Accidentally installed the boot loader on SSD when installing to USB

I installed Manjaro on a usb and accidentally installed the boot loader on my SSD which has Windows installed, now every time I boot up my computer and hit the F12 key and select the Windows (SSD) option it brings me to the GRUB boot loader and I can’t take the USB out because then GRUB will send a message saying it didn’t identify the file and can’t find the drive, and I can’t boot my Windows 10

One way to fix it is by using Ventoy and adding a rEFind CD-R image file to the ISOs’ folder. Then select your Ventoy media with F12 to boot into the reFInd live ISO and upon the main menu, choose Windows next. From there, on Windows, you can do a system repair or a reset. Remember to remove your USB with Manjaro.

Alternatively, you can download a Windows ISO and boot from it with Ventoy or directly by burning an ISO to a fresh drive. Once it boots, choose recovery environment to perform a boot/system repair. If I recall correctly, this is the only viable way if BitLocker is enabled.

In some PCs and desktops, you can just enter the firmware settings and locate the boot options page and set the Windows bootloader to run first. You may need to turn on secure boot. In some computers, due to firmware restrictions, you’ll need to do that from your Manjaro USB.

Either reinstall win boot loader via win rescue or wait for the next big win update that will do that for you.

What happens if you boot without F12? If your ssd/win is the first boot option you should boot straight into grub with win as an option. Chose it and, since grub remembers your last choice, the next boot would go straight to win, with the grub screen visible depending on the timeout settings.

It is, and that does happen but I don’t always want to have the USB plugged in, although I might just have to conform and be comfortable with that

Would the Windows repair or reset delete data?

So you overwrite the MBR or is it EFI? I guess you mean MBR (BIOS/legacy). You need to overwrite the MBR again on the SSD then. If only Windows is on that SSD then you need to write it with bcdboot with the Windows Setup Disk (Press SHIFT + F10 to open the cmd). However this is a Manjaro Forum, so no support for Windows.

Ok yes it’s the BIOS legacy, the bdcboot won’t delete any data correct?

Never heard that it ever deletes data. Only the bootloader even if.

Ok thank you I’ll try that option

So I should execute this command? “bcdboot C:\Windows”

I tried this and it didn’t do anything

Sorry, but as I said:

Go to a Windows Forum to get support there, otherwise this thread will be closed. I gave you a hint, deal with it. Normally you would get no answer.

Thanks for understanding.

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