can't boot into windows after Ubuntu 14.04 install

[mnosyke]

hi all and thanks for having me. i just switched to ubuntu because i am not feeling windows any more. i REALLY REALLY NEED HELP GUYS. i accidentally installed ubuntu in legacy mode and now cant find my windows 8 operating system. please what do i do to resolve this since all my info is in windows. when i boot in legacy, i see only ubuntu. when i boot in efi, it says operating system not found. please how do i fix the boot for windows 8.......thank to all u nice wizards!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[mnosyke]

hi all and thanks for having me. i just switched to ubuntu because i am not feeling windows any more. i REALLY REALLY NEED HELP GUYS. i accidentally installed ubuntu in legacy mode and now cant find my windows 8 operating system. please what do i do to resolve this since all my info is in windows. when i boot in legacy, i see only ubuntu. when i boot in efi, it says operating system not found. please how do i fix the boot for windows 8.......thank to all u nice wizards!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[QIII]

Threads merged and moved to Installation & Upgrades.

Please do not start multiple threads for the same issue in multiple locations. It dilutes the community's efforts to help and causes confusion.

[oldfred]

We need to see details, and do not run any autofix until someone has reviewed your summary report.

Post the link to the Create BootInfo summary report. Is part of Boot-Repair:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Boot-Info

Boot Repair -Also handles LVM, GPT, separate /boot and UEFI dual boot.:
Precise, Trusty, Vivid, & Utopic all should work now with current ppa
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Boot-Repair

Did you turn off secure boot, and fast boot or always on hibernation in Windows before install?

And I know horse has left barn so a bit late to close barn door, but we always recommend full backups before major system changes. And hard drives do fail, so if any data is valuable you should have good backup procedures, And a separate Windows repair CD or flash drive to fix things.


The vendor recovery DVDs are just an image of your drive as purchased. If you have housecleaned a lot of cruft normally included, run many updates with many reboots, and added software you may want a full back up.
Backup windows before install - post by Mark Phelps
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.p...0#post12611710
http://www.macrium.com/reflectfree.asp
Another suggestion by srs5694
http://www.runtime.org/driveimage-xml.htm


Windows 8 UEFI repair USB must be FAT32, not for reinstall, just repairs
http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials...ndows-8-a.html
http://www.winhelp.us/create-a-recov...ows-8.html#USB
http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/For...-166dddf32205/
http://www.ghacks.net/2012/11/01/how...m-repair-disc/

[mnosyke]

thanks.for replying. here is my link. http://paste.ubuntu.com/9600514/ . i kindly await your reply. uasked me this question "Did you turn off secure boot, and fast boot or always on hibernation in Windows before install? .
my answer- i was never on hybernation and as i recall, my secure boot was off but i know that i installed in legacy mode. this i know for sure.....

[mnosyke]

..... i hope i provided all the info necessary....... as for thread tools above, i dont think they can help me because they all require me to be able to boot in windows which i cant do. my system only boot into ubuntu and will not find windows. i have switched between legacy and eufi and still no luck.

[yancek]

I don't know how you managed to do this or what option you selected during the install but, your bootinfo report shows no sign of windows, not even a recovery partition. There are numerous detailed tutorials on installing Linux/Ubuntu such as the one below. Might have been a good idea to read a few before beginning.

http://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/u...all-guide.html

[oldfred]

It seems system may have been UEFI, and Windows only boots in UEFI from gpt partitioned drive.

But as yancek has pointed out, you have nothing but Linux in BIOS boot mode on a MBR partitioned drive.

I hope you have good backups.

If no backup and you really have data you want to try to recover STOP using system. Every bit of data you write is overwriting more of old data. And you will not recover a working system nor all data. But Linux is not large, writes to entire drive where Windows writes mostly to beginning of drive so some data may be recoveryable. Long detailed process and you need another drive to copy data into. That drive should have been where you were copying data anyway.

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/DataRecovery
http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk

Testdisk is the first thing to try. If deeper search can find files then you want to copy those immediately to another drive.

Testdisk Instructions
http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk_Step_By_Step
http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/Menu_Analyse
http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestD..._file_for_NTFS

If testdisk fails, you can use tools that scan drive for anything that looks like a file. I have used it and on a smaller drive it took overnight. And it recovered even my deleted copies and does not recover file names just extensions. So I had multiple copies of some files and had to compare each to my last backup. Weeks of works but I did get some data back. And now have better backup procedures.


Testdisk & photorec
http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/PhotoRec
http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/PhotoRec_Step_By_Step
http://www.psychocats.net/ubuntucat/...rdeletedfiles/
http://ubuntu4beginners.blogspot.com...otorec-in.html

I think these require you to move drive to a working Windows system, but may work better at recoverying NTFS data.

An alternative Windows data recovery program is Recuva -- and it is free
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2247461
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.p...0#post13086950
You could start by using Recuva -- to see what it finds. If it doesn't work, you should then try RecoverMyFiles -- to see what it finds.
NTFS file recovery suggestion by Mark Phelps (not free but works)
http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php...12&postcount=4
For NTFS but may charge to actually get your data, but can run to see if it works better.
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2193293
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.p...0#post13010810
http://www.getdata.com/
For NTFS - GetDataBack often recommended
Caution: getdataback is not the same and is a scam.

[mnosyke]

thanks guys. right now i honestly dont need my files from windows, i just need to be able to boot into windows even if it means restoring to factory. i just need to have access to windows since most things i do involve using windows. please tell me how i can achieve this.
QUESTION: WHAT IF I DELETE UBUNTU AND RE INSTALL IN UEFI MODE, DO YOU THINK IT WILL RECOGNIZE WINDOWS AGAIN?. REMEMBER THAT I INSTALLED UBUNTU IN LEGACY. ITS WORTHY TO NOTE THAT BEFORE, I HAD ubuntu and windows together in this computer. itSjust that i upgraded to 14.10 via the onscreen message i received but after the install ubuntu wont load so i deleted ubuntu and re installed my 14.4 mistakenly through legacy. i THINK I MAY HAVE MADE A MISTAKE WHEN DOING THE PARTITION PHASE IN UBUNTU INSTALL. PLEASE HELP

[fantab]

There is no Windows 8 on your Hard Disk. Its gone.
Follow oldfred's post to recover any important data.

Factory restore, also won't work. As restore works from, usually, a dedicated partition on HDD. There is no such partition on you HDD at present.
See below:

Model: ATA WDC WD5000LPVT-2 (scsi)
Disk /dev/sda: 500GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/4096B
Partition Table: msdos

Number  Start   End    Size    Type      File system     Flags
1      1049kB  496GB  496GB   primary   ext4            boot
2      496GB   500GB  4077MB  extended
5      496GB   500GB  4077MB  logical   linux-swap(v1)

Windows partitions will show NTFS as file system.

Try the Partition recovery tools, which are bootable and see if you can re-claim the NTFS partitions.
100% recovery may not be possible.

Alternatively, you can contact the machine's vendor, they may provide you with a Win8 Restore Disc. Or you may have to install from a retail DVD and hope your 'key' works.