UEFI = Locked HDD?!

[KenjaminK]

Hello all, any help would be much appreciated.

I got two 40GB HDD's that I configured to RAID 0
Thinking I was going to increase performance, I installed Windows 8 on the RAID volume only to discover they were only SATA I and a lot slower than my previous non-RAID HDD configuration.
I then transfered all of my personal data onto the RAID volume, which took forever.
Once all of my important data was safe, I reinstalled Windows 8 back onto the non-RAID volume.
After that, I transferred all of my data back into my fresh, speedy, non-RAID configuration of old.
Wanting to use the two 40GB HDD's as just additional storage volumes, I went into the Option ROM Utility to delete the RAID 0 volume.
Now I cannot boot to my normal non-RAID configuration.
I've tried using the automatic repair function built into the Windows 8 installation disc to no avail.
I also tried forcing a safeboot via the CMD interface function.
I even got desperate and attempted to perform a system refresh only to have it tell me that my volume is locked and that I need to unlock it.
I googled how to do such a thing and tried disabling CSM (an option) and disabling secure boot to no avail, (which seemingly isn't an option in my m5A99FX Pro R2.0's UEFI).
I've also tried every combination of the repair functions attempted with various SATA Configurations under the Advanced tab of UEFI.

I've considered just reinstalling Windows 8 on one of the 40GB drives and try to access my files from there, but I can't even get the installer to recognize them and it doesn't seem like I should need RAID drivers anymore since I deleted the RAID volume. Is there also a way to format the ex-RAID 0 configuration to get them back to a standard state or something? I'm terrified of losing my data, which includes literally years worth of my work. Normally I don't worry because it's not difficult for me to extract data from a deleted partition, but this whole 'locked' nonsense has got me worried and kicking myself in the ass for not backing up before trying this RAID nonsense, which I thought was less buggy from everything I read. I really don't have any idea what to do at this point other than maybe removing all but one of the 40GB drives and trying to work with it and get it to try to take an OS install, but after that, I'm not even sure if it will recognize my other drive in this locked state. IMHO, locking people out of their own data like this with no warning or explanation should be illegal. Any help would be a life saver and EXTREMELY APPRECIATED.

 

[KenjaminK]

So, I think it may be bitlocker from what I've been reading, because I did have a (single) directory set to encrypt under properties. I don't see why it would lock me out without giving me any opportunity to put in my admin password or anything like that, though. Since I had literally only had the thing installed for the amount of time it took to transfer my files and I thought I was just wiping the other drives and my data was safely on my main drive again, I didn't make a bitlocker USB key, but I don't feel like I should even need that with all of the admin credentials and having never set the entire drive to be encrypted, unless Microsoft is worthlessly doesn't bother to tell you they automatically lock up your entire drive even when you only set one specific directory to encrypt. I mean, I really don't understand why my new W8 install on a completely separate volume and HDD would be that depended on another volume. Any ideas? I mean, unless the boot files were all on the RAID volume for some reason, but it doesn't make sense that you would lock people out from recovering from such an issue. I'm just at such a loss here. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[KenjaminK]

Nope, definitely not bitlocker. I've looked up how to set-up bitlocker and where it gives you the options to create a key, save it to your windows account, etc. and I never saw that, otherwise I most definitely would've saved it to my account. As I thought, encrypt under properties of a folder should not have automatically encrypted my entire drive as everything I've read only indicate those specific files are what require the certificate. Also, my drive in my computer didn't have the lock and key icon. I think this is a "Secure Boot" issue and changing my set-up has thrown it off. Unless Secure Boot is some evil keyless lockout that activates when you merely delete a volume, I feel like there should be a way to recover...

 

[popatim]

ok to me it sounds like your sata controller was set to raid mode and it may not be now. To have a chance at booting win8 the sata type must be in the same mode it was in when you installed win8 to the single drive.

Something that might prevent booting, and what I suspect happened, is the system reserved partition was written to the raid and now you've deleted it.
I don't know if that can be fixed without a complete reinstall. If you do reinstall make sure your boot drive is on your lowest numbered sata port.

 

[KenjaminK]

ok to me it sounds like your sata controller was set to raid mode and it may not be now. To have a chance at booting win8 the sata type must be in the same mode it was in when you installed win8 to the single drive.

Something that might prevent booting, and what I suspect happened, is the system reserved partition was written to the raid and now you've deleted it.
I don't know if that can be fixed without a complete reinstall. If you do reinstall make sure your boot drive is on your lowest numbered sata port.

I had tried (literally) every combination of settings between the sata type (AHCI vs. RAID), having secure boot on (Windows UEFI vs. Other OS), and the fix attempted (Automatic Repair vs. Refresh) to no avail. I did indeed install the broken Windows instance in AHCI mode before I had switched to RAID mode, configured the RAID volume, and installed another instance of Windows on that volume, but I wouldn't think doing that would replace the System Reserved of the non-RAID volume. Oh well, I was actually able to solve my problem myself. I ended up being able to use diskpart to clean, repartition, and format the two 40GB drives that the Windows installer wouldn't discover, which made them discoverable again. I then installed another instance of Windows on one of the 40GB drives in AHCI mode, which I was then able to boot into and access the unbootable partition/see my files again as a secondary drive. I then transferred my files to the remaining empty 40GB drive, then cleaned, formatted, and repartitioned the 500GB drive so I could install Windows, transfer my files, and FINALLY get my system back up. =D My files just wanted to play a good ol' game of musical hard drives, it seems. lol