Member Avatar for RatulCN

Why Fedora 18 onward cannot boot to windows 8 as earlier versions fedora were doing it perfectly.
Who is blocking this multiboot options? Fedora or Window 7/8 ?

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by clinuxboy

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Brief checklist and recovery steps that address the common causes behind “Fedora 18+ won’t boot Windows 8” (echoing and ): the usual culprits are a firmware-mode mismatch (one OS installed in UEFI, the other in legacy/BIOS), the Windows installer replacing the system boot entry/bootloader, or Windows “fast startup” leaving the NTFS partition in a hibernated state. These are routine to diagnose and fix without reformatting either OS. (fedoraproject.org)

Quick checks (run from a Fedora live USB or from your installed Fedora shell):

# detect firmware mode
[ -d /sys/firmware/efi ] && echo "UEFI" || echo "BIOS"

# on UEFI systems, list firmware boot entries
sudo efibootmgr -v

If the system reports UEFI, Fedora and Windows must both be installed in UEFI mode for GRUB to chainload Windows cleanly; use the efibootmgr output to confirm there is a Windows Boot Manager entry. (fedoraproject.org)

If Windows is missing from GRUB (UEFI): mount the EFI System Partition (ESP), ensure os-prober is installed, reinstall the shim/grub packages, then regenerate GRUB’s config:

sudo mount /dev/sdXN /boot/efi    # replace sdXN with your ESP
sudo dnf reinstall shim-* grub2-efi-* grub2-common
sudo os-prober
sudo grub2-mkconfig -o /boot/efi/EFI/fedora/grub.cfg

Do NOT run grub2-install on UEFI machines; Fedora’s docs show the supported UEFI flow above. (docs.fedoraproject.org)

If the machine is BIOS/Legacy or Windows overwrote the MBR: boot a rescue/live USB, mount your root and /boot, chroot, then reinstall GRUB and rebuild the config:

mount /dev/sdaX /mnt/sysimage
mount --bind /dev /mnt/sysimage/dev
mount --bind /proc /mnt/sysimage/proc
mount --bind /sys /mnt/sysimage/sys
chroot /mnt/sysimage
grub2-install /dev/sda
grub2-mkconfig -o /boot/grub2/grub.cfg
exit

Finally, disable Windows Fast Startup (hybrid shutdown) if you dual-boot — it can leave NTFS in a hibernated state and interfere with detection/booting. The Microsoft docs explain the behavior and how it differs from a full shutdown. (learn.microsoft.com)

These steps restore a working multi‑boot in most cases. For systems with unusual firmware/RAID/Intel RST setups, follow the UEFI/GRUB rescue procedure above and use a live environment to inspect partitions and EFI contents before reinstalling boot components. (docs.fedoraproject.org)

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Member Avatar for hithirdwavedust

What do you mean 'boot to windows 8'?

Member Avatar for rubberman

Did you install Windows 8 after you installed Fedora? If so, then the Windows installer munged your grub boot sector. You might be able to recover it, but no guarantees. This may help: http://wiki.osdev.org/GRUB

Member Avatar for clinuxboy

install windows first then install linux
i prefer to have 2 hard disks one for windows and one for linux

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