I know. I should have backed up before monkeying with dual-booting linux. But I didn't.
Note: I don't know what I'm talking about when it comes to the drive terms: MBR, intialize, etc. Just enough to get me into deep doodoo apparently!
So here we go: this one's tough, if there's even an answer. It'll probably take a guru to answer, or else be so ridiculously easy that I kick myself when I learn the answer:
I had Windows 10 and loaded linux as well. Everything went fine until I booted up linux, and lo! Windows boot option was not available (only Windows recovery sector). Did I delete the Windows boot sector accidentally? I'm not sure - all I know is that Windows is showing up in GRUB options as "Windows Recovery Sector" or something, and when I try to boot from that, it's just a blank, black screen with a blinking white underscore.
So, bumbling confidently towards the chasm, I try to diagnose it and fix it. Somewhere along the line, I fire up command prompt, DISKPART, and try to clean just the partition (and I now know) - CLASSIC BLUNDER. DISKPART clean wipes the disk, not the partition. Great.
No problem. I'll just plug it in with a sata-usb (which works, btw, no cable problems, etc.), run a data-recovery software, which I've done a million times, and have the pictures that my wife wants me to get, etc.
I happily plugged it in, ran the recovery software, and pulled out all my files, like a Boss.
NOT.
Couldn't even get to the recovery stage - I can't even get into the drive.
I plugged it into via USB, and - long story short, here's where we are:
-I'm assuming something is wrong with the MBR. But, AOMEI recognized it (see screenshot at bottom), and I (apparently successfully?) ran "Rebuild MBR" on it.
-hard drive won't initialize. Tried to initialize with Windows disk manager and AOMEI, both of them return an error when I tried (Windows: "Drive not ready" - see screenshot below).
[note: I tried restarting the computer with the drive plugged in. Disk Mang. won't recognize it
on the restart, only if I unplug-replug after the reboot. Then it shows up in Disk Mang (still not
in windows expl. Note too, that I've pursued the windows event log and AOMEI's error
code, and dead ends on both]
-hard drive shows up in both AOMEI and Disk Mang. as "0 kb." (See screenshots below)
-hard drive is (obviously) not recognized by Win explorer as a letter.
-I tried partition recovery softwares galore. They don't even recognize the drive (pandora, wondershare, etc.).
-I also tried "Seagate disk wizard" (drive is a Seagate 250GB) and that was a big fat zippo.
-"Partition Find and Mount" sees the drive (calls it "USB device") but a scan returns nothing.
-"Remo Recovery" sees the drive, but a scan gives zippo.
-Obviously watched youtube videos galore and meandered through forums, but nobody seems to have this issue. Also, I have no reason to believe the hard drive died - it worked fine two days ago, and shows up when I plug it in with the SATA-usb cable.
SCREENSHOTS
When I load Win boot manager, this is what happens:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1njoGw4XrX4wBdYg4LFUTPIrMXMREb8rd
And as visible in AOMEI (initializing it gives AOMEI error 45, which - big shocker - is "unable to initialize"):
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1KtDzdcTo0Wj8yd2oX0aAAvEnqhgEJ31o
We who are about to die salute you!
(Also, I think I checked the box that said "looking for solution, not discussion" but I don't mind a discussion.)
Note: I don't know what I'm talking about when it comes to the drive terms: MBR, intialize, etc. Just enough to get me into deep doodoo apparently!
So here we go: this one's tough, if there's even an answer. It'll probably take a guru to answer, or else be so ridiculously easy that I kick myself when I learn the answer:
I had Windows 10 and loaded linux as well. Everything went fine until I booted up linux, and lo! Windows boot option was not available (only Windows recovery sector). Did I delete the Windows boot sector accidentally? I'm not sure - all I know is that Windows is showing up in GRUB options as "Windows Recovery Sector" or something, and when I try to boot from that, it's just a blank, black screen with a blinking white underscore.
So, bumbling confidently towards the chasm, I try to diagnose it and fix it. Somewhere along the line, I fire up command prompt, DISKPART, and try to clean just the partition (and I now know) - CLASSIC BLUNDER. DISKPART clean wipes the disk, not the partition. Great.
No problem. I'll just plug it in with a sata-usb (which works, btw, no cable problems, etc.), run a data-recovery software, which I've done a million times, and have the pictures that my wife wants me to get, etc.
I happily plugged it in, ran the recovery software, and pulled out all my files, like a Boss.
NOT.
Couldn't even get to the recovery stage - I can't even get into the drive.
I plugged it into via USB, and - long story short, here's where we are:
-I'm assuming something is wrong with the MBR. But, AOMEI recognized it (see screenshot at bottom), and I (apparently successfully?) ran "Rebuild MBR" on it.
-hard drive won't initialize. Tried to initialize with Windows disk manager and AOMEI, both of them return an error when I tried (Windows: "Drive not ready" - see screenshot below).
[note: I tried restarting the computer with the drive plugged in. Disk Mang. won't recognize it
on the restart, only if I unplug-replug after the reboot. Then it shows up in Disk Mang (still not
in windows expl. Note too, that I've pursued the windows event log and AOMEI's error
code, and dead ends on both]
-hard drive shows up in both AOMEI and Disk Mang. as "0 kb." (See screenshots below)
-hard drive is (obviously) not recognized by Win explorer as a letter.
-I tried partition recovery softwares galore. They don't even recognize the drive (pandora, wondershare, etc.).
-I also tried "Seagate disk wizard" (drive is a Seagate 250GB) and that was a big fat zippo.
-"Partition Find and Mount" sees the drive (calls it "USB device") but a scan returns nothing.
-"Remo Recovery" sees the drive, but a scan gives zippo.
-Obviously watched youtube videos galore and meandered through forums, but nobody seems to have this issue. Also, I have no reason to believe the hard drive died - it worked fine two days ago, and shows up when I plug it in with the SATA-usb cable.
SCREENSHOTS
When I load Win boot manager, this is what happens:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1njoGw4XrX4wBdYg4LFUTPIrMXMREb8rd
And as visible in AOMEI (initializing it gives AOMEI error 45, which - big shocker - is "unable to initialize"):
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1KtDzdcTo0Wj8yd2oX0aAAvEnqhgEJ31o
We who are about to die salute you!
(Also, I think I checked the box that said "looking for solution, not discussion" but I don't mind a discussion.)
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