Solved Stuck in boot menu

cinetapes · Tuesday at 2:18 PM

Hi everyone im not a tech nerd and dont know a lot of the terms so this is hard to explain but please try to help me anyways, i dont want to lose my laptop

I switched to linux a few months ago, not dual boot. Just a full linux install (mint) ive decided its not for me and wanted to switch back to windows.

So i took my usb that had the mint installation and tried to clear it(something mustve gone wrong i think) and put my windows iso on the usb. (Theres a few partions on it but it wont let me delete them and i dont even know what they are)

Downloaded ventoy (i think thats the name) because i followed a tutorial and thats what it said.

So i start up my laptop again and try to install windows. It fails, tried a few diffrent things to get it to fix, disabling the secure boot, installing right from the windows installation menu. I lost track of what i did and just kept shutting of my laptop and starting again.

Now im stuck in the ventoy menu, i can exit and enter the lenovo menu too. But i cant do anything else, the install fails everytime and i cant enter linux again.

What did i do wrong and what should i do to just install windows

Marie SWE · Tuesday at 2:35 PM

Did you in Bios set Boot from USB first.. if you did that and you ran the windows installer and it reboots, it will then boot in to ventoy again if it was set to boot from USB first.
So if you remove ventoy and restart the computer it should boot on the internal disk and continue the installation.

glasskuter · Tuesday at 6:06 PM

If you already have the windows iso downloaded use the Rufus method to create installation media. Create Windows 11 Bootable USB Installation Media

Clean Install Windows 11

This tutorial will show you step by step on how to clean install Windows 11 at boot on your PC with or without an Internet connection and setup with a local account or Microsoft account. Windows 11 is a client operating system and includes features that users and organizations should know...

www.elevenforum.com

bobkn · Tuesday at 8:15 PM

I f you literally copied the ISO to the drive, that's your problem.

For some PCs, copying the contents of the ISO to the USB drive would be sufficient to use it as a bootable drive. Some older PCs need to have the USB drive prepared as bootable.

Marie SWE · Tuesday at 9:09 PM

glasskuter said:
If you already have the windows iso downloaded use the Rufus method to create installation media. Create Windows 11 Bootable USB Installation Media

Clean Install Windows 11

This tutorial will show you step by step on how to clean install Windows 11 at boot on your PC with or without an Internet connection and setup with a local account or Microsoft account. Windows 11 is a client operating system and includes features that users and organizations should know...

www.elevenforum.com

i used Rufus in the past.. then i discovered Ventoy and i will never go back again.

Is soooo nice to have one multi installer solution... and is so easy and super lazy to update an old ISO to a new by just download the ISO directly to Ventoy's partition for ISO's instead of reburning a USB over and over and over again.

I have around 30-40ish different ISO's to boot from my Ventoy USBdrive.
But if you really like Rufus, do not try Ventoy as you might never want to go back to Rufus again.

*LOL*

glasskuter · Tuesday at 9:19 PM

bobkn said:
I f you literally copied the ISO to the drive, that's your problem.

He said he used Ventoy, but if it won't boot, it sounds like something went haywire when Ventoy created the drive.
Why not use Media CreationTool, or, my preference, Rufus to create the install nedia.

XxXxX · Wednesday at 12:21 AM

glasskuter said:
He said he used Ventoy, but if it won't boot, it sounds like something went haywire when Ventoy created the drive.
Why not use Media CreationTool, or, my preference, Rufus to create the install nedia.

i use Rufus which also has the option settings before creating the bootable USB
Ventoy will only boot on my system with secure boot disable where as Rufus boots with secure enabled

i have found Rufus to be my first choice
best of luck Steve ..

glasskuter · Wednesday at 12:36 AM

Marie SWE said:
nice to have one multi installer solution.

Sure it is....if one's use requires it. Most of us here run multipe OSes, versions, and other bootable tools. For one OS, though, and for the normal user, MCT or Rufus makes more sense. I've never had either of those fail to boot. I can't say the same for Ventoy.

bobkn · Wednesday at 1:02 AM

glasskuter said:
He said he used Ventoy, but if it won't boot, it sounds like something went haywire when Ventoy created the drive.
Why not use Media CreationTool, or, my preference, Rufus to create the install nedia.

