📎 AI Summary:
The WindowsForum thread discusses a user's ongoing issues with Windows 8, primarily focusing on a problem where the system reports that the drive where Windows is installed is locked, preventing repairs or system restores. The user describes failed attempts at troubleshooting, including using SFC, CHKDSK, and other repair commands, and expresses frustration over system instability after upgrading from Windows 7. Several community members suggest reinstallation and disk formatting as potential solutions, and the user plans to use Knoppix to backup data before proceeding with a clean install, reflecting a generally negative sentiment towards Windows 8 stability issues.
Eeyore71

Eeyore71

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#41
kemical said:
Have you managed to gain access to the desktop yet?
Click to expand...
I wasn't able to before I took my drive in for an analysis and they did not tell me they would be mailing it off somewhere. Now I need to wait until it is delivered back to me sometime on Monday. I will try some of the suggestions from this thread when I get it back.
 

Saltgrass

Saltgrass

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#42
I will be going through the process I have been using for recovering an Uninitialized drive. I wanted to check the messages you posted earlier concern your system in Diskpart.

My uninitialized drive does show a Size and Free space the same, which is the full size of the drive. When I list the partitions, it says the drive contains no partitions and if I select partition 1, I get the Virtual Disk Service error: disk is not initialized.

Since you have to wait until tomorrow anyway, maybe we can use Diskpart to check your remaining drive as practice. You seem to have knowledge already, but maybe some details will be important.

So boot to the recovery media and run Diskpart again and do the list disk (lis dis) command. What does the current drive show as far as size and free space, and is there an asterisk under the Gpt section?

If the drive is still showing as no free space, I would be a little worried because it is not good to run a drive without extra space available. But again, if we do this process, I will ask you to remove the second drive so there is no confusion. When you get the OS drive back, make sure the install secures the drive and does not let it move around. The sensor messages may end up being relevant, especially if that sensor had the ability to disable the drive.

We can go over the procedure to recover the drive tomorrow if you want. But as a peek, the process will require booting into the Command Prompt and converting the drive to GPT, then booting the Partition Wizard 8.1.1 bootable home version to recover the partitions. Then we have to boot back into the Command prompt, and create the MSR partition then reset the Partitions for their specific configurations. After that we run Bootrec /rebuildbcd and you should be done.

You asked about booting the Windows Boot Manager. If you get to the Boot Device Menu, you will show a listing for any bootable device. If you are running Secure Boot, it may only show UEFI bootable devices. If you are running to allow both Legacy and UEFI you will see for instance, a Legacy and UEFI version of the Flash drive. You will need to boot Partition Wizard as Legacy, so it will be necessary to have the system set so as to allow it, which probably means CSM enabled and Secure Boot to either Legacy or UEFI. But bioses are set up differently so I cannot give you specific guidance.
 
Saltgrass

Saltgrass

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#43
Looks like it was a good thing I developed this procedure for recovering a Uninitialized drive. In this case, it was an external drive that contained a .xvhd file I had mounted in disk management and then tried to capture an image to use for the recovery partition. Seems the process does not work well if the .xvhd in on an external drive, and might leave the entire drive unitiitalized. My process was able to recover the drive.

If Eeyore71 returns, we can try that drive.
 
B

Bo3b

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#44
Not sure this is the same problem I had, but it's similar in a lot of respects. Took me two days to figure out how to recover the disk, and I didn't find much on Google, so figured this might be worth sharing.

I had the same problem after something damaged a new 8.1 install. The drive was 3T, and I don't have enough backup space to make a backup for it, but didn't want to lose it. Rather than delete, I found a way to get it unlocked and working normally again, without having to delete it.

The problem appeared to be that the Startup Repair actually damaged the partition header, and set it to an invalid state for what the disk actually was. This is a GPT disk because it's 3T in size. The partition appeared to be marked as an EFI partition, which didn't make sense because I did not boot in UEFI mode.

I used DiskPart as mentioned elsewhere, but also used the SETID command. Look at what it presently has with DETAIL PARTITION.

If you do HELP SETID you can see the examples for setting the partition header. Doing SETID and forcing it back to a "Basic data partition" worked to unlock the disk, and recover it completely.

Hope that helps someone else.
 
SunKnight

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#45
Saltgrass said:
I will be going through the process I have been using for recovering an Uninitialized drive. I wanted to check the messages you posted earlier concern your system in Diskpart.

My uninitialized drive does show a Size and Free space the same, which is the full size of the drive. When I list the partitions, it says the drive contains no partitions and if I select partition 1, I get the Virtual Disk Service error: disk is not initialized.

Since you have to wait until tomorrow anyway, maybe we can use Diskpart to check your remaining drive as practice. You seem to have knowledge already, but maybe some details will be important.

So boot to the recovery media and run Diskpart again and do the list disk (lis dis) command. What does the current drive show as far as size and free space, and is there an asterisk under the Gpt section?

If the drive is still showing as no free space, I would be a little worried because it is not good to run a drive without extra space available. But again, if we do this process, I will ask you to remove the second drive so there is no confusion. When you get the OS drive back, make sure the install secures the drive and does not let it move around. The sensor messages may end up being relevant, especially if that sensor had the ability to disable the drive.

We can go over the procedure to recover the drive tomorrow if you want. But as a peek, the process will require booting into the Command Prompt and converting the drive to GPT, then booting the Partition Wizard 8.1.1 bootable home version to recover the partitions. Then we have to boot back into the Command prompt, and create the MSR partition then reset the Partitions for their specific configurations. After that we run Bootrec /rebuildbcd and you should be done.

You asked about booting the Windows Boot Manager. If you get to the Boot Device Menu, you will show a listing for any bootable device. If you are running Secure Boot, it may only show UEFI bootable devices. If you are running to allow both Legacy and UEFI you will see for instance, a Legacy and UEFI version of the Flash drive. You will need to boot Partition Wizard as Legacy, so it will be necessary to have the system set so as to allow it, which probably means CSM enabled and Secure Boot to either Legacy or UEFI. But bioses are set up differently so I cannot give you specific guidance.
Click to expand...

Thank you very much! I have encountered excactly the same problem as you have mentioned above, and I have used partition wizard to save all my data so far. However, I haven't done enough to fully rescue my drive, which is briefly described in your post. I wonder if it is possible for you to share the details about this part "Then we have to boot back into the Command prompt, and create the MSR partition then reset the Partitions for their specific configurations. After that we run Bootrec /rebuildbcd and you should be done. "

Again, many thanks.
 
Pauli

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#46
Bo3b said:
Not sure this is the same problem I had....Hope that helps someone else.
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Admirable to support others, even if you're not sure about it... My salute. Had I a cannon, I'd fire it! :wink_smile:
 

Saltgrass

Saltgrass

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#47
SunKnight said:
Thank you very much! I have encountered excactly the same problem as you have mentioned above, and I have used partition wizard to save all my data so far. However, I haven't done enough to fully rescue my drive, which is briefly described in your post. I wonder if it is possible for you to share the details about this part "Then we have to boot back into the Command prompt, and create the MSR partition then reset the Partitions for their specific configurations. After that we run Bootrec /rebuildbcd and you should be done. "
Click to expand...
Since the post was so long ago, I need a little refresher. Do you have a screenshot of your drive's configuration?
 
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