I installed Fedora and accidentally wiped the EFI partition, which means I can now boot into Fedora, but I cannot access Windows anymore. I've tried using the Windows recovery option with a flash drive, but the startup repair fails. Is there any way to reinstall the Windows Boot Manager so I can get back into Windows?
2 Answers
To reinstall the Windows Boot Manager, try booting your Windows setup USB drive in UEFI mode. Once you're in the setup, press Shift+F10 to open the command prompt. You'll want to use the diskpart utility to create a new EFI system partition or select the existing one and assign it a drive letter. Here’s a quick rundown of the steps:
1. Open Diskpart by typing `diskpart`.
2. List all disks and select yours with `list disk` and `select disk X` (replace X with your disk number).
3. Create an EFI partition with `create partition efi size=100` and format it with `format fs=fat32 quick`.
4. Assign a drive letter using `assign letter=S`.
5. Select your Windows volume with `list volume` and assign it with `assign letter=W`.
Finally, use bcdboot to install the Windows Boot Manager by running `bcdboot W:Windows /s S:`. This should help you restore the boot manager and get you back into Windows!
Just a heads up, it seems like you're facing some issues with the partition format and BCD boot. I had a similar problem where I couldn't format the EFI partition to FAT32 and the BCD boot failed to copy files. One workaround I found was to use a second Windows system. I copied the EFI files directly to the EFI partition of the broken system using a Linux live USB since Windows makes it hard to access it. You might want to try that if you're comfortable with it!
Yeah, I did something similar ages ago! Just take the EFI files from another Windows installation and drop them into your EFI partition. It worked for me when my Windows was acting up, but I haven't tried it with the latest versions yet.