be marked as such (with, for instance, a type code of EF00 in
gdisk
or a "boot flag" inparted
), and the Windows boot loader file isEFI/Microsoft/Boot/bootmgfw.efi
. If that file is missing, that's the problem. I'm not an expert on the Windows repair tools, but the page to which you linked says to usebootrec /fixboot
, whereas you usedbootrec /fixmbr
, among other differences. Assuming Microsoft hasn't simply reused an old name, I wouldn't expect/fixmbr
to be useful on an EFI/GPT-booting computer, since EFI doesn't store boot code in the disk's MBR.