I'm unfamiliar with Ventoy.

But I still guess that the OP doesn't have a good ISO.

barebear · Wednesday at 1:04 AM

For Marie SWE
"have around 30-40ish different ISO's to boot from my Ventoy USBdrive."
I'm blown away by the amount of ISO's
I've attached a picture of my Ventoy, thought it was pretty cool.
Would you be willing to show me your ISO collection so that I can possibly further enhance my Ventoy toolbox?
I just joined the forum a few minutes ago and ran across your post when reading the "Stuck in boot menu" thread.
This is a fascinating forum.

Celery · Wednesday at 3:31 AM

cinetapes said:
Now im stuck in the ventoy menu, i can exit and enter the lenovo menu too. But i cant do anything else, the install fails everytime and i cant enter linux again.

Please post clear photos of the Lenovo F12 boot menu, the BIOS boot-order screen, the Windows Setup "Select location to install Windows 11" screen, and any exact error message you get when the installation fails. Also tell us the exact ThinkPad model, such as P53, P1 Gen 2, etc.

bobkn said:
I f you literally copied the ISO to the drive, that's your problem.

Ventoy works quite differently from Rufus. Rufus normally creates a dedicated Windows installation USB from one ISO and can modify/customize that installation media during creation. Ventoy is installed to the USB drive once; afterward, you simply copy one or more unmodified ISO files onto the main Ventoy partition. At boot, Ventoy presents those ISOs in a menu and boots the selected one directly.

cinetapes · Wednesday at 3:45 AM

glasskuter said:
He said he used Ventoy, but if it won't boot, it sounds like something went haywire when Ventoy created the drive.
Why not use Media CreationTool, or, my preference, Rufus to create the install nedia.

But how do i

Celery said:
Please post clear photos of the Lenovo F12 boot menu, the BIOS boot-order screen, the Windows Setup "Select location to install Windows 11" screen, and any exact error message you get when the installation fails. Also tell us the exact ThinkPad model, such as P53, P1 Gen

I think i have a p53, idk the model exactly, it has a quatro t2000 and i7

Celery · Wednesday at 5:18 AM

The Ubuntu entry is probably a leftover UEFI boot entry from Linux Mint. Because it is currently first in the boot order, it may interfere with booting from the internal drive after Windows Setup restarts.

First, edit the Lenovo boot order settings and move NVMe0 SKHynix_HFS512GD9TNI-L2B0B above the Ubuntu entry. You can leave the USB lower in the permanent boot order, because you will select it manually for the installation.

Then restart the laptop and, when the Lenovo logo appears, press F12 to open the one-time Boot Menu. Select the Ventoy USB drive there. On a ThinkPad P53, F12 is the key for the temporary boot-device menu.

https://download.lenovo.com/pccbbs/mobiles_pdf/p53ug_en.pdf

Windows Setup sees your single internal SSD and the Ventoy USB flash drive correctly.

Disk 0 is the laptop's internal 512 GB SK hynix NVMe SSD.
Disk 1 is the 64 GB Ventoy USB flash drive.

If there is nothing on the internal SSD that you need to keep, delete all three partitions on Disk 0.

When Disk 0 becomes one large Unallocated Space, select it and click Next. Windows Setup will create the necessary Windows partitions automatically.

When Windows Setup restarts the laptop, do not start the Windows ISO from Ventoy again. Let the computer boot from the internal SSD. After Windows has been installed, you should see a Windows Boot Manager entry in the Lenovo boot settings; that should be above the obsolete Ubuntu entry.

Edit:

Windows Setup automatically creates a UEFI boot entry (Windows Boot Manager) in NVRAM (Non-Volatile Random-Access Memory) that points to \EFI\Microsoft\Boot\bootmgfw.efi on the EFI system partition. bootmgfw.efi is the Windows Boot Manager. It reads the Boot Configuration Data (BCD) store, which is also located on the EFI system partition. The BCD contains the Windows boot configuration, including the available Windows boot entries and settings that control how they are presented and started.

