Boot to W11 iso

allanpen · Wednesday at 6:27 PM

I have a wierd one here. My W11 efi got messed up with my multi OS grub. So I've been trying to boot to a w11.iso to repair or re-install. I have written the iso to two different usb's and no luck. Both of these usb's work on my pc, but not my Dell Inspiron 15-5578 laptop. I have tried other iso's on the laptop and they work fine.
Just a thought: I wonder if I should try it with a W10iso??

Berton · Wednesday at 8:46 PM

Try it the proper way, right-click the .iso file and choose Burn to disc, it will create an exact duplicate of the original disc which is bootable. May need to use a DVD+R/DL [Dual=layer] disc. If if using the Microsoft Media Creation Tool create a bootable USB Thumb drive, probably 8GB or 16GB.

allanpen · Wednesday at 8:46 PM

Well I was able to boot a W10 iso, but couldn't fix anything

Berton · Wednesday at 8:49 PM

Using a Win10 disc on Win11 usually won't fix anything, too many differences.

allanpen · Wednesday at 8:49 PM

Berton said:
Try it the prop-r way, right-click the .iso file and choose Burn to disc, it will create an exact duplicate of the original disc which is bootable. May need to use a DVD+R/DL [Dual=layer] disc. If if using the Microsoft Media Creation Tool create a bootable USB Thumb drive, probably 8GB or 16GB.

I'm in Linux without that option. Earlier I tried on my PC using MS's tool , but it failed. I'll give that another try,

allanpen · Wednesday at 8:51 PM

Berton said:
Using a Win10 disc on Win11 usually won't fix anything, too many differences.

Yeah figured that, but thought I'd try.

Berton · Wednesday at 8:53 PM

I use Linux Mint [Debian/Ubuntu based] and it has a Disc/Image Writer app in it.

allanpen · Wednesday at 11:06 PM

Berton said:
I use Linux Mint [Debian/Ubuntu based] and it has a Disc/Image Writer app in it.

Yes I used that one and also Fedora's media writer. Then I took the 16GB US that had W10 on to my PC. Went into W11, formatted and used MS's W11 tool for loading W11 iso on to usb. Went back to laptop; lo and behold it worked but couldn't repair startup. I hate the idea of re-installing 11. I can and then restore an Acronis W11 image I have backed up. It would be nice though if someone could suggest a way to cure the W11 boot problem.

SIW2 · Wednesday at 11:37 PM

you havent described what the problem is.

you might try using win11 bcdboot.exe

or you can try the bootrepair disc

boot-repair-disk

Download boot-repair-disk for free. A rescue disk that includes the Boot Repair tool. See http://sourceforge.net/p/boot-repair-cd/home

sourceforge.net

XxXxX · Wednesday at 11:53 PM

allanpen said:
Yes I used that one and also Fedora's media writer. Then I took the 16GB US that had W10 on to my PC. Went into W11, formatted and used MS's W11 tool for loading W11 iso on to usb. Went back to laptop; lo and behold it worked but couldn't repair startup. I hate the idea of re-installing 11. I can and then restore an Acronis W11 image I have backed up. It would be nice though if someone could suggest a way to cure the W11 boot problem.

in Linux you should be able to right click the ISO and then on this menu click 'open with'
open with 'write disk image'

this will allow you to burn the Windows ISO to USB as a bootable medium.
ps. that is for a Debian system it should be similar for Fedora.
best of luck, Steve

allanpen · 2025-06-26T00:04:20-0400

SIW2 said:
you havent described what the problem is.

you might try using win11 bcdboot.exe

or you can try the bootrepair disc

boot-repair-disk

Download boot-repair-disk for free. A rescue disk that includes the Boot Repair tool. See http://sourceforge.net/p/boot-repair-cd/home

sourceforge.net

I think I explained in my first post. I have three linux's and w11 on my laptop. I was removing one Linux and replacing it with another; with one change. I had unused space at the end of my 1TB drive and I used some of that space for the MX Linux install. I can't see where the partition changes at the end of the disk would affect Linux's Grub2, but after installing MX none of the other Linux's or Windows 11 would start. I have since re-installed Mint gave it the Grub, but it wouldn't recognize the Windows boot. So that is where I'm at; repaiting /boot/efi for W11 or re-installing W11. maybe MX did something to mess up the esp partition.

allanpen · 2025-06-26T00:22:01-0400

XxXxX said:
in Linux you should be able to right click the ISO and then on this menu click 'open with'
open with 'write disk image'

this will allow you to burn the Windows ISO to USB as a bootable medium.
ps. that is for a Debian system it should be similar for Fedora.
best of luck, Steve

Never thourght of that; checked it our and you're right. However in Mint I just use the USB Image writer; same difference, but that is a quick and easy way of doing the same thing; thanks

hdmi · 2025-06-26T02:31:34-0400

Have you tried Ventoy? It's based on Grub2 and various other stuff, including Rufus.

allanpen · 2025-06-26T12:07:39-0400

hdmi said:
Have you tried Ventoy? It's based on Grub2 and various other stuff, including Rufus.

