Gfilui

I'm running Ubuntu 17.10 on my Dell Latitude E6410 and I'm new to Linux. I needed to boot into Windows to check a battery issue so I searched for a Windows live CD and I found this windows 8 PE (Gandalf's_Win8PE_x86) and I burned it to a USB stick using this method.

The problem is, when I try to boot into Win8 PE from the USB, I get into the GRUB command line instead of the GUI.

Is there something I can type in there that will boot Windows PE? Or is there a way to switch back to the GUI GRUB?

After a lot of searching and tries, I finally came up with a solution!

This is how to burn Gandalf's Windows PE ISO(s) Using Ubuntu.

1. 
   

   Prepare USB using GParted:

   
   
   

   msdos - fat32 / ntfs - check ( boot ) in Partition flag

   
   



2. Install ISO using Unetbootin.



3. 
   

   Make it bootable

   
   
   

   sudo grub-install --target=i386-pc --boot-directory="/media/<username>/<drive_label>/boot" /dev/sdX
   

   
   
   

   Replace:

   
   
   

   /media/<username>/<drive_label> with the path where USB drive is mounted, /dev/sdX with the USB drive, not the partition (e.g. /dev/sdb not /dev/sdb1)

   
   


4. 
   

   Create a file named grub.cfg in the USB drive in /boot/grub folder:

   
   
   

   Add the following text to the grub.cfg file :-

   
   
   

   default=1 
   timeout=15
   color_normal=light-cyan/dark-gray
   menu_color_normal=black/light-cyan
   menu_color_highlight=white/black
   
   menuentry "Start Windows Installation" 
    insmod ntfs
    insmod search_label
    search --no-floppy --set=root --label <USB_drive_label> --hint hd0,msdos1
    ntldr /bootmgr
    boot
   
   
   menuentry "Boot from the first hard drive" 
    insmod ntfs
    insmod chain
    insmod part_msdos
    insmod part_gpt
    set root=(hd1)
    chainloader +1
    boot
   
   

   
   

And that's it!

Boot from the USB in legacy boot and you will boot from Windows in live mode without needing to install it.