Hello.
I installed Fedora 41 KDE using a live USB that I made using the ** Fedora Media Writer** in my laptop with Windows 11 Pro in dual boot.
During the installation I shrunk the Windows partition to make room for Fedora and everything seemed to go fine.
When I started my computer for the first time I saw the OS selector (grub?) for a fraction of a second, then Fedora started. I was presented with the login screen and assumed that Fedora was working, so I restarted (without logging into Fedora). This time the OS selector stayed there and I was able to select Windows from the list. It couldn’t boot and went into the recovery menu. I restarted and tried to boot into Fedora but the OS selector was never shown again and Fedora failed to start every single time.
I’ve tried every option in the Windows recovery menu but nothing works. Some options behave suspiciously, for example, if I try to reinstall Windows, when I should select the option to either use a local source or cloud it disappears immediately and gives me an error. All the other options give errors as well.
I downloaded a Windows 11 from Microsoft (I used their Media Creator tool to play safe) but it couldn’t recover it --but the Uninstall Windows updates option partially worked (but it wasn’t enough to fix Windows). When I tried to reinstall a fresh copy of Windows in the same partition (this usually triggers a hidden feature in which the installer detects a previous copy of Windows in the partition and saves all of its contents in a folder after reinstalling Windows, all of this is explained to the user in a message at the last moment right before installing) I didn’t get the usual message (instead it warned that nothing would be kept) but could then see that the Windows installer was trying to install a Home edition (I had to create the USB installer from a different computer which apparently runs in Windows Home, and the Media Creator won’t offer other editions).
I make regular backups but there are a few files from this morning that I would like to recover from Windows. I booted back into Fedora from the live USB with the intention to reinstall Fedora, hoping that it would give me access to the other partitions, so I could then back-up those files. But I couldn’t reinstall Fedora, now the partitions are shown grayed out and in italics, it also says that those can’t be shrink nor even accessed. It doesn’t even shows the size, making it hard the guess what’s what.
The only real change that I’ve made was to delete the Fedora partition. I was expecting to then be able to reinstall Fedora but it didn’t work.
I’ve read and tried a lot of your advises for similar scenarios in this forums but nothing worked for my case.
Other than exhausting every option in the Windows recovery menu, I’ve played a lot with the BIOS (there are very few options there, it isn’t a fancy BIOS).
I want to somehow create a Windows 11 Pro installer USB and try its recovery options.
I also tried (and failed) to run a Linux live distro that gives me access to the other partitions (Fedora live gives me an error if I try) so I can back-up my files and just delete everything and start fresh.
The OS selector was never shown again. I haven’t been able to start either Windows nor Fedora.
Any advise is welcome and highly appreciated. This is my main system, so I’m doomed until I fix this mess.
Thank you again.
