Windows 10: Please help me save my Hard Drive.

I am somewhat knowledgeable about computers to about an intermediate level. Just enough to get myself into trouble. I don't usually reach out for help but I'm at a critical point and might lose my HD.

Long story but I will try to be brief. So I have a Dell 8300 XPS that I bought back in 2011. I recently bought a graphics card and was having trouble getting the GPU to work. My monitors would go into sleep mode when plugged into the new GPU. I was trying many different things including going into Bios to try to get the computer to recognize the new GPU. I think due to it being a Dell I have limited access in Bios and was unable to fix the problem. This is not the problem I need fixed.

My problem is that I removed the cmos battery on my motherboard to try to rest bios. (probably bad advice from the internet). When replaced, the computer wouldn't boot and the only thing showing was a black screen with "cannot boot windows" (or something to that effect) at the top left side. I could still access Bios and ran a full system scan and everything came back fine.

I figured that I needed to reload Windows 10 and everything would be fine. I was able to download Windows 10 to a jump drive off another computer and load the Usb drive first through bios. This worked and I reset up Windows. When the desktop came up it is not the original desktop. It seems to be running like a new computer with a blank desktop. My files, games, pictures are all not read. I checked the hard drive under properties and it shows only 12gb of space. I have two 500 gb hds in the machine that were working fine before this happened. Device Manager still sees both drives but when I look in Disk Management it shows a large portion of Hd 0 as unallocated and Hd 1 as unknown, uninitialized and unallocated. It seem like my HDs are partitioned and the computer only reads one side. I could be wrong.

While I was troubleshooting GPU problem I had to do several hard shutdowns because I didn't have a screen. I don't know if this corrupted a boot registry.

I feel I'm at a crossroads and need some direction. Is my file directory corrupt and need to be restored? When I tried to research an answer it looks pretty serious because I don't feel comfortable with redoing the directory. Did I make things worse by loading Windows? Please help. Thanks

:)

 

Help with external hard drive

Hi Debbra,

Welcome to Microsoft Community.

I appreciate your interest in windows 10 and also for trying the troubleshooting steps to fix the issue. I understand the inconvenience you faced. I will certainly help you with this.

I would suggest you to plug in hard drive then check in disk management you can see the drive or not.

Follow the steps to check Drive in Disk Management.

• 
  Go to the Control Panel then click on the
  Administrative Tools. .
  
• 
  Under the Administrative Tool Click on Computer Management.
  
• 
  Click on Disk Management and check the External Hard Drive.
  

Also check in BIOS whether External Hard Drive is listed or not.

For help with the BIOS settings, refer to the computer manual or contact the manufacturer.

If it doesn’t work then, I would suggest you to update BIOS for updating BIOS contact Lenovo Support.

Follow the link:

http://support.lenovo.com/in/hi/

Disclaimer :

Modifying BIOS/complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) settings incorrectly can cause serious problems that may prevent your computer from booting properly. Microsoft cannot guarantee that any problems resulting from the configuring of BIOS/CMOS settings
can be solved. Modifications of the settings are at your own risk.

Hope this information is helpful. Please do let us know if you need further assistance, we’ll be glad to assist you.

Thanks.

 

Overclock your hard drive!!!

Heres a much easier hack that I realized quite a few years ago that really does work!

REQUIREMENTS:

• Hard drive with molex power connection.
• PSU with more than 1 strand that has molex plugs on it.
• Wire strippers, soldering iron if you're fancy, electrical tape if you're not.

STEPS:

• Take the strand of connectors from your PSU, and decide which one will be the donator for this overclocking adventure.
• Cut the yellow and orange cables, then twist them together.
• Find the power connector you've chosen as the overclocking connector, and release the orange cable from the connector. Now use your preferred method to bind them together, then place it back together.
• Plug in a drive and feel the speed!

Congratulations! You've just overclocked your hard drive!

 

External Hard Drive

Hi John,

We suggest that you try the troubleshooting steps below:

• Open your External Hard Drive file in File Explorer.
• Type the name of the file you want to search on the search box and click Enter.

The file will show up in Search Results and you will be able to move it to the correct folder.

Let us know if you need further help.