Surface 2 Locked Drive

Question

Hi,

My daughter's Surface 2 crashed and I followed the instructions on the Microsoft website to create a USB recovery drive. Now we can start the Surface, but when we select Refresh, we get the message "The drive where Windows is installed in locked. Unlock the drive and try again." 

Please please tell me there is a solution for this that doesn't require a full reset of her Surface! Of course, she has work that hasn't been backed up, the main thing being a group assignment, of which she has the only copy on her Surface. It's bad enough to lose your own work, much worse to lose other people's work.

Cheers,

Suzy

Answer 1

Hi Suzy,

Since you are unable to boot the computer and it is stuck at the login screen, you may have to create a bootable Windows 8 installation media and then perform an Automatic Repair. To create a Windows 8 bootable disk/media, please refer to the article given below and follow the instructions given in it:

Create installation media for Windows 8

Once after creating the installation disc, you may boot the computer from the disc that you have just created and then follow the instructions given below to perform an Automatic Repair of Windows 8.

Method 1: Perform an Automatic Repair of Windows 8 using the installation media.

a)       Contact the computer manufacturer to change the boot order of the computer. You will have to change the boot device to CD/DVD drive and then boot from the Windows 8 installation disc.

b)       In the “Windows Setup” dialog box that appears, set the Time and currency format, Keyboard or input method and the language to install and then click “Next”.

c)       Click on “Repair your computer” from the lower left corner.

d)       From the “Choose an option screen”, click on “Troubleshoot”.

e)       Click “Advanced Options” in the “Troubleshoot” screen.

f)        In the “Advanced Options” screen, click “Automatic Repair”.

g)       Follow the on-screen instructions to complete the Automatic Repair.

Method 2

If issue persists, follow the steps mentioned below and try to rebuild the boot configuration Data (BCD).

Note: If the computer is newly purchased, then it would be best to get in touch with the computer manufacturer to get this fixed. (If it's within the warranty period).

Here are some steps that might help fix this issue.

I would suggest you to rebuild the BCD (Boot Configuration Data) from Command prompt and check if that helps.

1. Insert the Windows 8 installation media and boot the computer using the disc.

Note: You need to check the computer manual on how to set CD/DVD drive as the first boot device in the BIOS.

2. Once you boot using the Windows installation disc, on the Windows 8 installation window, click on Repair your computer.
3. Click on Troubleshoot and in the Advanced options. Select Command Prompt. Enter the following four commands into the prompt.

bootrec /fixmbrbootrec /fixbootbootrec /scanosbootrec /rebuildbcd

4. After the completion of the commands, restart the computer and check the status.

Hope this would help. If issue still persists post back with current status of your computer and result of proposed suggestion, we will be happy to assist you.

Regards,

Answer 2

Thanks Ramesh. 

I tried typing those commands at the command prompt. The fixboot one returned a result of "element not found" but the other commands were successful. 

Any other ideas? I haven't tried resetting the tablet yet as I don't want to lost documents.

Answer 3

Thanks, I'll give it a go. Will those commands cause any data to be lost?

Answer 4

Hi,

Yes, you can create bootable USB drive using the link mentioned above. The commands mentioned above will work on Windows RT too. If you are able to boot with the installation media try the steps mentioned above and see if it helps you to fix the issue.

Do keep us updated.

Regards,

Answer 5

Thanks for your reply, but it's a Microsoft Surface 2 running Windows RT. It doesn't have a DVD drive, just a USB drive. When I created a USB recovery drive, isn't that the same as a bootable disk?

Will those instructions of commands to type at the command prompt work in RT?