Windows 10: unlock hard drive

I just installed w10 and I love it!!!!!!!!!!!! I have a dell laptop with a ssd and it works fine. the problem is my second harddrive which is connected a usb and it has all my data on it, except it is locked and cannot edit a file and save the file. We will call that #2, #1 works fine, I can edit and save, #2 I can view but no edit and save. I use photoshop and when I go to save it states that the file is locked. #2 is partitioned into 3 drives and all drives act the same. everything worked on win 7 in the same configuration.
So with my whiz bang mentality I say the drive is locked. But I do not know how to unlock it !!! can anybody help me!!!
I am a old senior teckky and things have to be laid out step by step. Is there a program I can download to unlock the HD,??? or do I have to do it the old fashion way, step by step

TIA
Kas

:)

 

Unlocking Hard drive

Hi Marty,

To help you with this, follow the troubleshooting steps in this
link. Refer to the three methods.

To answer your questions:

• We can try to enable BitLocker to encrypt your hard drive and then decrypt it later.
• BitLocker is what we recommend. You may use third-party software at your discretion.

Let us know how it goes.

Regards.

 

Unlocking Hard drive

I am running Windows 10 Pro 64 bit Anniversary Edition. I have 32 GB of memory and a 512 SSD as my boot Drive. Periodically my system will lock up and I don't know why. I have System Repair and System Image disks BUT when I have tried to use them to recover
, I get the message that my C drive is locked by third party software. I haven't installed anything lately - and that's just it- this problem has just started recently. I have updated and run virus scans using Norton Internet Security and malware scans
using Malwarebytes - and the scans are clean.

When I DO put a repair disk in, I CAN access Troubleshooting and Advanced options. I AM able to access the Command Prompt and use the commands bootrec/RebuildBcd, bootrec/fixMbr and bootrec/fixboot. Windows does do Diagnostic scanning and eventually I
can boot into my OS. Is there an easier way so I don't have to keep going through this process?

I actually have 2 questions.

1.) Would BitLocker solve this problem? and /or

2.) Does Microsoft offer or recommend software that can unlock hard drives?

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Marty

 

Check these threads - this is an emerging issue with no good solution yet.

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/w...6-1f0d7792e60b




http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/w...1-7790aec7b2f3




http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/w...c-cc3c510d5f26

 

I am new to the forum and found this post and it seems to fit what is happening to me, if i am wrong and there is a better thread i am sorry in advance for any inconvenience.

I am having a similar issue it seems. my system is less than one week old at this point and i dont even have everything installed on it and tweaked out the way i want yet, but i decided to go ahead and set up the built in windows back up software (which i have never had any faith in what so ever, and its situations like this that re-enforce that mistrust). I went through the process and even told it to store a drive image just to be extra safe (or so i thought). The system did what it needed to do, made its backup and sat waiting for me to move on about my business. I left the system for about an hour and when i came back the system had 'shut down' or 'gone to sleep' per my power options i had active at the time i thought. so i rebooted and the system tells me to input a valid boot disk and press a key. no dice. so i throw in my windows 10 pro x64 install disk (100% new pc & parts and all that) and attempt to do a recovery and it prompts me with the "drive locked, please unlock and try rebooting" or however it words it.

my setup was this before i turned on the backup...
C: Transcend 512GB SATA III MTS800 M.2 SSD (Primary OS, one partition NTFS)
D: Mushkin Enhanced Reactor 2.5 1TB SATA III SSD MKNSSDRE1TB (Secondary drive for programs and games, one partition NTFS)
E: Seagate Baracuda 7200-12 9SL154 - 241 1TB HDD (out of an old '09 27" iMac that received replacement HDD's due to a recal) (Tertiary drive specifically for backups of windows 10 for situations exactly like this! One partition NTFS)

After the restore point and OS image file was created...
C: Transcend 512GB SATA III MTS800 M.2 SSD (Primary OS, one partition NTFS)
D: Mushkin Enhanced Reactor 2.5 1TB SATA III SSD MKNSSDRE1TB (Secondary drive for programs and games, one partition NTFS)
E: Seagate Baracuda 7200-12 9SL154 - 241 1TB HDD (Tertiary drive specifically for backups of windows 10 for situations exactly like this! TWO partitions both NTFS :a. 400GB for backups, b. 600GB for 'general use')

