Issue With Windows And Linux Dual Boot

[jhon lee]

I have been running a windows 10 and ubuntu 20.04 LTS dual boot on an Asus Zenbook 14 for about 4 months. It usually works perfectly, but the following problem has occured twice now:

1. I am using Windows when it suddenly blue screens and forces a restart.

2. I attempt to boot up windows again, only for it to automatically BSOD and restart again.

3. I can still boot up Ubuntu, so I try to fix the problem from there. 

4. I run boot-repair/update the entire OS (had to do this last time since even boot-repair doesn't work). It detects the Windows partition and seems to reorient it.

5. Everything seems to work perfectly again.

 

The first time this happened, I thought it was just a random malfunction, but then it happened again a month later. Could somebody help me diagnose and fix the underlying issue, if any?

 

I ran chkdsk, which did not find any corrupted files. I am contemplating reinstalling Windows. Is this likely to fix my issue, and what risks does reinstalling Windows with a precarious boot system carry?

 

TLDR: Windows randomly crashes then fails to boot up, and Ubuntu boot-repair (or the partition detection built into Ubuntu's update system) seems to fix this, but it happens again after a while.

 

FYI: fast boot is disabled, but secure boot is enabled. 

[Kilrah]

Can't say much without knowing what the BSOD is about.

 

[jhon lee]

Quote

Can't say much without knowing what the BSOD is about.

The BSOD didn't say much either, unfortunately. Just said it was an unfixable error. I don't recall the error code as the screen would only pop up for a second or two before the laptop restarted again. I know this is guesswork, which is why I'm asking for guesses. Would you recommend reinstalling Windows? Does that usually fix these 'random' problems, or lead to more of them?

[Ralphred]

42 minutes ago, jhon lee said:

Would you recommend reinstalling Windows?

The only problem you have is windows stomping all over your boot sectors and installing it's own bootloader, but you should be able to fix that with the buntu installer (which also isn't very good at doing what it's told when it comes to installing bootloaders).

If you have an actual /boot partition, back it up before attempting to re-install windows, it should only be small.

 

The best way is to give windows it's own harddrive, and make sure nothing else is plugged in when trying to install/repair it, but that isn't always possible with a laptop.

[jhon lee]

I see, thanks for the detailed reply.