First off sorry for not putting a comment here originally the comment box doesnt rendered properly in Safari, just comes up with a progress bar...anyway at another PC Now with IE 8

Ok following are the steps I took to setup Win 8 Pro RTM

1. Created Windows 8 Pro RTM USB Boot image

Disks

Disk 0 SATA (Data drive docs and files)-  2 TB Seagate

Disk 1 SATA (OS, Apps, Software Installs) - 2 TB Seagate

Disk 2 OCZ Agility3 (Games) - 128 GB SSD

1. Disabled disk 0 and 2 to insure win 8 system partition created on Disk 1 - previously issue with Win 7
2. Installed OS - Everything booted up fine
3. Re-Enabled Disk 0 and Disk 2 - Everything fine
4. Installed VS2008 + SP, VS 2010 + SP, VS 2012
5. Installed SQL 2012 Developer
6. Enabled Win8 Hyper-V - troubles began -  couldn't update - after a couple reboots ended up with the Windows 8 blue logo - had to refresh
7. Refresh worked - However didnt disable Disk 0 and Disk 2 for the Refresh
8. Installed Windows Media Centre - ended up paying for key as the free key didn't work - suspect possible issue with the feature activation on the Australian Windows Store
9. Installed Splastop Desktop windows 8
10. Installed Office 2010
11. Trusted the PC
12. Installed Hyper-V again - troubles again couldn't boot - same blue windows 8 logo screen this time unable to Refresh repair.
13. Attempted restart from USB Boot image. I can get to repair screen however cant move forward from this point as it says the drive is locked.

 Ive no idea how to unlock in Windows 8, I can probably do this from the command prompt, assuming its possible to unlock from there, just dont know how to do it, which is what I need help with please.

At this stage if I can get Win 8 refreshed(without file loss) I plan is to copy my software files back to my Data Drive and then do a fresh install of Windows 7, which works well. To be honest little disappointed with the new Frankenstein Win8 Classic/RT experience. Love the fact that Hyper-V is available in 8 (if it works) but might wait for SP1 and possibly a Start Button/Orb on the Desktop

Anyway any help in unlocking my drive would be greatly appreciate.

Cheers

Geoff

• Edited by Geoff Fane Monday, October 29, 2012 7:50 AM Typo

What is the complete error message?

Suggestions for asking a question on help forums
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/555375

I too am trying to run a refresh on Win8 Pro.  It restarts the PC and then allows me to choose refresh or reset or advanced options.  I choose refresh and then a simple one line message saying Your drive is locked, cannot refresh

I too am trying to run a refresh on Win8 Pro.  It restarts the PC and then allows me to choose refresh or reset or advanced options.  I choose refresh and then a simple one line message saying Your drive is locked, cannot refresh

Refresh worked the first time for me after a number of re-starts. No more F8 or Shift + F8 for Safe Mode, makes life pretty hard going. I just want the drive unlocked now so I can move my data off and move back to Win7. Im sure for WinRT on a tablet things will be great, but Pro is a bit painful at the moment, still early days so hopefully these issues will be ironed out. Was also a little peeved about WMC my Elgato TV device doesnt work with WMC 8 yet, which is another reason to head back to 7 until thats sor

Someone on another thread suggested uninstalling any 3rd party anti-virus software.  Worked for a few folks over there, so thought I'd post it.  I uninstalled McAfee, but I didn't get as lucky :(

Thanks WakaFlakaFlame that is exactly the screenshot I have on my PC at the moment.

I'm going to try this post which I just found and will report back success, looks to be exactly what I was asking for to resolve this headache.

http://www.boyans.net/RepairWindows/The_drive_where_Windows_is_installed_is_locked.html

Back soon....Win8 a book by Mary Shelley :)

OK well I dont think that fixed my issue however it did give me a really good insight into what was happening. As I said in my first post I had disabled Disk0 and 2. When I went to the command prompt and looked at the drive mappings assigned I realised that enabling Disk0 and 2 made it so Disk1 the drive I installed the OS on ended up being G: So disabled Disk0 and Disk2 again. Now when I get back to the repair option (with USB Key) Windows Repair sees Disk1 as the C Drive and the Refresh works. Its a pity that the Repair isnt smart enough to look on other disks to see where the OS has actually been installed. Really Microsoft if you are going to remove F8 to get to safe mode the least you could do would be to make your repair utilities smart enough to check where the OS is loaded or at least ask which drive you installed the OS on.

Lesson learned I guess is make sure Disk0 is where you install your OS, which for most people will be the case, still annoying that the repair utility is so dumb. I did these chops and changes with Disks in Win7 because my SSD drive always had issues booting first.

Oh well all is good...next steps move my files off, clean up boot drive then re-install Win7 where WMC still works with my Elgato Netstream DTT and Australian Free to air TV and doesnt cost 9 bucks to install.

• Marked as answer by Geoff Fane Monday, October 29, 2012 8:06 PM
• Edited by Geoff Fane Monday, October 29, 2012 8:09 PM Work in-line style removed

Awesome thanks Geoff for looking into this!  Sorry to hear it didn't fix your problem, pry won't fix mine either lol. 