Edit:

On modern computers configured for UEFI boot with CSM/Legacy boot disabled, the boot order settings normally show UEFI boot entries and UEFI-bootable devices. For example, they may show Windows Boot Manager (if Windows is installed) and the Windows installation USB flash drive (if it is connected and recognized as UEFI-bootable).

Windows Boot Manager is not itself a drive; it is a UEFI boot entry pointing to Microsoft's UEFI bootloader on the internal drive's EFI system partition.

On both laptops and desktops, you normally do not need to change the permanent boot order to boot from a Windows installation USB flash drive. Instead, use the computer's one-time boot menu. For example, common desktop motherboard boot menu keys include ASRock F11, ASUS F8, Gigabyte F12, and MSI F11.

Permanent boot order adjustments are mainly useful when multiple UEFI boot entries exist, for example, Windows Boot Manager and Ubuntu, and you want to specify which operating system or bootloader should start by default.

cinetapes · Wednesday at 6:58 AM

Celery said:
The Ubuntu entry is probably a leftover UEFI boot entry from Linux Mint. Because it is currently first in the boot order, it may interfere with booting from the internal drive after Windows Setup restarts.

First, edit the Lenovo boot order settings and move NVMe0 SKHynix_HFS512GD9TNI-L2B0B above the Ubuntu entry. You can leave the USB lower in the permanent boot order, because you will select it manually for the installation.

Then restart the laptop and, when the Lenovo logo appears, press F12 to open the one-time Boot Menu. Select the Ventoy USB drive there. On a ThinkPad P53, F12 is the key for the temporary boot-device menu.

https://download.lenovo.com/pccbbs/mobiles_pdf/p53ug_en.pdf

Windows Setup sees your single internal SSD and the Ventoy USB flash drive correctly.

Disk 0 is the laptop's internal 512 GB SK hynix NVMe SSD.
Disk 1 is the 64 GB Ventoy USB flash drive.

If there is nothing on the internal SSD that you need to keep, delete all three partitions on Disk 0.

When Disk 0 becomes one large Unallocated Space, select it and click Next. Windows Setup will create the necessary Windows partitions automatically.

When Windows Setup restarts the laptop, do not start the Windows ISO from Ventoy again. Let the computer boot from the internal SSD. After Windows has been installed, you should see a Windows Boot Manager entry in the Lenovo boot settings; that should be above the obsolete Ubuntu entry.

Edit:

Windows Setup automatically creates a UEFI boot entry (Windows Boot Manager) in NVRAM (Non-Volatile Random-Access Memory) that points to \EFI\Microsoft\Boot\bootmgfw.efi on the EFI system partition. bootmgfw.efi is the Windows Boot Manager. It reads the Boot Configuration Data (BCD) store, which is also located on the EFI system partition. The BCD contains the Windows boot configuration, including the available Windows boot entries and settings that control how they are presented and started.

I finally got it to work thank u all

spapakons · Wednesday at 7:57 AM

cinetapes said:
But how do i

I think i have a p53, idk the model exactly, it has a quatro t2000 and i7

Use your Ventoy USB and boot in Windows 11 setup. At the disks screen click on each partition of disk 0 (the target disk) and delete it. Delete all the partitions and leave all disk 0 as unallocated. Then click on next to start installation of Windows 11.

Reminder: If your CPU doesn't support SSE4.2 instructions you can install only Windows 11 21H1, 22H2 and 23H2. If it supports SSE4.2, then you can install all versions including 25H2 and then switch to 26H2 by installing the 26H2 Enablement Package. You can verify with the CPU-Z tool.

spapakons · Wednesday at 8:01 AM

cinetapes said:
I finally got it to work thank u all

I was too lazy to read all the posts, never mind. Glad you did it.

