Fix: The Drive Where Windows is Installed is locked

"The drive where Windows is installed is locked", is an error that you encounter when trying to restart your system. This usually happens when you try to restart your PC to try to fix another error.

Users find this error particularly burdensome as it denies them access to their system.

What is "The drive where Windows is installed is locked "error?

Unlike most errors, tit drives where Windows is installed is locked the error screen is not identified by an error code. This usually happens when you are trying to repair your Windows 8.1 or Windows 10 operating system via USB stick or DVD.

Causes of error

The main causes of this error are as follows: The Master Boot Record (MBR) file or the Boot Configuration Data (BCD) file may be damaged, Windows system files may be corrupted, there may be several errors on the hard drive, the Trusted Platform Module (TPM) could have been erased or reset or the bitlocker boot agent could have been disabled.

How to fix "The drive where Windows is installed is locked "error?

Although this error is quite annoying, it contains some simple fixes. The following five methods can be very helpful in helping you correct this error. They have been listed in descending order of popularity.

Method 1: perform automatic system repair

The automatic repair utility is available in Windows 8 and Windows 10. This utility could fix The drive where Windows is installed is locked Mistake. To do this, however, you need a real Windows boot DVD / USB.

1. Insert the bootable media into the correct drives and reboot your system.

   

2. When you enter the Windows installation window, click Repair your computer.
3. After that go to Troubleshooting> Auto Repair.
4. Continue with the wizard to complete the problem solving process.

NOTE: If you don't have bootable media and need to create one, do the following: (This shows how to create a bootable USB drive with Windows DiskPart utility

1. Connect the USB key to the USB port on your computer.
2. Press Windows key and R at the same time to open the run dialog, type cmd and press Enter.
3. Select "Run as administrator" from the context menu. This opens a small window with white text on a black background.
4. On the black screen that appears, type diskpart and press Enter. This starts the storage device manager
5. Enter the command "list disk" to display all available storage devices.
6. You can recognize your USB drive by its storage capacity, and it is usually listed as "disk 1". In the system partition, "disk 0" is generally your PC, therefore a hard disk or an SSD in your computer.
7. Depending on the assumption, type the words sel disk and the corresponding number after a space (eg sel disk 1) and press enter
8. Enter the "clean" command to delete all files from the USB.
9. Type "create partition primary" to create a primary partition.
10. Now type "list by" and select the newly created primary partition with "salt by 1".
11. Activate the partition with the "active" command (press Enter after each command)
12. Format the USB with the command "format fs = FAT32 label =" WINDOWSUSB "quick override". This will start formatting and it may take a while.
13. As soon as the process is finished, enter the command "assign" to automatically assign a reader to your USB key.
14. Enter "exit" to close DiskPart, then "exit" again to close the command prompt.
15. To complete the process, simply copy the Windows ISO file to a bootable USB drive.

Method 2: Using the bootrec.exe tool

the bootrec.exe tool is a tool built into Windows. This step also required a real Windows boot DVD / USB. Follow the steps mentioned above if you want to create such a device. The main objective of using this tool is to reconstruct the boot configuration data (BCD) which controls the boot of Windows. As mentioned earlier, when this is faulty, it creates the The drive where Windows is installed is locked Mistake.

1. Restart your computer
2. Insert bootable media into the appropriate device
3. Restart the computer and press any key if prompted.
4. Select the language, time, currency, keyboard and click Next.
5. Choose the operating system to repair and click Next.
6. Now in the system recovery options select the command prompt.
7. On the black screen that appears, type bootrec.exe and press enter. This will start to rebuild the BCD and your system will return to its normal state.

The utility starts automatically. If that doesn't work, try rebuilding it with a different set of commands, as shown below. Before you start, delete the previous BCD.

Alternative method:

1. Restart your computer and insert the bootable media into the appropriate ports
2. Restart the computer again and press R. Click on Troubleshoot and click on Command Prompt.
3. Type the following commands and press enter after each
4. bootrec / FixMbr
5. bootrec / FixBoot
6. bootrec / ScanOs
7. bootrec / RebuildBcd

Again, the utility will automatically start to run. If that doesn't work, we have a few other methods that could potentially fix this problem.

Method 3: Check the disk for errors using the chkdsk command

CHKDSK is a command that you can run in the command prompt to check the logical integrity of the file system. The full name of CHKDSK is actually check the disc. As the name suggests, it is designed to check for errors on the disk and then fix it. One of the many reasons for this problem could be errors on the disc. This command will help us to get rid of these errors. This is yet another method that requires bootable media

1. Insert the bootable media into the correct drives on your system and reboot your system.
2. Select Repair your computer> Troubleshoot> Advanced options> Command Prompt.

   

3. On the black screen that appears, type chkdsk C: / R or chkdsk C: / F and hit enter. Here, C is the drive on which Windows is installed. If installed on another drive (say D), change the command
4. 

5. Type exit and press Enter to exit the command prompt. After that restart your system.

This will remove any errors on the disk. After restarting your system, check if the error reappears. If this persists, see the solutions below to help you resolve your issue.

Method 4: Use System File Checker (SFC) to Repair Damaged Files

System File Checker (SFC) is a Windows utility that allows users to check for corruption in Windows system files and restore corrupted files.

1. Open the command prompt window by typing cmd in the Windows search bar
2. On the black screen that appears, type sfc / scannow and hit enter.
4. 
5. Now this will start to search for corrupt or missing files in your system. He will also correct these errors.
6. Once done, restart your system.

This will delete all damaged files and thus help to fix the problem. We have yet another method for you if that doesn't work.

Method 5: use diskpart

The drive where Windows is installed is locked an error can also occur if its primary hard drive partition is no longer configured as an active partition. In this case, set your primary hard drive partition as the active partition.

1. Insert Windows installation disc or recovery media into your computer
2. Restart your computer and boot it from the media
3. Once you are in System Recovery Options (for Vista or 7 systems) or Troubleshooting (for Windows 8 and 8.1), click Command Prompt.
4. In the command prompt, type diskpart without quotes and hit enter
5. Type select list 0 and press Enter. 0 is the number of the disk on which Windows is installed. For a complete list of available disks on your computer, type list disk.
6. Now type list partition and press enter. After this type, select partition 1, where 1 is your primary disk position. Type active and press enter.
7. Restart your computer

This will set your primary active partition to one.

Conclusion

This error can be exasperating because it normally occurs when you try to correct another error. I hope the methods listed above have helped you to solve this problem.

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