Windows Locked Hard Drive After Boot Failure
Oct 17, 2013
I have windows 8 installed on c drive and Linux mint installed on separate hard disk. Everything was working fine before I installed kubuntu from Linux mint. After installation I couldn't get into windows 8 because it was giving error message 0*c000000f. I tried to refresh Windows but no avail because windows has locked that drive and I couldn't access it. Than I decided to backup important files from windows 8 hard disk from Linux. I accessed windows 8 drive but three folders were missing "Windows" , "Users" and "Program Files(64)" other than that I can access all files and problem is all important data is in user folder.
Than I installed windows 8 on different partition still same thing cant access those three folders. Is there any possible way to simply access user folder?
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Jul 18, 2013
Something terrible happened to my computer today. I'm honestly not sure exactly how, but my hard drive locked itself. I was trying to install FL Studio 11, when it kept saying I didn't have write permissions. I thought that the installer might be corrupted, so I downloaded it again. It still had the same issue. I thought maybe it was an issue with Windows 8, so I burned it to a USB and connected my iPhone to iTunes to try and sync some music to it before I restored Windows. Not only did the driver not install, but iTunes closed and said I either don't have read/write permissions or iTunes is on a locked hard drive. Frustrated at this point, I turned my computer off and booted from my Windows 8 install USB.
Windows 8 will not install because it says that my hard drive is locked so I can't install Windows 8 on the hard drive. I tried installing it again and the installer said that the temporary installation files could not be copied to the hard drive. I can't boot into Windows now, it just stays stuck at the flashing symbol (I've left it there for about 5 hours now, still nothing). I have a lot of files that I really need for making my music and a lot of unrecoverable pictures, so I really need to get this computer fixed.
At the moment I'm installing Windows on a USB in hopes I can boot from that and move all my files to a backup PC and then format my hard drive, but I'm not 100% sure that will work. I checked my BIOS and my hard drive is not locked with a password or anything, so this just doesn't make sense to me. It might have something to do with all the partitions I've made in the last few days to install Linux and I decided I didn't need it so I deleted the partitions and extended my main partition again.
Also, I've already tried automatic repair about 6 times nothing has worked, it says it can't fix my PC. I fixed this problem by downloading Hiren's Boot CD, going into Mini XP, moving all my files to another laptop with USB, and formatting my hard drive completely.
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Jan 22, 2013
I formatted a HD that had the bootmanager on it. The Win 8 disc can't repair it. I'm also getting a message that my C: drive is locked.
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Oct 18, 2013
I've just built a new computer that has a 2nd hand HDD as the secondary drive. It was causing messages to appear like "Hard drive failure imminent - do you want to back up the drive". Since I was still setting up everything on the primary drive I disabled the messages by clicking "Do not show these messages again". Now I realise I should enable the message and remove the offending HDD. I'm running windows 8.1.
How do I re-enable these messages?
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Mar 16, 2013
I'm currently using a Dell Inspiron 3520 laptop with Windows 8 on it. I have an external hard drive from a Windows 7 desktop. It recognizes the external hdd right away and I can access it but I can't figure out how to boot Windows 7 as the primary. I've tried changing boot order in bios but I've had no luck as it still boots Windows 8 first. Is there a way to use the Windows 7 as the primary drive ? Even a way to temporarly turn off the Windows 8 hard drive will work. I just need to access the Windows 7 hard drive without having to navigate through program files to have to open something.
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Jan 12, 2014
Had, and still have installed in machine, an SSD with Windows 7 as OS Had, and still have, a Western Digital 2 TB external HD attached. It was used as back up for the original set up. This also has the Smart Ware software installed but which I have not used.
Tried a dual boot on a new SSD using Windows 8.1 recently but turned out ot be a pain so I simply installed 8.1 on new disk.
When I boot and Windows 8.1 starts, window showing the external hard drive and contents appears. How can I stop this?
I am planning to reformat this external storage and redo the back up using the new 8.1 OS and current content of the my other HDD containing our data, will this likely stop the "pop-up" on start?
