Hiya there!

So basically when I boot up my laptop where I usually dual boot Linux mint and Windows 10 instead of the GRUB popping as usual and me selecting my preferred OS a black screen appears immediately after power up. The GRUB doesn't even show up at all and the only thing visible on my screen is my mouse pointer.

I would like to ask for a solution to this problem as I have installed Windows 10 about a month ago and didn't have problems until now. I didn't change any software and it just suddenly started failing.

Thanks in advance for any helpful suggestions!

One of the automatic updates to Windows 10 likely made some changes. I will never run W10 so I can't help there but I know that Windows expects to be the only OS on a computer...

I wonder what happens next - will the computer remain in this unusable state or will Windows or Linux eventually start? If Linux starts up, use grub-install to repair your boot configuration. If the Mint community doesn't have recipes for this task, search for Debian-based ones.

If nothing starts up, boot from the installation medium and select Rescue Boot, or boot from any Live medium such as Knoppix, then repair Grub as above.

if i had to bet
windows auto installed something that tried to "fix" the working NON microsoft grub bootloader and tried to install the windows bootloader to " fix" the working install of GRUB


use the install dvd and fix grub

then every time windows tries to " fix " this

reinstall grub

Is windows installed EFI? I Mint installed using EFI? To get some detailed information, you should go to the site below and get boot repair. Either download it and burn it to a CD to boot from or use the Mint installation medium. Select the option to Create BootInfo Summary rather than trying to make repairs. If you don't understand the output, post it here.

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Boot-Repair

that's not an answer that's a doge AND it's incorrect

he should sue microsoft for signal attacks within the usa against citizens if he incurred any damages

also: Windows 10 is not the "only Microsoft" that will seek and destroy your boot sector. you should search google for other problems. although note since Windows 98 Microsoft earned a reputation for covering up problem reports (ie, they removed all bug reports off the internet). you might actually find fewer if any "major sites" that didn't delete / hide past boot sector problem reports involving Microsoft products. truth is Windows 95 did it (at the time linux was released in about 1992? microsoft had excuse then while they should not have "owned the boot sector" that they didn't know. however that's not true either as putting a win95 cd / boot disk on a (the big 5) unices would damage any unix running on intel of that time, ie. Santa Cruz Operation unix, an offshoot from berkley < at&t unix)

the point now is obvious. he could claim "microsoft knew or should have known, since Windows 98 infact" (at the time the news even washington post in USA had articles that Linux had surpassed Win95/98 in every practical manner - which is when Microsoft ramped up incompatibility and signal attacks against linux - and also when Microsoft dumped money into Judicial Sysytems and lobbying to get government grant contracts, to go "underground")

i know nothing about "newer GRUB" i use older one - have no advice there. i can't even say if your bios doesn't have some multi-boot caps built-in

there are many many FAQ about this topic. a good start would be "The Linux Documentation Project" (tldp.org is it?). if you have a linux OS cd some part of it may be on the CD - but anyway your on the web so you have web access.

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#1 advice is do NOT use multi-boot unless your being paid to keep the OSes on separate (laptops). multi-boots are infamous for failures. who told you it was a good idea? books will often not say "if multi-boot is safe" this since such advice is "better left out of technical documentation" (because it is dated quickly and possibly political; determinine if some feature is wise to use is up to you to determine or google problem reports of and decide)

to restore grub ...

obtain and use a grub boot disk, use Edit to enter params you need to boot, boot, re-install grub to HD (see grub documentation)

else obtain a rescue disk linux (hopefully same linux), mount unix / of HD, and attempt to get grub on HD using the guest linux (if rescue disk is not same linux, new/old OS versional differences might prohibit grub binary from running: if so you might be able to chroot to unix / on HD, but might not, it "depends")

and you can't boot from network (since grub controls that) unless your bios has such an option and or your network card has a boot prom. mostly: no. and i have no URL tfpt sites to boot from to advise you with if you said "yes".

you can't boot from EPROM (Sun Microsystems you could). eproms today could be booted off of, they have enough space. but no one sets it up.

and that leaves "USB" or what you have as boot media

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in general it's a good practice to keep a backup copy of disk parameters, fstab, fdisk -l output, and even inode/superblock (ok anything except the files). and that is incase some OS or improper use changes something that can be restored by using values you can see without having (full) access to the HD/laptop in question (which is many things). but all of that gets complicated a better still solution is to have a separate synchronized laptop having everything alike (linux install-wise anyways alike), and that is so you have a reference and backup to lead you / to compare to, for restoration

and if you can imagine now: with all that complexity. throwing in multi-boot just makes all of the above MORE than 2x as complicated

oh btw why don't you restore your backup? like many you likely didn't make one oh well we all do that at times. try not to.

We shall all wait with baited breath for the omnipotent debguy to sue Microsoft into submission.

My point was that W-10 has automatic updates that CANNOT be turned off. I've been dual booting with Windows 7 for years and with a tad of common sense have never had an issue...