Windows 10: Laptop trouble - my drive letters changed?!

I finished work yesterday and shut down my laptop normally. It's a HP Omen 15-dc0020nr. I have Windows 10 Professional on it, but I am unsure which version - had to shutdown automatic updates completely since my work demands me to be available immediately, something Windows Update does not allow often with automatic installs that prevent me from accessing the system. If it is possible to access a certain file from DOS to discern exact windows version, please advise. Came back home and tried to turn it on, Omen logo came up, and laptop immediately shut down. After a couple of tries, I got the Preparing Automatic Repair message and the computer entered the Automatic Repair where I can go to Advanced options. From there I tried Troubleshoot/Advanced options and went for Startup Repair, which did nothing. I tried entering Safe mode from Startup Settings, to no help - crash again the moment Windows should start booting. I tried entering the BIOS and changing boot order, but it is not possible since I choose OS BOOT MANAGER, USB DISKETTE, USB CD/DVD, Network adapter. No hdd or ssd options. I tried System Restore, and had a restore point from yesterday where I could attempt it, but after it was done, it did not help again. After that I could no longer attempt it - I see restore points, but selecting any of them gives me warning "You must always restore the drive that contains Windows". This confused me so I went back to Advanced options where I can access Command Prompt. Now, I noticed something rather important. My system is on my SSD drive which is now D: for some reason, while my HDD drive is C:. Other options available to me are System Image Recovery and Reset this PC. I also used Windows Image Creation Tool to create a bootable USB but running Windows Setup from it and choosing Repair option also did nothing. I need to repair the computer urgently so please any help will be more than welcome. I also need to backup my files obviously, so please, anyone, let me know is it possible (and how) to safely transfer my User folder to an external HDD or something...through DOS?! I don't have anything else available to me. I feel this will end with me reinstalling windows, but I seriously need to save my files.

:)

 

Laptop trouble - my drive letters changed?!

That looks fine- UEFI.

In your BIOS, is it possible it's somehow set to legacy? You said you had no internal disk boot option.



Screenshots (not great!) from a HP laptop:

 

Laptop trouble - my drive letters changed?!

(b) is a clean install of Win 10 - for which you can see the entire tutorial in ... the Tutorial section.

Deleting partitions is prompted - see around Step 13/14 of that tutorial.

You can have your HDD in place or not in practice, and if there's no unallocated space on it that should be perfectly ok. Some suggest it's 'safest' to have just the system disk in place, so no partitions end up elsewhere. But if there's no unallocated space on your HDD and you have a full backup of it (e.g. a disk image) you should be perfectly ok.

Given the way you suggest drive letters may have changed, I'm inclined to suggest you have both disks in this instance to avoid any possible confusion.

Basically always think -'what could go wrong, and how can I avoid it, and have a backup if it does?'.

 

Cannot change drive letter

Hello,

I request you to try the steps below:

• Press "Windows" + "R" on the keyboard.
• Type "diskmgmt.msc" and press Enter key.
• Now right click on the drive and select Change drive letter or path.
• Select the drive and click on Change.
• Now select the drive letter and click on OK.

If you have any further queries, feel free to contact us. We will be happy to help you.



Thank you.