I'm not as tech savy as you, would you mind telling what command prompts I need to enter to see my drive mappings and how to enable/disable them?

Awesome thanks Geoff for looking into this!  Sorry to hear it didn't fix your problem, pry won't fix mine either lol. 

I'm not as tech savy as you, would you mind telling what command prompts I need to enter to see my drive mappings and how to enable/disable them?

Hi Waka,

Let me see if I can explain. Ill say right up front there are certainly going to people on this forum who understand this a much better than I do, so if I get something wrong hopefully one of them will jump in to explain a little better.

Essentially your Physical hard disk drives, I have three can be broken up by logical partitions. When you install Windows it creates a small logical partition called System Reserved this logical partition of drive space is hidden on your hard disk (you cant browse the files), but contains some of the files needed to boot windows and also some software utilities to try and fix things when they go wrong.

Let me say its certainly possible that your physical disk has errors, sometimes so bad that its a write off. If you look through that link I posted before the guy mentions doing a chkdsk (Check Disk utility), which is a good idea. He also goes on to mention virus checking which could be another issue.

For me and possibly for you the drive was fine no errors, Windows Repair/Refresh couldnt find the drive I installed Widows onto. At least it couldnt find it the second time I attempted to Refresh and this could be your issue also

This is how I had things setup when I originally installed Win8

Basically I physically removed the drive cable to insure Windows could not see Disk 0 or Disk 2 (in grey). This means Windows has to install its hidden System Partition and Windows itself on the only drive available to it Disk 1. After installing Windows I then reattached Disk 0 and Disk 2, all good.

Windows then assigns logical drive letters, to your logical partitions not the hidden partition. The drive you installed windows on becomes the C, so for me after attaching the two other drives I get: Disk 1 assigned C: Disk 0 assigned D: and Disk 2 assigned E:.

When I installed the Win 8 Hyper-V, and things started going wrong  I had to use my Windows install disks (my case a USB Key) to Repair things I didnt disable the drives as Id done when I originally installed. This means when Repair utility runs it assigns logical drive letters Disk 1 assigned D: Disk 0 assigned C: and Disk 2 assigned E: (0,1,2). For some reason the first time the repair utility fixed things for me it found the drive Id installed Windows Disk 1, the second time it failed it couldnt.

To fix my issue I disabled Drive 0 and 2 again and ran the repair this time the Repair utility defiantly looks at the correct drive I installed Windows on Disk 1 and fixes things up.

My guess is that in some cases people install Win8, then go buy and add a second hard disk to their PC. Disk 0, 1 and 2 assignments are set by the order the drive cables are connected to your hard disk, and can also be changed in some PC BIOS settings, I think. So when things go wrong and the repair runs the first drive it sees isnt the one with the System Partition or where Windows is installed. So if you do have other drives attached that you are you could physically drive cables to other drives (make sure PC is OFF J) and then try the repair CD/USB.

As far as figuring out what is going on at the command line all I did was type drive letters and realised what was going on. There use to be a utility called FDISK http://support.microsoft.com/?scid=kb%3Ben-us%3B255867&x=17&y=15&wa=wsignin1.0 which would display the physical and logical settings, Im not sure what command line you type to display this information in the recovery; Id certainly like to know.

Waka, sorry for a really long post mate, hopefully its not all totally wrong. So suggestions:  run chkdsk at the command prompt and try the other suggestions on the link I previously posted. If you have added a second drive, or if you have more than one drive disconnect all but the one Win8 was installed on, and then run the Repair/Refresh utility, this worked fo

Try the automatic repair option instead.

I was also getting drive locked error trying refresh so that didn't work but using automatic repair option it did work and refreshed my pc!

+1 for daviangel.  Had "Drive Locked" error when attempting Refresh but Advanced>Automatic Repair worked like a charm.  Saved me a re-install!

I am seeing the same symptoms but the auto-recovery isn't working for me. It just complains that it couldn't fix the issue and I get pushed back to the recovery menu.

I've tried running full diagnostics against my hardware - everything checks out fine.

I must add that my PC was fine until I updated to Win8 Pro, which had crashed twice in the first week and exactly one week after the install is when a normal reboot turned into this problem.

I'm about to try a full re-install of the regular win8 from USB and hope that I can get back to a stable state.

• Proposed as answer by Drumsetman Wednesday, June 12, 2013 1:31 AM
• Unproposed as answer by Drumsetman Wednesday, June 12, 2013 1:31 AM

Hey guys I know this thread is a year old but I actually found a solution to the locked drive situation. At least this worked for me. Instead of booting into the windows 8 iso or loader I pressed F8 and then pressed F10 after the first option screen. There was a similar option to refresh my pc there and I clicked that one, I was then able to Refresh my PC from there. 

Hammer F2 key or whatever to open your Bios settings. Change boot option from secure uefi to legacy. Should work.