Windows – Restore MBR on a Toshiba Satellite Click Mini laptop with Windows 8 after uninstalling Debian 8 using EasyBCD

bootgrubmbrtoshiba-laptopwindows 8

The Toshiba Satellite Click Mini is a special computer, it doesn't have any CD/DVD drive and the BIOS is special and very limited, it looks like this:

Boot menu presented

When I select "Enter Setup" I have a menu like this:

Enter setup menu

What I've done :

  1. I tried to remove a Linux Debian 8 "Jessie" installation by using EasyBCD 2.2 : in "BCD Management Options", "Re-create/repair boot files" (I've followed a video tutorial : http://youtube.com/watch?v=heO1n73Ua4Q)
  2. After that, I boot and go into the BIOS (by pressing Power button + Volume up), I disable the "Secure Boot" option in the Boot Menu (see the second image).

  3. I tried to boot on my USB stick with Ubuntu on it (also tried with a Windows repair disk image), but it doesn't work and it tries boots to Windows 8 everytime and the famous message pops up even if I choose my USB Stick from the Boot Menu (I can always boot to Windows 8 by reactivating the Secure Boot, it just prevents me to boot on another OS and that's pretty annoying) :

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

  4. So I searched on how to resolve this and people are telling that you need to enter these commands on grub rescue screen :
    ls and set, so I tried and this appear :

    grub rescue> ls
    (hd0) (hd1) (hd1,gpt4) (hd1,gpt3) (hd1,gpt2) (hd1,gpt1) (hd2) (hd3)

    grub rescue> set
    cmdpath=(hd1,gpt1)/EFI/debian
    prefix=(hd1,gpt5)/boot/grub
    root=hd1,gpt5

  5. In Windows 8 from the settings menu, I've turned off fast start-up and then I go in Advanced setup in PC settings menu/Troubleshoot/Advanced options/Command Prompt and entered the commands :

    bootrec.exe /FixMbr
    bootrec.exe /FixBoot
    exit

I searched everywhere on internet and didn't solve my problem,
I think the Toshiba Satellite Click Mini laptop is a special case as the BIOS menu is very limited.

Thanks in advance for you answers !

Best Answer

The problem is that tutorial was for a virtual machine that probably used a BIOS/MBR configuration, your laptop probably has a UEFI/GPT configuration. Apparently EasyBCD doesn't support UEFI 100%. The net result is that you didn't remove GRUB from your EFI partition, evident by the lines cmdpath=(hd1,gpt1)/EFI/debian prefix=(hd1,gpt5)/boot/grub

To fix this boot into a Windows recovery environment (secure boot setting shouldn't matter) and reset your efi.

To summarize that repair link, in the repair menu do:

  • bootrec /RebuildBcd
  • bootrec /fixMbr
  • bootrec /fixboot
  • bootsect /nt60 SYS
  • bootsect /nt60 ALL
  • Exit

You could probably also fix this from within Windows 8 too I suppose, or even using a linux livecd. If you have trouble booting into recovery, update your question. Perhaps you could include your partition information too. But normally a recovery disk can handle the job.

Update: Sorry just noticed this question is rather old.

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