Went Distro-Hopping and now I can't climb back into the gates of ol' Billy G.

[FunniValentine]

As the title implies, I went on an adventure in linux. Tried Solus, Ubuntu, Manjaro, and Zorin. While I had fun, I decided it was time to go back to Windows. I'm currently on Ubuntu 20.04 Focal Fossa, and I tried to making a USB via WoeUSB and also just by mounting the ISO and copying the files. Neither of those worked, though WoeUSB proved more prospective than the other method. All right. No worries. I get ahold of a friend of mine, and he drops me off a USB. Entirely different method, using the Media Creation Tool in Windows. Oddly enough, this produced the same results as WoeUSB. (different method, ISO, and thumbdrive entirely) I thought to myself "allright, might've funked up my Bios settings. I'll reset to defaults". No dice, same result. Below is a video displaying the issue in full. This is occuring on a Gigabyte AB350 Gaming 3 motherboard, that previously had no problems installing windows when needed. I'll also provide my partitions if that could give any indication as to what's going on.
Thanks!
 

 

[FunniValentine]

[Shimejii]

do you need to wipe the drive? That should be simple to get a windows Bootable, wipe the drive and start fresh :o Do make sure you have USB BOOT first on the bios, then once windows is done swap itback.

[FunniValentine]

7 minutes ago, Shimejii said:

do you need to wipe the drive? That should be simple to get a windows Bootable, wipe the drive and start fresh Do make sure you have USB BOOT first on the bios, then once windows is done swap itback.

I have a USB, tried setting both the UEFI and Legacy configuration to first boot to no avail. I can't wipe my primary drive, or I'll have no OS at all and be stuck with a system that doesn't boot. It really should be that simple, but it's been nothing but a headache.

[Letgomyleghoe]

21 minutes ago, FunniValentine said:

I have a USB, tried setting both the UEFI and Legacy configuration to first boot to no avail. I can't wipe my primary drive, or I'll have no OS at all and be stuck with a system that doesn't boot. It really should be that simple, but it's been nothing but a headache.

No, wipe the drive then install windows on the usb, it will be fine

[FunniValentine]

8 minutes ago, Letgomyleghoe said:

No, wipe the drive then install windows on the usb, it will be fine

How could I wipe a drive when I have a Windows USB that won't boot so I can't manage partitions that way, and Ubuntu probably won't let me destroy itself trying to wipe its own partition in GParted?

[Letgomyleghoe]

12 minutes ago, FunniValentine said:

How could I wipe a drive when I have a Windows USB that won't boot so I can't manage partitions that way, and Ubuntu probably won't let me destroy itself trying to wipe its own partition in GParted?

Reflash the windows usb before you do?

 

i wiped my drive before installing Ubuntu lol, no partition left, wrong formatting all you need is a windows usb.

[FunniValentine]

3 minutes ago, Letgomyleghoe said:

Reflash the windows usb before you do?

 

i wiped my drive before installing Ubuntu lol, no partition left, wrong formatting all you need is a windows usb.

I'm really confused. I had a hard enough time getting a bootable flash drive to work from ubuntu, and I currently have one thanks to a friend. I only have one system here to work with, so I can't reflash the windows drive after nuking Ubuntu, because there would be literally nothing for me to flash windows with then.

[Letgomyleghoe]

2 minutes ago, FunniValentine said:

I'm really confused. I had a hard enough time getting a bootable flash drive to work from ubuntu, and I currently have one thanks to a friend. I only have one system here to work with, so I can't reflash the windows drive after nuking Ubuntu, because there would be literally nothing for me to flash windows with then.

So is the windows usb working then?

[FunniValentine]

15 minutes ago, Letgomyleghoe said:

So is the windows usb working then?

It was observed working on his system. It is not working at all on mine. I'm going to see if it boots without my drives connected.
EDIT: Disconnecting the sata ports did not change anything. I'm at a loss.

[LloydLynx]

It might sound stupid, but plug in the installer USB into one of the rear ports(the ones on your motherboard). I heard from a friend that he had issues with the front panel ports and installer USBs.

[FunniValentine]

4 hours ago, TheJooomes said:

It might sound stupid, but plug in the installer USB into one of the rear ports(the ones on your motherboard). I heard from a friend that he had issues with the front panel ports and installer USBs.

Interesting development, I took out my SSD and put it in my friends machine to see if it would work in installing windows. It worked. Windows successfully installed on that machine and was up and running, with the same flash drive that I thought was faulty. I bring it back to my PC? Doesn't boot. There's something wrong in my bios and I have no idea what. Neither my SSD or my flashdrive work, and now I'm just SOL as far I can see. 

[Husky]

I would recreate that Windows USB drive. Erase it and format it using FAT32. Then take the Windows 10 ISO (you can download it at https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10) and extract it using some archive management software, otherwise you can simply mount it. Copy the files inside the ISO to the USB drive you just formatted.

 

Restart the machine, make sure that you are using the UEFI boot mode, and get into the boot menu (I am talking about your UEFI boot menu, not the bootloader menu for your Linux install. You might need to press F8 or F12 at startup, or choose the "Reboot Into Firmware Interface" option in your bootloader and change the Boot Order so that the USB drive is first).

 

Hopefully this will get you booted into the Windows installer.

Edited September 29, 2020 by Husky
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