Why Can’t I Boot into Windows After Formatting My Linux Partition?

It's likely that Windows is installing its bootloader on the Linux SSD when you set things up. This is pretty common. If you want to avoid this issue, you can unplug your Linux SSD while you're reinstalling or updating Windows. That way, Windows will only write its bootloader to its own drive, leaving your Linux setup intact.

Check where your boot partition is located. If your boot partition is shared and resides on the Linux drive, then formatting it will mess everything up. Try disconnecting the other drive during OS installations, so each one creates its own boot partition. This setup allows you to format one drive without messing with the boot options.

Make sure you’re only formatting the Linux partition. If you've accidentally formatted more than that, you could have wiped your boot partition as well. Learn about GRUB (which stands for GRand Unified Bootloader) to understand how it handles boot options between the two operating systems.

Windows updates tend to replace the GRUB bootloader. It's a good idea to use msconfig in Windows to set the boot menu and include your Linux partition as an option. You can adjust defaults and timeouts there to ease the dual-boot process.

It sounds like Windows might be overriding your Linux boot partition. If you're using GRUB, you can try probing for other operating systems and adding Windows to the boot list. To avoid problems, definitely unplug your Linux drive when you install or update Windows.