***When i go into my MB's Bios the M.2 drive does NOT show up at all! however the other two drives show up just fine with no issues at all. I have a Asus Rampage VIII Extreme MB w/ skylake 6700K @ base clock. and as i said when i boot to my windows install disk and attempt to repair the C drive it tells me that the drive is locked and to unlock it and try again.
On my windows 10 install disk i can boot from it successfully to the install menus.
@@@@please keep in mine that i have NOT removed any drives at this point@@@
***If i choose the recovery link at the bottom of the first install menu then 'troubleshoot' then, 'reset this PC' option... 'keep my files' i receive """The drive where windows is installed is locekd. Unlock the drive and try again."""
***If i choose to remove everything i receive """Unable to reset your PC. A required drive partition is missing.


***If i attempt a system restore i receive an error... "To use system restore, you must specify which windows installation to restore. restart this computer, select an operating system and then select system restore" I would attempt this but the OS drive is what is not showing up so i cant even try a system restore to begin with.
***i CAN attempt to re-image my drive with the backup image i made just before this happened, however when i am given the option to select the drive the C drive is not showing up at all and the D drive is now showing up as drive 0 (C) with the appropriate size of 931.51GB.
***If i select startup repair it reboots the system and brings me back into the windows install menus.

Before i did any of this my system was stable and running at as close to 100% as possible, all drivers and needed SW installed and running optimally.


So, my question after all that BG info is this.... HOW do i actually unlock the drive without being able to boot INTO windows because the windows partition is the one that is locked? can i do it through the command prompt somehow? and if so, can someone tell me how to do it?
OR is my SSD most likely fried for some strange reason and i need to start an RMA ASAP?


P.S. i have a late '13 27" imac that had 7 pro 64 on it until recently when i upgraded it to 10 pro 64 and i have had NO issues with it and the 3 ext drives i have plugged into it and my usb3.0 hub.

 

Thanks God I had my second disk disconnected while upgrading to Windows 10! If you cannot do anything from Windows, then I would try a Live CD with a partition utility (Linux CDs usually have have GParted) and see if I could unlock the drive from there. I hadn't have this issue (knock on wood), so I don't know if you can do anything about it, just try.

If you boot with Windows 10 DVD-ROM, you could try to unlock the disk with diskpart. Read carefully the commands so as not to make any damage and lose data. I am not sure, but if you execute the following command you can test the disk and fix errors. It will say the drive is locked and ask you to unlock, do it.

chkdsk c: /f

Where C is your primary disk. If it works, repeat the command for the other disks (D, E or whatever they are).

PS: To start the command prompt press SHIFT+F10 at the Windows Setup screen.

 

thanks for the idea. but the big issue here is that my primary OS... C: does not even show up in my MB bios. my D: (games and app drive) is showing up as C:. if i go to command prompt with the help of the windows install disk go to C: and pull up a dir, it shows only 2 folders GOG and SteamLibrary, which were the two folders that were on my D: drive... E has my DESKTOP-1RAS6S0, file history, and windowsimagebackup folders. X: however is the 500MB drive that windows requires for whatever reason that you cant get rid of. the rest of drives B: and E-W and Z are not registered in the drive map

So the short of all that is that if i /F my C drive as listed, that is actually my physical D drive.

 

Disconnect the SATA and power cable from all your drives and let your computer off for some minutes. Then connect them back making sure that your primary drive is first (connected at SATA 0). Enter BIOS, confirm that all drives are detected, then change boot priority so your primary hard disk is first on the list of hard disks. Then try to fix them using the DVD-ROM.

It happens sometimes when static electricity affects the data signals and a drive cannot be detected properly. Leaving it unconnected for some minutes removes this electricity and the drive works properly again.

 

yes, that is something that i tried a short while ago. it is how i was able to verify that the drives that were showing up were the proper ones that i was listing... a friend of mine came over and he removed power completely from the system as well as re-seated the M.2 SSD.... and it showed up. it has done it two times since, and each time i have re-seated the m.2 and un-plugged the system from power and then tried to boot and it shows up.

this is a weird bug if you ask me. I am thinking its either something to do with the SSD or MB's FW's. Since every single part is brand new and less than 2 weeks old, i am going to return the SSD and go with a samsung evo m.2 instead i think.
thanks for the help. :~)