I've been dual-booting Arch Linux and Windows for about a year. Windows used to work normally, but after spending most of the summer using only Linux, it now crashes roughly 20 minutes after I boot into it. The screen suddenly goes black and the computer tries to restart, but afterward neither the Windows bootloader nor GRUB works until I manually restart the PC. This happened three times in one day. Windows did install some updates after the first crash, but the problem happened twice more. I mainly need Windows for school software such as MATLAB, and I can't currently afford a second drive for a separate installation.
4 Answers
The exact crash behavior matters here. A sudden black screen with an automatic restart and no error message could point to graphics drivers, overheating, power instability, or a hardware problem rather than just a bootloader issue. Check temperatures, test the memory, update or reinstall the Windows graphics driver, and disable automatic restart temporarily so Windows has a chance to show a stop code. Also verify that the drive and its connections are healthy.
Keeping each operating system on its own physical drive is usually less fragile, but it isn’t required. Since you need Windows only for school applications, it may be worth repairing the current installation before changing the partition layout. Make sure your important Linux and Windows files are backed up before attempting a reinstall or partition changes.
If the installations share one drive, a damaged Windows installation or filesystem could be affecting the boot process. Back up anything important, check the Windows drive with its repair tools, and consider reinstalling Windows if the crashes continue. After reinstalling, you may need to restore or recreate the GRUB entry because Windows can overwrite the boot configuration.
The first thing to check is whether Windows had pending updates or driver updates. Since it did update after the first crash but continued failing, updates probably aren’t the whole cause. Try to determine whether the shutdown is a full system crash, a GPU or power issue, or Windows simply losing access to the boot drive. If possible, check Event Viewer and Reliability Monitor after the next successful boot for critical errors.
I may try reinstalling Windows first. I can’t afford another drive right now, although I was considering adding an internal hard drive if I can find the right cable for my laptop.