Need to repair EFI, can't boot from Windows USB

I AM HAVING A ISSUSE WITH SOMETHING COMING UP QUICKLY AND DISAPPEARING AND ALSO IF I AM ON FULL SCREEN IT KNOCKS IT BACK DOWN TO NORMAL   WHAT IS MY PROBLEM AND HOW TO FIX IT.I HAVE DONE SYSTEM RESTORE TWICE BUT IT DIDNT FIX IT

Well, first press the caps lock key and write nicely.  Then make your own question and give more details.  Only not here.

Anyone else care to try?  Or am I going to have to do without Windows?

I AM HAVING A ISSUSE WITH SOMETHING COMING UP QUICKLY AND DISAPPEARING AND ALSO IF I AM ON FULL SCREEN IT KNOCKS IT BACK DOWN TO NORMAL   WHAT IS MY PROBLEM AND HOW TO FIX IT.I HAVE DONE SYSTEM RESTORE TWICE BUT IT DIDNT FIX IT

I tried again with a borrowed laptop and a fresh download of the Win 8.1 ISO, used Rufus, and, surprise, same as before.

Any other suggestions?

Thanks Bill,

I'm not able to run Windows so running Rufus would be difficult!  Before I start asking my friends to borrow a laptop, can you explain the difference between using Rufus and using Popsicle. the ISO writer which comes with POP_OS, and which I also used to flash the working linux image to USB? 

To be clear, I didn't just copy the ISO to the USB as if it's a file I want to store!  In other words, if I open up the USB stick, I see the files and folders for Windows 8, not an ISO file.  Also, each time I flash one of the USBs, I overwrite everything else on it.

Richard

Hello,

My laptop is a dual-boot with Linux and Windows 8.1.  It came with Windows 8 and I partitioned the HDD to make the dual-boot system over 3 years ago.  It worked well, but I recently moved to a new Linux distribution, being careful not to touch the two Windows partitions (Windows Data plus a small Windows Reserved one).  The install overwrote the Windows entries in the boot/efi so there is no option to boot Windows (oops).  I tried to fix this on the Linux side for half a day or so but to no avail.

I downloaded the Windows 8.1 ISO from https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows8ISO and flashed it to a USB (actually I tried two USBs), but when I try to boot from it I get a black screen with a single cursor.  It's not flashing, not a command line, just an immovable cursor.  No Windows or HP logos, no error messages, just a cursor.  The laptop came with Windows 8.1 and the BIOS settings still show that as the original OS, plus the HP keys are still there, but somehow the windows USB refuses to boot (I could boot Linux from the same USB before I put Windows on it).

Things I've tried:

  - Changing between Secure/Legacy Boot support

  - Wiping then reinstating the default EFI keys

  - Fixes from within Linux (I'm not here for Linux support so not going to go into details, save to say these have further affected the boot partition but not the Windows ones)

  - Checking all boot options after interrupting the startup - there's no way to get into Windows like this.

Any help is highly appreciated!

Thanks,

Richard

You flashed it to a USB??

You use this:

Rufus - Create bootable USB drives the easy way