Can't boot from usb after installing grub + zorin, tried everything

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harli458

Commendable
Jul 9, 2016
9
0
1,510
Hello everyone,
I recently installed Zorin as a dualboot on my laptop with Windows 10, consequently Grub came along with it too. Before I properly tell you my problem, it would be important to note that i made a mistake while installing and setting up the dualboot. I didn't turn secure boot off, so in grub the option for Windows is Windows Boot Manager, not Windows 10! I think that might be causing some problems.
Basically I want to uninstall grub and zorin, and the first step to do that is to uninstall grub. The best way i know how to do that is to insert a windows recovery media and at the command prompt run bootrec /fixmbr, to rewrite the mbr/bootloader. However i can't do that, because i can't boot from a usb. I've tried everything, the boot order of my bios is usb first then hdd, but that won't boot. On my computer there's no option to hold down any key during start up to get into the boot menu, so i'm completely stuck.

Thanks in advance for your help.

To be clear atm I'm running Windows 10 + Zorin and I can access both operating systems.
 
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tsnor

Splendid
Nov 20, 2008
3,702
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Assume you can get into the BIOS because you verified boot order. This says the HW is mostly good. It's a good thing.

Verify that the USB thumb drive you are using is bootable on another PC, alternatively create a different known bootable USB and see if that works.

Try different USB ports on the PC. They come from different controllers and might work differently, this also changes which devices share an internal USB hub.

Unplug all other USB devices including mouse and keyboard and see if USB boot suddenly works. If so isolate the USB device that is causing problems and move it to another port or replace it.

Reset the BIOS to defaults. SAVE. try booting again. This reset the MB to legacy mode, etc. which might make the USB boot device work.

Unplug both the USB and the sata cable from your hard drive and see if you get the "no bootable device" BIOS message -- you should. Now try putting the USB drive in with the sata cable still unplugged. You should boot. If instead you get the same "no bootable device" message then tell us, there is more debugging to do.

update: sorry missed that this was a laptop. Where I said "pull the sata cable" substitute "physically remove the disk drive from the laptop". I'd only do this if the laptop had a simple, reasonable one screw access like a thinkpad rather than the 30+ screws I needed to remove to get drive access on the last inspiron I updated...
 
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harli458

Commendable
Jul 9, 2016
9
0
1,510


Hello, thank you for your help.
I tried the USB on a different computer, it worked perfectly. I isolated it, tried all the different USB 2 and 3 ports on my laptop, no luck. I reset my bios settings to default, no luck. I'm so frustrated and stuck! do you think changing my boot from eufi to the legacy bios will help?

 
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tsnor

Splendid
Nov 20, 2008
3,702
2
24,965


"...changing my boot from eufi to the legacy bios will help? .." -- Yes. There is "anti-root kit" protection in a UEFI bios. Legacy boot might turn that off or there might be another setting to turn that off. I was thinking the "reset to defaults" in the BIOS would choose that by default....
 
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