Member-only story
Dual Boot Fix
The Day I Thought I Lost My Windows — And How I Got It Back
Windows Disappeared from GRUB? Here’s the Fix That Worked for Me
There’s nothing quite like the panic that sets in when you think you’ve wiped your entire operating system.
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A few weeks ago, I decided to upgrade my Ubuntu installation from 20.04 to 24.04. I had been running a dual-boot setup — Windows 10 on my SSD and Ubuntu on my HDD — without any issues for years. GRUB always greeted me with its comforting OS selection menu, and I could seamlessly switch between my work (Ubuntu) and gaming (Windows) environments.
But after the upgrade, something was… missing. Windows had disappeared from the GRUB menu. It was as if my SSD had ceased to exist.
The Search for a Solution
Panic mode: activated. I scoured the internet, diving deep into forums, Ask Ubuntu threads, and obscure blog posts. Everyone had a solution — none of them worked for me.
- Maybe I need to update GRUB? Nope. Running
sudo update-grubdidn’t help. - Maybe Windows is hibernated? Tried disabling it. Still no luck.
- Maybe it’s a UEFI vs. Legacy…