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Apr 16, 2013
Yesterday I was working on some stuff on my computer and left it when my door rang. When I came back the computer was on but no matter how many times I tried to move the mouse or press keyboard shortcuts Windows wouldn't come back on. So I manually powered down, and then it got worse. It wouldn't repair manually or from the Windows disk. I tried all kinds of stuff. I tried a refresh install but I got this
"The drive where Windows is installed is locked" Then this morning when I went back to back to turn it on and trouble shot. All I got was a black screen. No NVIDIA window or anything.
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Sep 14, 2012
I keep getting this when trying refresh my Windows 8 rp
The drive where Windows is installed is locked. Unlock the drive and try again.
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Oct 26, 2013
I have windows 8.1 and am trying to do a refresh as I've had some problems. But I keep getting a message that says, "The drive where windows are installed is locked. Unlock the drive and try again." I then did a scan using "SFC/SCANNOW" When it was finished it said that it found some corrupt files but could not fix some of them. So the question is: What is a locked drive and how do you unlock it?
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Jan 23, 2013
I have a Windows 7 / Windows 8 dual boot setup that was initially working fine. When attempting to update the graphics drivers in Windows 8 last week, something went wrong and the system crashed. Now when I attempt to boot into Windows 8, it goes into the Attempting Automated Repairs loop which never finishes, even when left running for several hours. I attempted to boot off of the Windows 8 installation CD and do a Refresh but it just errors out saying Windows could not be refreshed.
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Aug 1, 2014
I have an Asus T300LA Transformer with Windows 8.1. My keyboard stopped working so wanted to use the recovery utility, but when I get there it says my hard drive is locked and to unlock it. How do I do that?
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Jul 13, 2014
I have a 1.5 yr. old ASUS notebook which has been upgraded from the initial Windows 8.0 to 8.1 and then to PRO several months ago. The PRO was done in an attempt to install the encryption technology, Bitlocker. Shortly after the install of Bitlocker, I found it would not work and traced it back to a discussion with ASUS who said this particular notebook was not built with the ability to be encrypted. (This is the second notebook/laptop in several months that I ran across this!) In any case, Bitlocker is not turned on anywhere, and unfortunately, I can't find any tool to remove it from my harddrive as of yet. I only mention this as a possible bearing on the issue since apparently it embeds itself in the root directory, if I am correct. This problem recently started for some unknown reason I can't contribute anything to.
My drive D: is an extension on the physical drive. When I try to manipulate and files or folders, it comes up with "the media is read only" or "the disk is write protected" all dependent on what I am trying to do and what application is open. It will, of course, allow me to copy files to C:. I have tried the following:
-CHKDSK which found nothing
-FILE CHECKER which found nothing
-PERMISSIONS checked and everyone and everything has full permissions
-DISKPART/ATTRIBUTES ran to check everything and according to the attributes on this volume, there is NO READONLY! I ran the CLEAN command 2X anyway which came up "successful" each time.
-I also ran some quality DISK MANAGEMENT software which could not make any modifications since it views the drive as "Read Only".
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Sep 15, 2014
I was trying to share my c drive to my network and took it too far. I ended up changing permissions and now I cant access the c drive or any program, I am locked out. What now ???
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Jun 21, 2014
Have decided to take the plunge to reset my computer (because Windows Store would not open). Booted from the installation disk but cannot Reset or Refresh, I get "The drive where Windows is installed is locked. Unlock the drive and try again."
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Apr 30, 2014
First of all.. let me say that this HDD does not have any kind physical damage. It has not been dropped.. nor it has a clicking or beeping sound.
The HDD is SeaGate FreeAgent Go 250 GB. I always watch movies in bulk. So I copy it to my HDD and plug it in the TV and use it. Today when I plugged it in to my PC for watching another set of movies, the copying was not going in a stable manner.. instead the graph showed mountain-like copying.. i.e. first it goes at much speed and then it loses and fall back to 1 or 2 mb/s.. So I thought that a defrag could set things right.
I defragged it and went for a coffee.. After coming back, the defrag was complete but i was unable to open the HDD.. I safely removed it but it said it was in use.. I shut down my PC and unplugged it.. turned on my PC but when I insert my HDD its unreadable.. it shows no percentage of free space.. only just Local Disk F.. ( earlier it used to show FreeAgent GO) I ran chkdsk F: /f /r.. but it showed some error.. I closed it. The log file is attached..
Now whenever I open my HDD, its stops responding.. I know it can be solved..
