Windows 10 remains trapped in an infinite startup cycle following the installation of a second M.2 drive.
Windows 10 remains trapped in an infinite startup cycle following the installation of a second M.2 drive.
I possess a PC running dual operating systems—Manjaro and Windows. Initially, it had a 2TB hard drive, a 250GB SATA SSD, and a 250GB M.2 SSD, functioning smoothly for many years. Windows 10 resides on the latter M.2 drive, while Manjaro and Grub are stored on the SATA SSD. Recently, I replaced the original M.2 SSD with a Samsung 970 Evo 1TB M.2 model, relocating the two SATA drives to ports 0 and 1 per the Aorus B450 Pro manual. After the swap, my system boots into Grub and successfully launches Manjaro, but accessing Windows 10 results in a persistent loading screen with the Windows logo and endless dots. Restarts haven’t resolved the issue; instead, I keep seeing the same message and attempting to add a manual entry for Windows 10 in Grub. I noticed the original 250GB M.2 SSD now displays as nvme1n1p2 instead of nvme0n1p2 in Manjaro, which I thought might have caused the problem. Despite updating Grub several times, it still doesn’t recognize the change. All drives appear correctly listed in BIOS and GParted with intact data. Tomorrow I plan to use a bootable USB with the Windows 10 image to attempt recovery. Anyone have suggestions on how to fix this? The smartctl health test for the 250GB M.2 SSD is still pending.
To help GRUB identify Windows 10, particularly on Manjaro or Arch-based systems, you must have the NTFS-3g package installed. This enables Linux to access and manage your Windows partition, allowing os-prober to confirm its presence once you mount it. Once installed, run os-prober followed by updating-grub. Make sure the GRUB_DISABLE_OS_PROBER flag is uncommented and set to false in /etc/default/grub. (This command is referenced at the end of /etc/default/grub.)
Thank you for your assistance. I noticed the NTFS-3g package appears already installed, GRUB_DISABLE_OS_PROBER is uncommented and set to false. Here’s the output from os-prober: after running update-grup, I received this result: now there’s just one Windows 10 entry in the boot menu labeled “no OS found,” along with two previous entries—one marked invalid and another that loops into the endless loader. Appreciate the support; I’m hoping this gives you a better idea of what’s happening.