(solved) How do I restore the Windows bootloader in a dual-boot environment?
Update 2: Finally did it by following the first option I explained in my own comment (i.e. backup and reinstall)
Update 1: I also updated the UEFI just to be sure and the issue persists as expected
Sorry if the post is long, trying to give each relevant detail.
My system has two drives, the first for Linux and the second for Windows.
Initially I had OpenSUSE MicroOS on the first and I could boot into Windows through the UEFI, but then I installed Fedora on it and lost the ability to get into Windows since. I thought that it had a boot partition on its own drive, but I guess I was wrong since now that I checked the partitions, there is no FAT32 partition on there.
(in text form)
nvme0n1 931,5G disk
├─nvme0n1p1 16M part
├─nvme0n1p2 930,8G part BitLocker
│ └─bitlk-66306 930,8G crypt ntfs
└─nvme0n1p3 692M part ntfs
Unlike on my Linux drive
(in text form)
nvme1n1 931,5G disk
├─nvme1n1p1 600M part vfat /boot/efi
├─nvme1n1p2 1G part ext4 /boot
└─nvme1n1p3 929,9G part crypto_LUKS
└─luks-353e522f-c0f3-4167-99fc-90d576a734e8 929,9G crypt btrfs /var/home
So I probably destroyed the content of the boot files in its installation process.
I'm able to access my BitLocker encrypted drive through Fedora, so if I have to reinstall I can still make a backup (it wasn't very important to me either way).
I also fired up a Windows recovery drive to see if it detected the system and it does, I haven't yet looked at what the recovery drive can do, so if that's the key to solving this let me know.
The actual question
So at this point I wonder: is there a way to restore the Windows boot option? Would I have to do it in some GRUB config or do I have to/can I create a boot partition on the Windows drive too and somehow write the bootloader there?
If I'm understanding you correctly, you were on the right track. Use the windows recovery disk to recreate the windows bootloader. It SHOULDN'T touch your Linux drive in the process, but I would remove it just to be sure as Windows always assumes it's the only OS present. From there I believe you could create a GRUB entry for the windows bootloader and then use GRUB to control which you boot from. I haven't done any GRUB configuration in a very long time, so you will need to Google that one, or maybe someone else here can chime in on how to get that working.
Thanks for the input! I had a suspicion too with Windows being potentially aggressive with the drives so my first thought was to take out the other drive too, I'll try to go that way then.
Do you have any links to the process needed to restore the bootloader with the recovery tool?