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Mar 5, 2013
I'm booting off my SSD which is drive C: and I have games and programs on an extra hard drive which was origanally drive H: but after a restart it switched to I: and when I go into Disk Management to change it Drive H: isn't there.
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Dec 26, 2012
I have a 2TB Western Digital My Book Essentials, it's filled with tons of old photos, movies, docs, games, and I'm scared to think of what else. The SATA to USB connector broke on it, so I took the drive apart and put it inside my computer. I opened up device manager because it wasn't showing up automatically and the 2TB is showing up as unallocated, I'm freaking out now because I'm scared the data was somehow deleted.What do I do?
edit: I realize also this isn't directly related to Windows 8 (besides the fact it's the OS I'm on), but I don't know where else to post it. I'd also like to say that I had a really deep feeling the drive was going to break continually for about two weeks before it happened, so if you have a similar feeling about something, don't ignore it!
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Jun 22, 2014
Can you save to hard drive and One Drive at Same Time?
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Jul 10, 2013
I know there is good software out there to clone/image my hard drive and restore it to a new SSD drive. I'm just wondering though, since my laptop is brand new, I made a full recovery to a USB drive and included the OEM recovery partition.
Couldn't I just swap out the old HDD with the new SSD and boot with the recovery stick and do a full recovery back to the new SSD?
Also, however I do this, recover or image backup/restore, do I need to do some type of SSD alignment? I can't find a clear answer on that.
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Sep 15, 2014
I have been running my desktop system under WIndows 8.1 since release, and I started having a problem the other day.
The system seems to have hung up completely, so I powered it down (it is usually up 24 x 7 since I use it as a DVR along with my computer usage).
It seemed to be ok when it powered up, but then a bit later it asked to reboot to finish installing updates.
It has not booted since.
During reboot, it displays the Windows logo and the spinning dots for a few seconds, and then the screen blanks, and my monitor loses signal. I have left it for quite a while and it doesn't come back. After some time, it goes into sleep mode (slowly flashing power indicator), so something is going on at some level. I have powered off and back on, and removed the power cord for a minute to see if anything different happened... it doesn't.
I have tried pressing F8 and Shift-F8 during reboots to try to get to safe mode, but so far no good. Last night, I used my laptop and seem to be able to access shares, but unfortunately it appears that the things I want/need most are not shared.
The bad part is that I haven't been able to locate my recovery disc, but I will continue to look.
I bought the system with Windows 7 right before 8.0 was released, and When 8.0 came out, I got the cheap upgrade and before loading it, installed an SSD for my C: Drive, and kept the existing HDD for my D: Everything has been running well until this incident.
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Jan 11, 2014
I recently upgraded to 8.1 (mistake) and have been having issues with my harddrive. Just today, I restarted my computer only to get a "windows failed to start" message. I went into the recovery options, and attemped a system restore (didnt work), system refresh (recovery media wasn't present), and CMD commands (chkdsk) and even sfc /scannow which I can't seem to get to run, I always get the "Will start on next boot" message, which it never does. So I attempted using an ISO with the windows 8.1 professional. Tried everything I did above, and still nothing. Refresh fails with the CD, and when i try to install a new partition, it only gives me the option of upgrading (which i cant) or reinstalling everything deleting anything in the process. I don't understand why I can't install on a new partition like I did with Windows 7.
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Dec 29, 2013
I am new to Windows 8, and first time with a laptop. I have 1tb hard drive (minus a few gb) in c drive. d drive is being used as recovery
This is how it was setup. What I would like to do is to partition the amount of space i have from c drive into another drive.
Can manage to partition some hard drive space over to another driver letter, if i do a fresh install of windows, will this new drive be formatted too?
(Just asking this because when I owned a desktop computer, I had two drives. A c-drive and a d-drive. When I re-installed windows 7 on the desktop, all my files were still available on the d-drive, hence asking the above last question).
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May 16, 2013
A few months ago my laptop broke and it needed repairs. The HDD was replaced and i got my laptop back with one new HDD inside and one "broke" HDD in a bag. Later the "Repaired" Laptop crashed again so i bought a new one and took the HDD out of the old laptop. I bought a HDD case with USB connection and both of the HDD's where intact. The oldest HDD contained windows 7 and the replaced contained windows 8. Now i want to sell the Windows 8 HDD so i want it to be clean of personal files but i want it to keep windows 8. I thought the solution was to run the windows 8 on the HDD so i can use the program deletation program of that windows 8. The problem is i dont know how to run windows 8 of a hard drive. I have searched the internet but with no success.
