Restore Windows 8 and Linux (Debian) /boot/efi

Question

I deleted /boot/efi (while attempting to install archlinux).

There is one harddrive, 750GB, /dev/sda). The partitions are

/dev/sda1 ntfs 315MB

/dev/sda2 EFIboot 105MB <=== this got deleted

/dev/sda3 ? 135MB

/dev/sda4 ntfs 626GB <======= windows 8

/dev/sda5 ntfs

/dev/sda6 biosgrub 1MB ?

/dev/sda7 lvm 110GB <======== for linux

/dev/sda8 swap 13GB

Windows 8 still installed on /dev/sda4

How do I recreate / repair the /boot/efi (/dev/sda2) ?

Answer 1

1. Boot Windows 8 install or recovery DVD/USB - run StartUp Repair (Automated Repair), this will recreate Windows boot files on EFI System partition (boot DVD/USB in EFI mode !).

2. Reinstall Linux in EFI mode !!! (boot Linux DVD/USB in EFI mode!)

Maybe just reinstalling GRUB in EFI mode would be enough (don't know exactly if this works on initial Linux installation in BIOS mode, probably yes)

(The first time you installed Linux while booted in BIOS mode - therefore you have "bios grub" in sda6 partition which is needed for hybrid booting = BIOS booting from GPT disk)

Answer 2

This is how I fixed the problem.

1. Reinstalled Linux (leaving all the partitions).
2. Booted into linux.
3. Mounted the windows ntfs partition (mount -t ntfs /dev/sda4 /media/C). (Installed apt-get install ntfs-3g but this is only required for writing to ntfs.) )
4. Searched for all .efi files in /media/c (find -name '.efi' /media/c) (there were many hits, most in c:/windows/boot/efi and in c:/windows/panther/rollback/efi)
5. Copied the entire folder c:/windows/panther/rollback/efi/microsoft to /boot/efi/EFI/microsoft

6. In /boot/grub/grub.cfg added

   menuentry 'win8' { set root='hd2,gpt2' chainloader /EFI/Microsoft/Boot/bootmgfw.efi boot }

7. I guessed / googled that bootmgfw.efi is the correct .efi.

8. Rebooted and selected win8 in the grub menu.

As an alternative solution, I also installed refind. In the config file /boot/efi/EFI/refind/refind.conf I enabled (uncommented) these settings (I think only point 4 was required):

1. windows_recovery_files LRS_ESP:/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/bootmgr.efi
2. uefi_deep_legacy_scan true
3. also_scan_dirs boot,ESP2:EFI/linux/kernels

4. Add menuentry

   menuentry "Windows 8" { loader \EFI\Microsoft\Boot\bootx64.efi disabled }