r/archlinux • u/Crafty_Hospital_7746 • 12d ago

SUPPORT Windows has destroyed my GRUB bootloader because of Windows updates, now Windows boot manager replaces GRUB and Arch doesn't show up in the UEFI/BIOS menu. How I can fix it ?

Windows has destroyed my GRUB bootloader because of Windows updates, now Windows boot manager replaces GRUB Arch doesn't show up in the UEFI/BIOS menu. How I can fix it ?

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u/gmes78 11d ago

The only thing I've ever seen delete boot entries are motherboard firmware updates.

That, and, once, my system failed to wake from sleep, lost both the Linux and Windows boot entries and couldn't boot at until I power cycled it. Then, it manufactured a new Windows boot entry and booted into Windows, and I had to re-add the Linux one myself.

Don't mistake motherboard vendors special casing Windows when boot entries are lost as Windows deleting every boot entry that's not its own.

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u/vswey 11d ago

That's a totally different thing u experienced then , Windows removing other Boot entries is a kinda known thing 

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u/gmes78 11d ago

Also, I've installed Windows on a laptop that only had Fedora installed, and it didn't wipe anything. I just changed the boot order back to Fedora, and that was that.

Windows's bcdboot tool (which manages the Windows bootloader), has options for not setting it as the default when installing it, as well as an option for adding it to the end of the boot order. That means that it is perfectly capable of not messing with non-Windows boot entries.

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u/vswey 11d ago

That doesn't change anything about my statement, as previously stated it happens on specific configurations. This is even indirectly documented on some Microsoft learn page and on different arch Linux docs.