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I am very new to the concept of dual booting and tried it on my PC.  My existing OS is Windows 10.  I downloaded the Manjaro-Budgie ISO file and saved it in my E: Drive in hopes of using that as an alternative OS.

First I used EasyBCD to try and dual boot.  This somewhat worked, but when I tried to use the Manjaro option there was an error.

So instead, I used the software “UNetbootin” and this is where I am now.

After restarting, I cannot boot onto my computer, because I am stuck on a screen that says

error: unknown filesystem Entering rescue mode… grub rescue>

I have looked for solutions online and have tried a few.  Mainly I tried the “ls” command and for each of the directories checked if anything existed, but they all showed unknown filesystem as an error.

Here are my directories: “(hd0) (hd1) (hd2) (hd3)”

I want to emphasize that I did not use a USB Drive or disk at any point; I only used the ISO file.

I am wondering how I can boot into Manjaro, and if not how I can at least access Windows again, ideally without going through the GRUB screen.

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2 Answers 2

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Although possible, it's extremely hard to to boot from a iso that is just saved as a file on your disk. It was never meant to be used like this.

I strongly suggest writing it to a usb-stick and use this stick to create a dual boot system. Note that you can't just save it as a file on the usb-stick. You need to overwrite the filesystem of the stick.

The full procedure:

  • Install Rufus on your windows
  • Plugin a USB-stick (all files on it will be removed so make sure it doesn't contain anything useful) and run Rufus
  • In most cases all settings can be kept at the default value except:
    • Device: Choose your USB-stick in that menu
    • Boot Selection: Select the ISO that you downloaded
  • Reboot.
    It could be that Windows starts again. If this is the case:
    • Reboot again and immediately start pressing the key to get in the bootmenu multiple times.
      (Which key this is depends from computer to computer, but is almost always one of the F-buttons. Look it up online or easier: just press all of them at the same time)
    • In the menu choose your USB-stick
  • The Linux on your stick will boot
  • There will be icon to install the system, click it and follow the menus (I don't use Manjaro myself so I don't know the exact name, but it will be clear)
  • Somewhere during this procedure it will ask you how you want to set the drives/partitions:
  • If there is a easy option that just says something like "Install it next to windows" choose this
  • Otherwise use the tool in the menu to shrink the windows partition, create a new one and select this as meant for Linux
  • After the installation reboot and remove the USB-stick.

Result: During the boot procedure you will from now on see a menu where you can choose whether you want to start Windows or Linux.
Congratulations: You now have a dual boot system

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You'll probably have to give us more information so that we understand your situation. Information you provided is simply lacking to effectively solve your problem. Questions of importance are in this order:

  1. Machine architecture/bitness: 32 bit or 64 bit? (affects early boot behaviour)
  2. Machine firmware: BIOS (32 bit only), UEFI (32/64bit)? (affects early boot behaviour)
    1. If UEFI, it's bitness: 32/64bit? (affects EFI executable fallback name)
    2. If UEFI, legacy mode or native UEFI mode? (affects MBR/GPT partition scheme resolution)
  3. What physical disks present (count and order and which of those are "OS" disks)? (affects early boot behaviour)
  4. Software partitioning method used on OS disks: MBR/GPT? (affects early boot behaviour)
  5. State of your "Linux" disk: did you really boot from the image file on the disk?

Pleasant 1st time Linux experience advice: Don't dualboot unless you know what you are doing

I regularly help people/new users fix their boot issues and one thing I learned is don't try to dualboot as neophyte. Just get a second computer and use that. That way you can still troubleshoot using your daily driver.

As for a Linux computer: any computer will do, even throwaway computer. If you really cannot get a throwaway computer - which should be impossible these days - setup a VM, but don't dualboot.

How to get back to windows Simply find out how to get into your firmware and select windows as your doot disk.

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