Could My Linux Drive Be Dead After a Windows Update?
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CuriousGamer92
Hi everyone! I'm having a bit of a dilemma with my laptop. It crashed while my son was using it, showed a black screen, and I couldn't get anything to display for two days. I couldn't access the BIOS or anything—just a complete dead end. But today, I tried again, and it booted straight into Windows! I dual boot with Linux and Windows on separate drives, and usually, I can choose which OS to start when I power up. Now I'm wondering if the Linux drive is toast, or if Windows somehow updated and wiped my Linux installation. Both drives show up in the BIOS, but I can't find an option to boot into Linux. Any thoughts?
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I’ve had similar issues with my Latitude 7490 black screening while booting Windows. Plugging it into the charger usually makes it boot up. I think it’s a firmware glitch. I make sure fast boot is disabled since that can disrupt dual boot systems. As for your drives, consider using GSmartControl from GParted Live to check their health. If Windows messed with your boot files during an update, you’ll want to learn how to repair the bootloader for Linux. Booting from a SuperGrub2 disk and reinstalling GRUB (if that’s your bootloader) should help fix the situation.
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I actually removed my Linux drive and just wiped my Windows installation since I rarely use it. I installed Linux on that drive instead and all my previous issues disappeared. I suspected a hardware failure at first, but it seems it was the drive causing the trouble. I'm only left with a 500GB drive in the laptop now, but I plan to upgrade to an SSD soon—my wife isn't thrilled about it, though!
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It sounds like Windows might have overwritten the bootloader, which happens sometimes when dual booting since they often share an EFI partition. If you’re using something like Linux Mint, it has a "Boot Repair" tool on the installation media you can use. Other distros may require a bit more manual work, unfortunately. What distro are you running?
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LinuxLover55: You're spot on! In many cases, when using a standard dual boot setup, Windows updates can overwrite the Linux bootloader. That’s why I suggest creating a separate boot partition for Linux to prevent Windows from messing with it. Ideally, if you can, removing the Windows drive and using just one for Linux can simplify things.