My Lenovo Ideapad came with a Windows 8, later upgraded to Windows 8.1. Recently, I tried to load Kali Linux onto it, but had to abort it midway due an error with a file called GRUB. I also discovered that in the process of loading the Kali Linux, I've removed my previous OS. My computer, according to it, is left now in an "unusable state", and what seems like without an OS. What do I do?
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Boot into Win8 Setup using a DVD or USB and run Startup Repair. If it fails and you've truly formatted the Win8 partition, install Windows or Linux, whatever you want.– KaranCommented Jun 10, 2015 at 15:03
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1What you do depends on what you want to achieve. Do you want to recover your personal data from the deleted Windows partition? Have a new Windows? Try again with dual-OS setup?– cubuspl42Commented Jun 10, 2015 at 15:20
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1 Answer
GRUB is the bootloader, and if there is something going wrong, then no OS can boot.
So, now it depends on what you want to do. Windows needs a repair from its DVD (if you have some) to re-install the NTLDR (the bootloader of Windows). If Windows still was quite blank, you could opt for installing any Linux anyway, completely erasing your disk.
Let then GRUB do the job of booting your OS, and you can easily install Windows 8.1 in a virtual machine like VirtualBox. You can get a legal copy from Microsoft's website (by use of their mediacreationtool, sorry I cannot remember if it is possible without any Windows beforehand). Please avoid getting it from third party distributors - that's always buggy, full of viruses or illegal or all of them. Your registration code is burnt-in to the BIOS and resides in plain text in the sysfs file /sys/firmware/acpi/tables/MSDM, once your Linux is running.
