Windows 10: System Drive Hidden - Unable to Unhide - Can't Boot PC - Help Please?

Hello,

Using diskpart and list vol my hard drives display and under status they all state healthy. Volume 1 is my boot drive. Under info the boot drive is listed as hidden not system.

I tried this:

http://www.justreadout.com/2014/12/h...rive-from.html


And was unable to unhide the system drive though I could change the letter. I am currently unable to boot this system as the hidden system drive is not appearing under UEFI and if I choose legacy it does appear but doesn't boot.

How can I unhide the drive and make Windows recognize it as the system drive? I am able to get to a command prompt no problem, as you can see. Thank you!

Frank

:)

 

D drive became hidden after upgrading from win7 to win 10

Hi,

after upgrading my system from win 7 to win 10.. D drive became hidden. When I checked in disk management option, C drive is showing as boot partition and D is showing as system and active partition. Anyhow, one option is there to unhide the drive. Just
wondering how it became hidden. Can anyone please let me know if I made any mistake while upgrading which caused this?

 

Cannot unhide Library folder

I have moved my documents and pictures from my C drive to a Libraries folder on my E Drive using the "Properties" Location tab.

Under the Properties General tab my documents have the Hidden attribute unchecked, but my pictures have the Hidden attribute checked and greyed out.

In my Libraries folder on Drive E my documents are visible but my pictures folder is hidden. Both folders are listed under Quick access.

I am unable to unhide my pictures folder. I have tried control panel, the properties tab, and running CMD as administrator with attrib -h.

None of these work.

Does anyone know how I might unhide the pictures file or diagnose what is wrong?

 

I suggest you use Macrium Reflect (free)'s boot disk and use their Fix boot utility, assuming your PC was previously booting ok and your disk drive is ok.

If that doesn't work you could try using a 3rd party partition manager boot disk and boot your PC from that. You may be able to see what's going on more easily.

What led to this state of affairs? Did your PC suddenly fail to boot? Were you making some partitioning changes? Was your PC booting correctly previously, then stopped after some event or action?

If all else fails and
- your disk is ok
- you have a valid Windows partition

Create a disk image of your system partitions
Clean install Win 10
Replace the Windows partition with that from your image
Run startup repair

 

This is driving me crazy. I'd appreciate any help. I'm new to WIndows 10. I jumped right from Windows 7 (which I knew very well) from an old PC to Windows 10 with a new (to me) pc.

The Windows 10 pc that I have came with a conventional 1 tb WD drive with no OS installed. The first thing I did was take it out and put in a Samsung 850 EVO SATA M.2 1 TB.

I never had a need to go to the bios at the time as I just installed Windows 10 right to it from the install DVD I created and all went well without a need to do anything else. Therefore I don't know if the bios was set to legacy or UEFI though I suspect it was set to legacy because at the moment if I set it to UEFI the SSD drive isn't listed as a choice. Right? Wrong?

If I set the bios to legacy the SSD is listed as a choice but I'm getting the reboot and select proper boot device error, which is also part of the problem here. I'd like to address that issue if possible for that matter.

If you can help me out at all I'd appreciate it.

Ideally, what I would like to have occur, is to somehow "fix" this SSD without losing the data even if I have to go through a Rube Goldberg like experience.

For example, I'd be fine with plugging in that WD drive I mentioned, temp installing Windows 10 to it, and with a full working OS installed attempting to fix whatever is wrong with the SSD drive.

Would that be an option? I haven't tried yet, but if I pick legacy or UEFI to do that and the original SSD drive that I want to fix had Windows 10 installed the other way would Windows still see it?

If that is an option can you suggest any programs or anything else that might help fix the SSD drive if I got Windows running temporarily from an alternate drive?

I also am perfectly willing to try your suggestion but don't quite understand. I get to back up the SSD drive. Clean install Win 10. I'm with you up to that point.

When you say replace the Windows partition with that from your image are you saying once I clean install Win 10 and get it up and running directly "overlay" the disk image over it (meaning erasing the clean install completely) and then run startup repair once I do that?

If not can you try and be a little more specific? As I said I'm relatively new to the WIndows 10 environment but greatly appreciate your assistance and would welcome it further. Thank you.

 

For about two days I kept getting the blue screen bad pool caller error and instead of seeking help here I decided to fix it myself. This is where the problems started.

