Adding Missing GRUB Bootloader after Windows Install using EasyBCD
Just (re)installed Windows on your PC where you dual booted it with your Linux OS, but suddenly the GRUB bootloader menu not showed up when you boot it? Don't fret, here's the easy steps to workaround it right from the Windows itself.
KituTech — So, after Installed Ubuntu MATE Linux OS and dual booted it with my installed Windows 10, I was decided to replace the Windows 10, upgrading it to Windows 11.
However, after the Windows 11 was successfully installed on my Dynabook R734/K laptop, the GRUB bootloader is not show up when I boot it, making me unable to choose to boot between Ubuntu MATE and Windows again as my PC will boot straight into the Windows 11.
But don't worry, we can actually make Windows recognize our installed Linux bootloader. And the easy way that's worked for me is using EasyBCD app. EasyBCD is a Windows app that mainly to tweak our Windows PC's boot settings.
Steps to add Linux GRUB bootloader to Windows boot menu using EasyBCD
- Download and install EasyBCD app on your PC. We can download the latest version of EasyBCD from the official site, it's free for personal use. However, we will need to submit our email to download it. But, I also have a personal backup of it, you can download it at the end of this post.
- Launch EasyBCD, then click "Add New Entry" on its sidebar.
- On the "Operating Systems" section, click on the Linux/BSD tab.
- On the "Type" selection, select our installed Linux OS bootloader type. And the Ubuntu MATE I'm installed is using GRUB 2, so I'm selected it (and probably you too if you're using a Linux distro that's released in last 5 years).
- On the "Name" input, type the name for our installed Linux OS (or other name if we want 😃).
- Then on the "Drive" selection, we'll select the "Automatically locate and load" to let EasyBCD find it on our PC's hard drive.
- Click green plus icon below it to finalize adding the boot entry, we should see a success message at the bottom of the Windows.
- We can click the "Edit Boot Menu" on the sidebar to view all detected item on our PC's boot menu, including the newly added Linux bootloader we've just add.
- Lastly, click "Save Settings" button on the bottom of the window to save the newly created boot configuration of our PC.
- Done, reboot our PC! If everything is went correctly, the next time we boot our Windows, instead booting directly into Windows, the Window's boot menu will allow us to choose which OS or bootloader we want to boot into.