Question GRUB Rescue for Win10/Linux Dual-Boot After Deleting Linux Partition

[Hubes]

Hi guys,

Before I'm redirected to another thread, let me say that I've read literally dozens of similar threads that don't completely answer my question. I've been at this since 5am my time.

So, I installed Linux on my desktop alongside Windows in its own partition. I have Windows 10 installed on my SSD, I use my HDD for most storage on Windows, and I allocated 150GB of my HDD to Linux Mint. Last night, I decided to try and remove Linux from my PC and extend my Windows HDD partition to take up the now-unallocated 150GB. I used MiniTool Partition Wizard, and I rebooted from there.

When I booted back up, I found myself at the GRUB rescue boot page. I clearly did not go about removing my partition responsibly. I created a Windows 10 USB boot drive and booted it from BIOS. This was the first good news! I was able to access the command prompt via recovery tools. I entered the following commands:

1. bootrec /FixMbr
2. bootrec /FixBoot (THIS RETURNED "Access is Denied."
3. bootrec /ScanOs
4. bootrec /RebuildBcd

I rebooted without changing boot priority (i.e. it booted from my SSD), and it took me back to the GRUB rescue page. I rebooted again, this time booting from my USB, and I received the following error:

Your PC/Device needs to be repaired
The Boot Configuration Data for your PC is missing or contains errors.
File: \EFI\Microsoft\Boot\BCD
Error code: 0xc000000f
You'll need to use recovery tools.
Press Esc for UEFI Firmware Settings

And here I am. My next plan was to try running "diskpart" and manually assign a drive letter, but I can't even use recovery tools at this point. I get the error above every time I try to boot from USB.

Anybody have an idea? I'm tired and defeated

Thanks so much,

Hubes

 

[Deleted member 14196]

Clean reinstall windows. Shut down and remove power to the hard drive then nuke the SSD by performing a clean windows install. By clean I mean let the windows installer remove all the partitions on the SSD and then install windows cleanly With only the SSD connected at install time. after that you can reconnect your hard drive when your system is working

 

[Hubes]

Clean reinstall windows. Shut down and remove power to the hard drive then nuke the SSD by performing a clean windows install. By clean I mean let the windows installer remove all the partitions on the SSD and then install windows cleanly With only the SSD connected at install time. after that you can reconnect your hard drive when your system is working

Not a bad idea at all. Is this salvageable as is? I think I can get back to Recovery Tools and into cmd to try "diskpart" and assign a drive letter to my proper boot drive.

 

[Deleted member 14196]

Sure. Try that first

 

[Hubes]

So, I got back into recovery tools and accessed cmd. I used "diskpart" and saw all of my drives and volumes. The only issue is, when I went to find my UEFI volume (the USB with Windows 10 ISO), its file system is NTFS, not FAT32. How is that possible?

 

[Hubes]

My understanding about this entire thing has been incredibly flawed. I now understand I am supposed to assign a drive letter to my "hidden" EFI partition, which is supposed to be the volume with FAT32 file system. The only issue is all of my volumes are NTFS.