I made a Windows 10 Repair disc not knowing that the original Windows 10 install DVD I had would have worked. I booted it up and tried start up repair and it told me it wasn't successful. Before I did this within Windows 10 I selected the booting from the DVD drive option so it would happen automatically.

Once I tried to get back into Windows for some reason now the BIOS won't recognize my boot SSD, which is a Samsung 850 EVO 1 TB. It "sees" it in the legacy area, but not in UEFI.

If I try to boot from it in the legacy area that's when I get the reboot and select proper boot device error.

The only HD listed for me to choose in the UEFI area is another internal HD that isn't the boot drive. If I select that one all that happens is the repair screen comes up eventually. I don't get the select proper boot device error.

As I said, when I originally installed Windows 10 to this system I don't know for certain if the bios was set to legacy or UEFI as I didn't look and didn't see a need to at the time. I wasn't even aware of UEFI in general at the time being used to Windows 7.

All I know is right now under UEFI the SSD isn't listed as an option whether it would have been listed at one time or not and under legacy if I select it I get the reboot and select proper boot device error.

This is the entire situation. What would you suggest if the objective is to somehow get the SSD working again without losing any data. Again, I am willing to do just about anything.

Thanks for your help, I greatly appreciate it.

 

Update so far.

I tried this, How to Fix Reboot and Select Proper Boot Device - Appuals.com

and in diskpart, at the last step, when I typed in active I got the selected disk is not a fixed MBR disk. The active command can only be used on fixed MBR disks.

Just wondering if that helps to pinpoint my issue any better. Thanks. Trying to give you as much info as possible. I value your time and help.

 

Hi, the easiest approach in this somewhat complicated scenario would be to reinstall Win 10 to your SSD, with no other disks connected.

Now, before you posted here, was your PC running ok with the SSD?

What would you need to recover from your SSD? Just data? Do you have many programs installed on it? What would you lose by reinstalling?

What is missing from the story (forgive me if I'm wrong) is - if your PC was running with the SSD, what went wrong to stop it doing so?

(Leave my suggestion at the end of #2 aside for the moment - we can come back to that).

- suggests your SSD may be formatted as UEFI/GPT

Partition layout of your SSD
So, boot from your Macrium Reflect disk, and we're looking for sthg like this:




Please take a photo of that and post it like a screenshot.

(As you're unsure whether you created your SSD with legacy or UEFI set, the partition layout should tell me which).

 

Hi,

By some miracle I was able to load the Macrium Reboot Disk successfully on the PC. I say that because based on all that's transpired so far the pessimist in me assumed it wouldn't work.

However it did. For technical reasons I am unable to generate a picture for you but I can accurately describe what I see using your screen shot as a model.

First I tried the boot repair in Macrium and it didn't work.

On the Samsung SSD 850 EVO mSata 1 TB there are three partitions where you have five. It is labeled as GPT Disk 1 with a bunch of letters and numbers after it just as in your example, though of course mine are different.

They are labeled 1 is none, unformatted primary. 128.0MB used and free

2 is Boot Drive (None) <--- is that significant....the none? , NTFS Primary, 930.95 total, 848.02 used. The graphical bar is RED, not blue. Is that a signal to what the issue might be?

3 is labeled as none, NTFS primary, 348.9MB used and 450.0 mb total.

As well, where in your example there are no checks in the boxes in the lower right corner on mine each of the three partitions 1, 2, 3, has a check in the box in the lower right corner.

Since I was able to get into this program and can, can I possibly get this drive going somehow? I looked very carefully and the only differences I see between your example and what I can see is the number of partitions and that the Boot Drive Primary graphic bar is RED, not blue. The other two, as well as the other HD's present, are all blue.

Is that a clue? Blue's Clues??

Lastly, under details for the Boot Drive Partition 2 that has everything on it it states File System NTFS, Free Space 89.92 GB total size 930.95 GB, start sector 264,192 end sector 1,952,600,063

 

I didn't read the other posts as I'm in quick it mode, but I know gparted is free, x86 and x64 compatible and can unhide stuff. There is something potentially better tho. are you UEFI or BIOS? If you can boot into a PE windows (you can download them - probably better to get Hiren's Boot CD though) then you can run EasyUEFI or EasyBCD - or​ this dude has killer ill wit it type dank memes (no not really) n jazz shizz -- Everyone and there mother should check out this dude, specially dual booters.. literally automatic BCDedit repair click of button, dual boot repair, opps i deleted BCD fixes and all boyans

EDIT: inclusion of 'or'

 

Hello. Ok update I'm in the process of backing up the current Windows installation that won't boot because I figure I will have to or at least should do that anyway. I'm using EaseUS to do so (made the boot disk ok) because I have a previous EaseUS backup from about 2 months ago, which was my last backup unfortunately...ouch.

