URGENT: Microsoft overwrites boot loader!

[Manish Jain]

On 2020-07-17 13:57, Don Wilde wrote:
> 
> On 7/16/20 7:40 PM, Manish Jain wrote:
>>
>>
>> On 2020-07-17 01:49, Don Wilde wrote:
>>> The [deleted] ones in Redmond have done it again. My multi-OS GRUB2 
>>> boot loader is gone, and in its place is a 500M partition called 
>>> 'Windows boot loader'.
>>>
>>> The purpose is to force us to look at MS' new version of Edge. All my 
>>> old boot files are gone.
>>>
>>> It's taken me much of the morning to get underneath this, since on 
>>> this unit my only OS (other than Doze 10) with a WM and GUI is Ubuntu.
>>>
>>> That's the last time I will allow this, and I'm calling those 
>>> [deleted]s tomorrow to give them a piece of my mind. After that I 
>>> will erase every vestige of that obscene OS from my disk.
>>>
>>
>> If I understand correctly, it's just that your Grub boot-loader is gone.
>>
> Yes, exactly.
> 
> 
>> That should not be much of a problem if your system is MBR+BIOS.
>>
> Unfortunately, it's GPT under EFI. I can access all my files through the 
> F12 key on this Dell tower, be it Windows, Linux or FreeBSD, but if I 
> allow it to boot with the Doze HDD in the system, it boots to that one.
>> If your system is MBR+BIOS, the following should work.
>>
>> Boot with your FreeBSD CD/DVD/memstick, and write out boot0 to all 
>> your disks:
>>
>> boot0cfg -B /dev/<disk0>
>> boot0cfg -B /dev/<disk1>
>> boot0cfg -B /dev/<disk2>
>>
>> Next, boot with your Ubuntu CD/DVD/memstick, and write out Grub to 
>> your Ubuntu / partition. If Ubuntu / is /dev/sdb2 :
>>
>> sudo mount /dev/sdb2 /mnt
>> sudo grub-install --force --root-directory=/mnt /dev/sdb2
>>
>> Reboot. When booting Ubuntu the first time, first press 'e' at the 
>> Grub loader menu to edit the configuration, delete the complete if..fi 
>> block, check that your line beginning with 'linux' is accurate and 
>> then press F10. Once the system  has booted, run 'sudo update-grub'.
>>
> I appreciate the good data, Manish. I'm going to make sure I've gotten 
> all my files off the Doze partition and then wipe it completely. FreeBSD 
> is going to be my primary host OS and I'll keep my other drive for 
> whatever flavors of Linux I need to work with for work. Based on what 
> I've hseen on these threads, MS is still saddled with a number of bad 
> legacy architectural choices as well as poor management choices, and 
> both of those contribute to the challenges the use of their OS brings.
> 
> I simply won't accept any contract that requires me to work with 
> Windows. I've survived well enough without that skill set and I see no 
> problem going forward.
> 

Hi Done,

It is further my sincere suggestion to use MBR+BIOS. GPT+UEFI is 
problem-prone, with one of the problems being that you won't be able to 
boot FreeBSD.


Regards,
Manish Jain