Marie SWE · Wednesday at 8:26 AM

glasskuter said:
Sure it is....if one's use requires it. Most of us here run multipe OSes, versions, and other bootable tools. For one OS, though, and for the normal user, MCT or Rufus makes more sense. I've never had either of those fail to boot. I can't say the same for Ventoy.

I agree.. if you only do one install every other year with windows or linux only.. i agree a multi installer solution might be a bit overkill.
But it can also be used as a trouble shooting tool with backup functions etc if you use Ventoy on an external SSD instead of a sick

But i agree.. i have never have a boot failure with Rufus or other.. I have not use the Microsoft Creaton Tool thogh.. so i actually dont even know how that one works.

Marie SWE · Wednesday at 8:56 AM

barebear said:
For Marie SWE
"have around 30-40ish different ISO's to boot from my Ventoy USBdrive."
I'm blown away by the amount of ISO's
I've attached a picture of my Ventoy, thought it was pretty cool.
Would you be willing to show me your ISO collection so that I can possibly further enhance my Ventoy toolbox?
I just joined the forum a few minutes ago and ran across your post when reading the "Stuck in boot menu" thread.
This is a fascinating forum.

I cant show it as a printscreen as i have some tools on there that classifies as hacking tools.
The forum Rule 4 says: No discussion or facilitation of piracy, cracking, hacking, or copyright infringement.

But i can write the list what normal ISO's i have

Code:

Alma Linux three versions (as IBM killed CentOS this one and Rocky Linux is forks)
Debian 10,12,13 Live+install
IpredaOS
Kali Linux full ISO 13GB or what it is.. live+install
KodachiOS
LMDE 3,4,5,6
Manjaro one or two versions
Mint 20,21,22
PfSence
PoP_OS one or two versions.
Proxmox
Tails OS
Truenas
Qubes OS
Xcp-ng
Caine
CloneZilla
Hiren's BootCD both old and new versions
RescueZilla
SystemRescue i think i have old and new of this too
Trinity Rescue Kit.
Tsurugi
Windows 2000 (Workstation and Server)
Windows XP Home and Pro
Windows 2003
Windows 7 all versions
Windows 2008R2
Windows 8.1 all versions
Windows 2012R2
Windows 10 All versions and three different builds
Windows 2019+2021 LTSC versions
Windows 11 All versions an older build
Windows 2024 LTSC versions

barebear · Wednesday at 10:58 AM

Thank you !

SIW2 · Wednesday at 11:17 AM

I have mostly .wim files on my ventoyed usb

I dont know how many, must be dozens

Solved Stuck in boot menu

Member

My Computer My Computer

At a glance

I almost never bite.......

My Computers My Computers

At a glance

At a glance

aka Mama Glass

My Computers My Computers

At a glance

At a glance

Well-known member

My Computers My Computers

At a glance

At a glance

I almost never bite.......

My Computers My Computers

At a glance

At a glance

aka Mama Glass

My Computers My Computers

At a glance

At a glance

Just a Computer User

My Computers My Computers

At a glance

At a glance

aka Mama Glass

My Computers My Computers

At a glance

At a glance

Well-known member

My Computers My Computers

At a glance

At a glance

New member

Attachments

My Computer My Computer

At a glance

Well-known member

My Computers My Computers

At a glance

At a glance

Member

Attachments

My Computer My Computer

At a glance

Well-known member

My Computers My Computers

At a glance

At a glance

Member

My Computer My Computer

At a glance

Well-known member

My Computers My Computers

At a glance

At a glance

Well-known member

My Computers My Computers

At a glance

At a glance

I almost never bite.......

My Computers My Computers

At a glance

At a glance

I almost never bite.......

My Computers My Computers

At a glance

At a glance

New member

My Computer My Computer

At a glance

Well-known member

My Computers My Computers

At a glance

At a glance

Similar threads

My Computer

My Computers

My Computers

My Computers

My Computers

My Computers

My Computers

My Computers

My Computers

My Computer

My Computers

My Computer

My Computers

My Computer

My Computers

My Computers

My Computers

My Computers

My Computer

My Computers