Dubious disk issues, Windows 8/Ubuntu dual boot
Posted: Wed Mar 18, 2015 12:47 pm
I hard-reset my laptop recently while working in Windows, and after that point I was unable to boot into Windows. Windows 8 runs its Auto Repair and I'm shown an error screen for a split second before the system restarts itself. On the second run-through, Auto Repair hangs on a black screen for eternity. I cannot boot into Windows.
I rarely use the Windows partition on this laptop, so it's not Windows 8.1.
Using a diagnostic tool that I can run from BIOS, I discovered that the hard drive fails its short self-test. Plugging the error code into the support website of my laptop's manufacturer sent me to a general-purpose "faulty hard drive" page.
However, I can still access my GNU/GRUB boot manager and boot into Ubuntu with no trouble at all. I can even mount all the volumes on the drive that correspond to my Windows install (a fact I took advantage of to back up my personal data there). I'm not sure there's a problem with the drive.
My suspicion is that something is triggering Windows 8 to run its Auto Repair instead of booting normally, and if I could do away with that, I could boot into Windows. I'm an admitted Windows novice, however, so there may be an underlying problem I'm not aware of. I don't have Windows recovery media available off-hand.
What I've attempted:
- Some Google searches suggested power management could have spurred the problem, but removing both the battery and the drive and replacing them didn't help.
- I tried deleting any hibernating Windows sessions on the partition after seeing it fail to boot, but this didn't change anything.
Do you think there is a hardware problem, or does the issue lie in Windows 8 being obtuse? How should I go about gathering more information?
I rarely use the Windows partition on this laptop, so it's not Windows 8.1.
Using a diagnostic tool that I can run from BIOS, I discovered that the hard drive fails its short self-test. Plugging the error code into the support website of my laptop's manufacturer sent me to a general-purpose "faulty hard drive" page.
However, I can still access my GNU/GRUB boot manager and boot into Ubuntu with no trouble at all. I can even mount all the volumes on the drive that correspond to my Windows install (a fact I took advantage of to back up my personal data there). I'm not sure there's a problem with the drive.
My suspicion is that something is triggering Windows 8 to run its Auto Repair instead of booting normally, and if I could do away with that, I could boot into Windows. I'm an admitted Windows novice, however, so there may be an underlying problem I'm not aware of. I don't have Windows recovery media available off-hand.
What I've attempted:
- Some Google searches suggested power management could have spurred the problem, but removing both the battery and the drive and replacing them didn't help.
- I tried deleting any hibernating Windows sessions on the partition after seeing it fail to boot, but this didn't change anything.
Do you think there is a hardware problem, or does the issue lie in Windows 8 being obtuse? How should I go about gathering more information?
, and Battlefront II and Republic Commando run just as easily (Windows 8 sucks for gaming)