"The drive where Windows is installed is locked.Unlock the drive and try again."

Anonymous
2013-01-22T22:31:56+00:00

What to do when you get the following message on "the most stable", Windows 8, operating system?

"The drive where Windows is installed is locked. Unlock the drive and try again."

I got that message after the following:

I wanted to open a PDF file from my customer on OUTLOOK - a regular, every-hour procedure - and my computer froze. Nothing worked; therefore, only manually disconnecting my computer from the power source, I was able to shut it down.

After I restarted, I could not get passed the login screen - my computer used to enter the "blue background color and nothing else" mode. 

I decided to use USB Flash drive to repair Win8 but it failed. I wanted to refresh my Windows 8, but I got that message:

"The drive where Windows is installed is locked. Unlock the drive and try again."

Just 4 days ago, I did a "clean install" of Windows 8 OS.

What should I do besides another "clean install" of Windows 8?

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Performance and system failures

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

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Anonymous
2014-09-06T13:07:42+00:00

2 SSD drives one SATA HDD

win 8.1 on SSD #1

this is what I did:

  1. shutdown
  2. unhooked HDD
  3. restarted
  4. yay !!
  5. reconnected HDD
  6. restarted
  7. yay !!

cheers

Thank you.  Of all the proposed solutions this is the only one I tried and it worked perfectly.  My computer is back up and running.  Thank you so much!

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Anonymous
2013-04-16T06:32:07+00:00

I clean installed windows 8 on a second HD and then the original came up as an option.  the key is to disconnect the first hd with the good install on it. and then go into the bios and adjust your boot sequence.  

At least this worked for me.  As soon as this works you must defeat any options for fast start as that is likely where the trouble is.  This is outrageous as it is happening to customers across the world but yet the company is trying to pass it off as a virus.  I was told I would have to buy a second license to get the install to stabilize.  It is BS.

Good Luck

KC O'Dunn

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  1. Anonymous
    2015-01-28T06:43:37+00:00

    I had the same issue on an HP laptop. I booted to the recovery F11

    The selected "HP Recovery manager" option. Then I used a Factory image restore.

    The issue may be that the manufacturer uses its own Recovery software, that is why the drive shows up as locked. Microsoft Recovery image is a different format from HP.

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  2. Anonymous
    2014-12-19T05:29:34+00:00

    I had this same problem and it turned out to be something I was doing wrong.  I switched the bootup device to a USB drive incorrectly.  Although I was using a USB device (flash drive), I needed to pick the USB flash drive and not a USB external drive.  Then the recovery USB flash drive worked fine.  I used F12 to go into the boot sequence and then changed it correctly the flash drive where I created the recovery disk.

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  3. Anonymous
    2014-12-03T16:02:28+00:00

    simply type C: and it will take you the C: directory.

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