1y ago

Windows eats partitions

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What's actually happening here is Windows is setting its bootloader first in your EFI when it gets updated. Linux isn't gone, you just have to press the "boot another drive" button and boot to it, or go into your EFI setup and switch the bootloader back to the Linux one.
Linuxes do the same thing when updating their bootloader.
Note for the Ackshually crowd: If you're still booting MBR (which comes with the partition eating risk on dual boots) you have a system that is older than Windows 8 - 11+ years old, so eating the MBR is something you'll have to deal with unconventionally, as all modern systems, OS, and hardware expect you to be using EFI.
- Grub does not do the same thing unless something has gone wrong. It detects windows and offers you the choice on boot as to which OS to start.
  
  Grub is still the first bootloader in that case. You would not notice if it was putting itself first after an update unless you have Windows booting first.
  You might notice if you are booting between multiple linuxes, all with their own version of grub.
  
  Again, unless something has gone wrong, the grub config should auto-detect the other Linux distros installed and add them to the boot menu. It should look like this:
  
  EDIT: Also, what can happen is that the grub timeout (the time that menu is on screen) is set to 0 seconds. You can get the grub menu to stay up by holding left shift during boot if that's the case.
  
  Having dual booted Fedora and Ubuntu before, I will point out that they will both install Grub in the EFI under separate folders and do battle for first boot dominance every time there's a kernel update.
  
  What OP was saying is that updating Linux may also change your bootloader to the one that Linux expects you to be using. It's better since it will detect windows and give you the option of booting into it, but it'll still replace what's being used (according to OP).
- Not the case. What's happening here is Windows is removing the ext4 partition completely, expanding the ntfs partition and writing to all of it.
  Windows update did that to my <1 year old laptop. I figured it had just wiped out grub, but when it was booted from a live-usb there was no ext4 partition there at all. This has been reported many times.
  Microsoft should be sued for this shit. Legal protection from destroying people's data that is not part of Windows or in a Windows partition, whether deliberately or by negligence, is not something that can be legitimately covered by a license agreement.
  
  Second that. I can't think of a way that that is not deliberate. The "cover" would be that it is ensuring that the full device is used so that the end user doesn't have to worry about it. In reality, there's no legitimate reason for an update to touch the partition table. Way to easy to brick the system.
- It sometimes destroys the Linux boot sector too. But it's simple enough to chroot with a live usb and repair it. I don't even have both OS as an option. Mine boots straight into Linux unless I interrupt it and use the boot another drive option. Linux and Windows have their own separate boot sectors, but Windows will fubar the Linux sector randomly.
- In my experience (W11 + Fedora on UEFI Thinkpad), I've seen it actually get rid of the Fedora entry from the UEFI boot list. Reinstalling GRUB from chroot didn't fix it, so I used EasyUEFI and manually added the Fedora EFI file to the boot list and that worked.
  So it wasn't simply changing the boot order, it actually nuked Fedora from the UEFI boot list.
- But this is Lemmy Linux memes where they tell lies or use half truths about other OS's and laugh about it rather than making actual clever memes! Get outta here with that sense!!
  
  And where they ridicule Windows users because they're "not good enough at computers to use Linux" yet they keep pointing out all the ways they themselves aren't able to use Windows 🤔
  
  That’s actually one of my biggest complaints about Linux users tbh. Sure, Linux is great. But half of the “windows doesn’t let you do [X]” complaints are really just “I couldn’t figure out how to do [X] and couldn’t be bothered to google it” in disguise.
  
  Because basic windows functionality is almost always hidden behind layers of gui bullshit and is literally like staring at the sun.
  
  Ubuntu be like
  
  Except that Windows is constantly touted as being "easy to use" relative to Linux.
  
  Because it is?
  
  It is, but you can't do advanced changed if you can't be bothered to search for stuff.

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