Boot error, Drive is locked. Need help unlocking the drive.

[cooleyb]

Apon boot up have a error mesage: Reboot and select proper boot device.

When I try and run the Refresh my PC off of my Windows 8 Install USB, I recieve error: The drive where windows in installed is locked. Unlocked the drive and try again.

 

[dodger46]

'Reboot and select proper boot device' usually occurs when your HDD has failed. Did you do anything before it happened, like change any settings in the BIOS?
You can download bootable Software to diagnose your HDD. Try Seatools for DOS, load it on your bootable USB device...
http://www.seagate.com/support/internal-hard-drives/consumer-electronics/ld25-series/seatools-dos-master/
Also, did you shut down the computer normally before the error occurred?

 

[cooleyb]

'Reboot and select proper boot device' usually occurs when your HDD has failed. Did you do anything before it happened, like change any settings in the BIOS?
You can download bootable Software to diagnose your HDD. Try Seatools for DOS, load it on your bootable USB device...
http://www.seagate.com/support/internal-hard-drives/consumer-electronics/ld25-series/seatools-dos-master/
Also, did you shut down the computer normally before the error occurred?

Hello

I did nothing to the BIOS nor shut the system down funning. Its a new build with the Samsun SSD. I believe it was Malware\virus after downloading some free audio book from Nook. I cleaned the virus with my bootable USB AVG drive, but the changes to the drive remains.
I have also been able to xcopy my data off the SSD at the command prompt of my Windows 8 install USB, so everything is there and I can get to it. The drive isn't that locked up it just thinks it is.
I am debating in running the bootrec /fixmbr but am a little nervious. I though I did with my orginal install usb and it now wont boot up I had to create another one. It has an error around BCD. Now that I think of it I may have ran the BCDboot command.

Appreciate your thoughts!

 

[dodger46]

bootrec.exe /fixmbr should do the trick, better than having to re-install if it works. bootrec /rebuildbcd should find your Windows installation, more in-depth steps here
http://pcsupport.about.com/od/fixtheproblem/ht/rebuild-bcd-store-windows.htm
it's written for 7 but should apply to 8

 

[cooleyb]

'Reboot and select proper boot device' usually occurs when your HDD has failed. Did you do anything before it happened, like change any settings in the BIOS?
You can download bootable Software to diagnose your HDD. Try Seatools for DOS, load it on your bootable USB device...
http://www.seagate.com/support/internal-hard-drives/consumer-electronics/ld25-series/seatools-dos-master/
Also, did you shut down the computer normally before the error occurred?

bootrec.exe /fixmbr should do the trick, better than having to re-install if it works. bootrec /rebuildbcd should find your Windows installation, more in-depth steps here
http://pcsupport.about.com/od/fixtheproblem/ht/rebuild-bcd-store-windows.htm
it's written for 7 but should apply to 8

Dodger46

I just ran:

bootrec /fixmbr
bootrec /fixboot
bootrec /scanos
bootrec /rebuildbcd

All ran fine except the /rebuildbcd. It gave me an error: (The requested system device cannot be found), when I answered (Y) yest to (Add installation to boot list?). And that was after ( /scanos ) did find my c:\windows instalation. Wierd.

Any more thoughts?

I also tried:
bcdedit /export c:\bcd_backup - to no avail.
The store export operation has failed

 

[dodger46]

Running out of options! This method a bit more comprehensive, and again written for 7, but if you can get to the CMD prompt it should be similar
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/20864-mbr-restore-windows-7-master-boot-record.html

 

[Twisterr1000]

I have had this problem over the past day or so. People are saying to rebuild the boot manager by using the "bootrec" commands, however I have personally tried all of these and had no luck. My solution (It should work as I am in the process) is making a new partition on the hard drive, and installing windows again on the new partition (I think it needs to be at least 20GBish (mine is 25GB). Once in the OS, copy all the windows files, and users, over from your original partition to the new one, hopefully restoring your previous windows scheme e.t.c. If you don't mind having separate partitions for your OS and applications then leave it like it is, however if not then back up your old partition on a external hard drive, delete the old partition, and make the new one larger. Now copy the files from the external hard drive into the appropriate places.

 

[cooleyb]

I finally gave up on this issue and ended up starting over, a format and a reinstall. I am convinced it was all due to a Virus after installing the Nook Reader App.

 

[Twisterr1000]

I dont think it was to do with a virus, just an issue in the OS as it happens for different reasons. I did a reinstall also but how do you keep your files ? Luckily I could access them from windows 8 in the smaller partition (in my post above) but othrrwise uou would loose EVERYTHING ?

 

[Michael Osude]

Apon boot up have a error mesage: Reboot and select proper boot device.

When I try and run the Refresh my PC off of my Windows 8 Install USB, I recieve error: The drive where windows in installed is locked. Unlocked the drive and try again.

I use the gigabyte z77x-ud3h-wb with intel rapid start and smart connect ith raid enabled, I was able to fix it by creating an unfavourable boot environment for windows 8, reset bios to optimized default and set boot environment to a setting that would guarantee a boot error, windows 8 would try to with. An error, reboot the system set bios setting to normal, and windows would boot and repair the errors, it takes a while but you would not need to reformat the system

 

[Eggnog01]

Hi Michael, thanks for this, can you go into a bit more detail?

Apon boot up have a error mesage: Reboot and select proper boot device.

When I try and run the Refresh my PC off of my Windows 8 Install USB, I recieve error: The drive where windows in installed is locked. Unlocked the drive and try again.

I use the gigabyte z77x-ud3h-wb with intel rapid start and smart connect ith raid enabled, I was able to fix it by creating an unfavourable boot environment for windows 8, reset bios to optimized default and set boot environment to a setting that would guarantee a boot error, windows 8 would try to with. An error, reboot the system set bios setting to normal, and windows would boot and repair the errors, it takes a while but you would not need to reformat the system

 

[Matt Bob]

i have the same problem you had and when i tried the boot commands on cmd i had the same results as yours.
When i tried the seatool for dos my hdd was not detected but when is boot into ubuntu with my usb i can see that my hdd is there and i can cces all of my files.