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Aug 23, 2014
My wife just got a new PC running Windows 8.1 Pro and she wants to re-connect her external hard drive that has all her game files on it to the new PC.
While the new PC recognizes the drive it states that it needs to be initialized , doing so would wipe the data currently on the drive which would be unacceptable. How to get the new PC to recognize this drive and its data?
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Aug 18, 2014
I have just tried to Refresh my Windows 8.1 installation, but when running the refresh Windows 8.1 came up with an error I have not seen before, let alone do the refresh.
It displayed a message saying "The Drive is Locked, you will have to unlock the drive to continue" so HOW do you unlock a Hard Drive?
How to do this before I either pull my hair out, or start from scratch and re-format the drive and do a complete new install of Windows 8.1
One thing I have done about a week ago which may be causing this problem is I converted the Drive from MBR to GPT and if this has locked the drive.
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Sep 19, 2013
I have just bought a 4TB external USB 3.0 hard drive. The plan is to copy all of the data from my current internal 2TB drive to the 4TB, then I'm going to crack the case of the external hard drive open, take the drive out, and put it in my PC to replace the 2TB drive that's in there now (which I know will void the warranty). This isn't going to be a boot drive as I have an SSD for that.
I had read that Windows does not support large drives of this size and that it would show up as 2 partitions, so I was prepared to convert the drive to GPT in order to have 1 large partition. However, I connected the drive up to my Windows 8.1 machine and it shows as 1 large partition of 3.63TB, which is about what I expected.
Does this mean I don't have to convert the drive after all? Can I do what I'm planning to do and everything will work fine? Or do I need to convert it to GPT before I copy all of my data over and if so, how do I do that exactly?
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Feb 22, 2013
My pc got stuck on a black screen after i restart it one time. When it finally lets me log in after turning the computer on and off manually, all of my programs were deleted, i couldn't access my computer's hard drive(?)(c:windows) , and i couldn't access system restore (or msconfig / any of the advance system tools). Any other way to do a full system restore without any of the pre mentioned options?
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Apr 2, 2013
I have recently purchased and new computer with Windows 8. It's running smoothly, however I am encountering one particular problem.
My primary boot device is a 128GB SSD and obviously I want that space for the operating system install and some essential programs (photoshop, fireworks etc.).
My secondary device is a standard 1TB HDD. This is what I want to be my storage space for files, documents and non-essential programs.
The problem - Whenever I try to install a program to my second drive it comes up with the following error
"Error Writing to D:lahblahlahlah.xml. Verify that you have access to that directory"
I have check my permissions in the security tab and made sure that all the right check boxes are clicked. I have made sure to run the program as administrator and I've check to make sure that the directory is not set to 'read only'.
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Apr 12, 2013
I successfully managed to create a virtual hard drive on my external drive to try boot windows 8 off it. I managed to boot it up and the login screen also appears as normal. I have a successful login, But on the second time login I am faced with black screen and the cursor. I'm aware that Microsoft has released a fix for this. I have attached the executable in the zip. I tried running this fix but it didn't work . After the black screen appears, even in safe mode I cannot run explorer.exe or open any folder to try running any executable files
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Mar 7, 2013
My 60 GB C: drive ran out of room. The only thing installed on it is Windows 8 and whatever pre-installed programs came with my computer. I ran WinDirStat (WinDirStat - Windows Directory Statistics), a directory statistic tool and found two very large folders: C:/Windows is 22.2 GB and C:/ProgramData/Microsoft is 17.2 GB. This doesn't seem right. Can I free up room in these or are they both necessary? I read that windows 8 should take up around 20 GB, not 40 so how might I got about freeing up some space?
Also, I updated from Windows 7 about two months ago.
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Jun 25, 2013
Well, since i installed Windows 8 Pro on my desktop, it already ate 26,8GB of disk space. I have no extra apps installed (posting this from Internet Explorer 10). How can i free some of that space?
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