authorandrew
web designer-developer
- Messages
- 103
Hi all,
So, here is the situation:
1) I have Windows 8.1 update 1 installed. Since I upgraded from Windows 7, I've had the 'Hard Drive locked' issue and been unable to use the Refresh and Reset tools in Win8. I have reinstalled the system once, I believe by installing Windows 7 and then upgrading again. The locked issue persists.
2) I want to wipe the computer totally clean -- no upgrades -- and get everything squared away.
3) I tried a Windows 8 ISO downloader, which is how I upgraded in the first place. No dice, it works for a while, then restarts and I get a blue screen and boot back into 8.1 instead of the setup process continuing.
4) I tried to burn the .iso to a USB drive using the Windows 7 tool that's online, and booted using that. This works, except the tool will recognize NO drives. The only drive that shows up is X: and it has negligible data on it. My actual C: drive is masked or hidden. This is also the case in any recovery tools Win8 has.
5) I tried to boot/recover from two different installation CDs -- my original 64bit Windows 7 disk that I burned to replace my recovery partition, and an ancient Windows XP disc that I've used before to at least boot into recovery tools/command line. When I try either of them, in internal and external drives, Windows 8 overrides and begins to boot before the CDs can do anything. I've specifically selected to boot from CD drive and this override still happens.
My goal: Install Windows 8 totally new on the laptop, from scratch, with no upgrades to potentially sour the process. Solve the locked drive error, and hopefully solve some peripheral problems which have sprung up (and are my main reason for wanting to reformat) in my mouse and keyboard. I've been working to repair those issues and reformatting is the next step in the process.
Things I've tried:
-Repairing the boot order/MBR through easyBCD. No results.
-While in recovery mode (from the Win8 flash drive), tried bootrec/fixMBR, fixBoot, and rebuildBCD. No result since all the tool can see is the X: drive.
-BCDBoot repair, namely: BCDboot c:\windows /s c: /l en-us -- this said 'boot files created successfully' (while in the repair tools for Windows 8, on drive X: ), but when I tried to do a reset I got the same result as before.
Nothing is working, the computer is still booting but the peripheral problems continue. Any help you guys can throw my way would be appreciated! I know this is a very common issue and there are threads on it previously, but it's also a very broad issue and I'm finding very few cases where the solution ends up being the same. I am at my wit's end and have been pounding my head against this for three or four hours. I love Windows 8 but in these issues it's really been a huge headache for me. Awaiting your suggestions!
Andrew
So, here is the situation:
1) I have Windows 8.1 update 1 installed. Since I upgraded from Windows 7, I've had the 'Hard Drive locked' issue and been unable to use the Refresh and Reset tools in Win8. I have reinstalled the system once, I believe by installing Windows 7 and then upgrading again. The locked issue persists.
2) I want to wipe the computer totally clean -- no upgrades -- and get everything squared away.
3) I tried a Windows 8 ISO downloader, which is how I upgraded in the first place. No dice, it works for a while, then restarts and I get a blue screen and boot back into 8.1 instead of the setup process continuing.
4) I tried to burn the .iso to a USB drive using the Windows 7 tool that's online, and booted using that. This works, except the tool will recognize NO drives. The only drive that shows up is X: and it has negligible data on it. My actual C: drive is masked or hidden. This is also the case in any recovery tools Win8 has.
5) I tried to boot/recover from two different installation CDs -- my original 64bit Windows 7 disk that I burned to replace my recovery partition, and an ancient Windows XP disc that I've used before to at least boot into recovery tools/command line. When I try either of them, in internal and external drives, Windows 8 overrides and begins to boot before the CDs can do anything. I've specifically selected to boot from CD drive and this override still happens.
My goal: Install Windows 8 totally new on the laptop, from scratch, with no upgrades to potentially sour the process. Solve the locked drive error, and hopefully solve some peripheral problems which have sprung up (and are my main reason for wanting to reformat) in my mouse and keyboard. I've been working to repair those issues and reformatting is the next step in the process.
Things I've tried:
-Repairing the boot order/MBR through easyBCD. No results.
-While in recovery mode (from the Win8 flash drive), tried bootrec/fixMBR, fixBoot, and rebuildBCD. No result since all the tool can see is the X: drive.
-BCDBoot repair, namely: BCDboot c:\windows /s c: /l en-us -- this said 'boot files created successfully' (while in the repair tools for Windows 8, on drive X: ), but when I tried to do a reset I got the same result as before.
Nothing is working, the computer is still booting but the peripheral problems continue. Any help you guys can throw my way would be appreciated! I know this is a very common issue and there are threads on it previously, but it's also a very broad issue and I'm finding very few cases where the solution ends up being the same. I am at my wit's end and have been pounding my head against this for three or four hours. I love Windows 8 but in these issues it's really been a huge headache for me. Awaiting your suggestions!
Andrew
My Computer
System One
-
- OS
- Windows 8.1 Pro with Media Center
- Computer type
- Laptop
- System Manufacturer/Model
- HP Pavilion dm4 3170-se Beats Edition
- CPU
- Intel i5-3210M @ 2.50GHz
- Memory
- 12 GB
- Graphics Card(s)
- Intel HD 4000
- Monitor(s) Displays
- HP 22xi (1920x1080)
- Screen Resolution
- 1600x900
- Hard Drives
- Seagate Momentus XT 500gb with 16gb SSD hybrid
- Browser
- Opera 26.0