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Win 10 update of dual boot Win10 Ubuntu system fail to boot
I initiated a lengthy Win 10 update with multiple restarts the other night. In an amazing display of brain-deadness, I had forgotten that the PC was configured as a dual boot Win10/Ubuntu 16.04 system that defaulted to Ubuntu on boot up. At some point, the Win10 restart didn't happen and now, when I boot, the system comes up in grub rescue mode.
I realize that this was an epic fail on my part, but it is what it is. I don't need the Ubuntu setup any more. My files on the win 10 system I do need. So, how can I tell if the win10 system is still there and the user files are intact and retrievable.
I found a procedure that should work in a situation similar to mine if the Ubuntu partition has not been removed by the Win 10 update process. In this case, booting into windows (which should still be present) is pretty straight forward. It consists of using grub to identify the Ubuntu partition and then setting root and prefix to it and typing insmod normal and normal.
Unfortunately, I can't find the Ubuntu partition. So, I assume it's gone. Here's what I do see:
Typing ls to the grub recovery prompt produces:
(hdo), (hd0,msdos5) ,(hd0,msdos3), (hd0,msdos2) ,(hd0,msdos1)
examining each of these yields “unknown file system”.
I do have a boot-able usb system disk for a Win10 system on another computer and I can boot up win10 on the ailing PC using it. But I don’t know if this I useful or what to do next. This is way above my pay grade. Any help would really be appreciated.