My first choice, obviously, would be to get the current Windows install that won't boot working somehow.

Any chance of doing that?

Would it be possible to that using one of your suggestions from earlier somehow:

If all else fails and
- your disk is ok
- you have a valid Windows partition

Create a disk image of your system partitions
Clean install Win 10
Replace the Windows partition with that from your image
Run startup repair

Right now I'm doing the disk image thing and downloading the latest Win 10 media create.

 

My second choice, but far less desirable one, is to restore the previous EaseUS back up I made back on March 19th and then from the current back up and much time fiddling and downloading recreate the last two months.

Any barriers to doing that? I'm going to see where the SSD drive shows (legacy or UEFI or both) in the bios after I format it and before I do anything further.

My current thinking is to pick UEFI if that's possible but if the original backup I made in March was in legacy would it restore properly?

I could always switch back to legacy if that's the case and restore the original backup a second time but that would take extra hours that I could spend starting on this if I could ever get a working restore of any kind up and running.

So this is the latest update on my end. I'd welcome and appreciate your current suggestions based on what I've just written.

Thank you.

Frank

 

Your drive shows GPT layout, which indicates it is probably UEFI not BIOS (UEFI uses GPT and BIOS can use either GPT or MBR, but most often MBR). You should be able to proceed with repairs on the tentative understanding that you want UEFI (and probably "UEFI only" boot mode, for simplicity's sake). Dalchina's suggestion to start over with a clean install with only the desired boot/system drive attached is probably the easiest path to speedy resolution, if you can stand the pain of a reinstall. If you make an image backup of the previous environment beforehand, you can always mount it to recover missing files and stuff later on, if you need anything from that environment.
HTH,
--Ed--

 

Hi, a picture would make this a lot clearer, and save time - I've tried to understand what you see.

GPT disk

Partition 1: 128Mb - not significant.
Partition 2: rather full Windows partition (that's why the bar is red- full)
Partition 3: 450Mb Recovery partition.

If this was a UEFI installation you are missing two partitions
namely
- the 16 Mb System partition
- the EFI partition.

I therefore suspect this was a legacy BIOS installation. That lines up with

- I find it a bit surprising that your new PC's BIOS was not set to use UEFI.

You said

- in what way didn't it work- can you be more precise?

=========================================================
Again, here's what I suggest.

Make sure you have a disk image of your current Windows partition.
Configure your BIOS for UEFI and make sure AHCI is enabled (better performance with SSDs).

Clean install the same version of Windows, making sure you delete all existing partitions, and that the Windows partition you create is large enough for your existing one.
Check it boots.

Replace the newly created Windows partition with that from your image.

Run Startup Repair.

See if it boots.

Now what don't know here is this:
This means taking a Windows partition from a legacy Bios partition structure and placing it in a UEFI configuration.

I can't guarantee that will work, but don't know why it wouldn't.

The fall back is to repeat the above, but use legacy BIOS throughout.

 

Well the latest and greatest update is that I backed up the installation that wouldn't boot and checked it to make sure it was ok. Using the EaseUS boot disk each of those operations was done (had to be done that way as the boot disk doesn't have a verify / validate function while actually performing the back up) separately and took about 7 hours each.

I can only do this so fast as the rest of my life can't stop to tend to this 24/7 as much as I'd like to.

Presently the PC is restoring the back up I made over the new partition the new install made. Crossing fingers.

At least I have the data all backed up properly. While not looking forward to it by any means, I can at least get everything to the way it was that way.

I did what you said and unplugged the two 8 TB drives when I fresh installed so I know for a fact 100% of Windows is on the SSD as it is literally impossible for that not to be the case.

As well, I know for a fact this current installation is definitely UEFI.

I'll let you know if this reinstall actually works.

One last question while I'm waiting though.

Assuming this ever happens again, if I regularly back up my HD and have a back up that's....for example....4 days old from the date of disaster, I can simply format the hard drive and reinstall that back up and continue where I left off no matter what, correct?

Thanks again. I can't wait to get this PC to the way it was one way or the other and put this behind me. What an annoyance!