I have tried several boot repairs Grub alternatives and none can detect Windows. So I will re-install and the restore an Acronis backup image of W11.
Thanks for all help and suggestions.

hdmi · 2025-06-26T14:55:02-0400

If you already have a WinPE-based or WinRE-based bootable ISO of the Acronis Rescue Media, then you don't need to reinstall before you can restore your backup image. Just copy the Acronis Rescue Media bootable ISO file to a Ventoy-formatted USB flash drive, and you will be able to boot to it. Next, select the Acronis Rescue Media bootable ISO file from the list that appears. Then you can restore your backup image.

This Acronis Rescue Media bootable environment also lets you create a new image, and also lets you choose between creating a full new image and creating a new incremental image. Doing so also lets you specify file/folder exclusions with optional wildcards. So basically, it has everything you'll ever need. There's no bloat of any kind whatsoever, as this doesn't actually even require Acronis True Image to be installed. It's just a single ISO file, less than 800 MB in size. It's one of those reasons why I use nothing else.

This should leave plenty of free space on the Ventoy-formatted USB flash drive, enough to add two boatloads of other bootable image files (e.g. the official Windows 11 installation bootable ISO file from Microsoft, Linux bootable ISO files, etc....) plus whatever it is that you like to keep on the USB flash drive. Ventoy doesn't care how many bootable image files you put on there. It shows them all on a list so you only have to pick one and it will boot straight into that bootable image file.

Megahertz · 2025-06-26T18:20:50-0400

Do you have a EFI Fat32 partition?
If it does, don't you have an option in BIOS or on the Boot menu (F12 during POST) to boot a Windows boot manager?

You can try to fix the Windows on Grub buy running Mint and typing on CMD window
sudo update-grub

It will find Windows and load an option to boot windows under Grub

allanpen · 2025-06-26T19:19:05-0400

Megahertz said:
Do you have a EFI Fat32 partition?
If it does, don't you have an option in BIOS or on the Boot menu (F12 during POST) to boot a Windows boot manager?

You can try to fix the Windows on Grub buy running Mint and typing on CMD window
sudo update-grub

It will find Windows and load an option to boot windows under Grub

Done that, been there and nope nothing worked. I did a re-install then restored and Acronis image that for some reason didn't take and left me with the new install to do all the configuring on. Anyways thank you all for your suggestions and case is closed now as I continue configuring.
Edit and yes to the EFI Partition

allanpen · 2025-06-26T19:23:14-0400

hdmi said:
If you already have a WinPE-based or WinRE-based bootable ISO of the Acronis Rescue Media, then you don't need to reinstall before you can restore your backup image. Just copy the Acronis Rescue Media bootable ISO file to a Ventoy-formatted USB flash drive, and you will be able to boot to it. Next, select the Acronis Rescue Media bootable ISO file from the list that appears. Then you can restore your backup image.

This Acronis Rescue Media bootable environment also lets you create a new image, and also lets you choose between creating a full new image and creating a new incremental image. Doing so also lets you specify file/folder exclusions with optional wildcards. So basically, it has everything you'll ever need. There's no bloat of any kind whatsoever, as this doesn't actually even require Acronis True Image to be installed. It's just a single ISO file, less than 800 MB in size. It's one of those reasons why I use nothing else.

This should leave plenty of free space on the Ventoy-formatted USB flash drive, enough to add two boatloads of other bootable image files (e.g. the official Windows 11 installation bootable ISO file from Microsoft, Linux bootable ISO files, etc....) plus whatever it is that you like to keep on the USB flash drive. Ventoy doesn't care how many bootable image files you put on there. It shows them all on a list so you only have to pick one and it will boot straight into that bootable image file.

I've been using Acronis for years, but the last one I bought was the 2019; now they want a subscription. So I just keep using the Acronis iso. I hadn't heard of Ventoy so will check that out, thanks.

Megahertz · 2025-06-26T22:36:53-0400

allanpen said:
Done that, been there and nope nothing worked. I did a re-install then restored and Acronis image that for some reason didn't take and left me with the new install to do all the configuring on. Anyways thank you all for your suggestions and case is closed now as I continue configuring.
Edit and yes to the EFI Partition

Don't you have an option in BIOS or on the Boot menu (F12 during POST) to boot a Windows boot manager?

Boot to W11 iso

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