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I've been trying for some time to fix a mistake I have made around a month ago with Windows 8 after installing Xubuntu beside it. In order to make my laptop run GRUB2 instead of the original Windows Boot Loader I edited through command lines using bcdedit on Windows the EFI file paths of the Windows Boot Manager.

After many issues, I had to format my HDD and I could only install a Linux operating system. Windows ones could not, my laptop not even finding a boot file on the Windows recovery disk. I do believe that, since the Windows Boot Manager has different paths that it should have for loading EFI files, it cannot boot any Windows anymore. I have attempted with windows 7, 8 and 10 on disks and USB keys.

By the way, I have attempted to boot Windows disks by using VirtualBox using the physical HDD. When in non-EFI mode, the installation software runs well but refuses to install anything because of the disk's format. When in EFI mode, being my HDD's, it freezes before launching.

I have seen posts about rEFInd and boot-repair but before trying these out I'd love to know if someone could reply to the question beneath.

Is is possible to manually edit these paths from Ubuntu ? It has to be stored somewhere but I cannot seem to find where.

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Solution found with the help of ubfan1 :

I opened a terminal and typed the command bellow to have a list of the UEFI boot entries :

sudo efibootmgr -v

I deleted the Windows Boot Manager entry and another boot entry called "Yes" by typing :

sudo efibootmgr -B {boot_entry} for both.

I rebooted and noticed I no longer had the Windows Boot Loader. I booted into Ubuntu and added it back by typing :

sudo efibootmgr -L "Windows Boot Manager" -l "/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/bootmgfw.efi" -p 1

I then rebooted into Ubuntu and noticed the changes had been made. It was possible once again to boot Windows from any device.

Bryzz
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1 Answers1

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efibootmgr is the program to manage the UEFI boot items and their order. The man page has full instructions.

Maybe Packard Bells have to set "trust" on your (new) efi boot files. See problems with dual boot om package bell Set secure boot, select "Select a UEFI file for trusting". You might get additional choices after you enable the supervisor password. Search this site for Packard Bell and see what you find.
Entering Windows boot entries in efibootmgr is pretty much the same as entering Ubuntu entries. 

sudo efibootmgr -v

to check what's there. A typical Windows entry looks like: 

Boot0004* Windows Boot Manager  HD(2,e1800,82000,04b9edc2-fc48-11e1-8ec1-e7137b3aaf29)File(\EFI\Microsoft\Boot\bootmgfw.efi)WINDOWS.........x...B.C.D.O.B.J.E.C.T.=.{.9.d.e.a.8.6.2.c.-.5.c.d.d.-.4.e.7.0.-.a.c.c.1.-.f.3.2.b.3.4.4.d.4.7.9.5.}...n.............

Entering a new one (-p for the EFI partition, defaults to 1)

sudo efibootmgr -L "Windows Boot Manager" -l "/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/bootmgfw.efi" -p 1

Maybe -c to create or -b to edit an existing entry, check the man pages. Maybe need the backslash \ instead of slash / for the paths.

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