FIX: The Drive Where Windows Is Installed Is Locked

If your Windows is not working properly, and it you’re facing failure of multiple features, you may be recommended to Reset your Windows 10. The Reset process as of the latest version atm, can either do complete local reinstall or cloud reinstall.

However, sometimes users may experience failure while they opt for Reset process. Following message may displayed while they initiate for Reset:

The drive where Windows is installed is locked. Unlock the drive and try again.

If you’re also facing this issue, here is how you can fix.

FIX: The Drive Where Windows Is Installed Is Locked

FIX 1 – General Suggestions

The Windows drive can be locked due to different reasons. You can try below suggestions to see if the drive is unlocked and you can go ahead with Reset.

1. If you’ve encrypted your operating system drive with BitLocker, try decrypting the drive and then perform Reset.

2. Use chkdsk command line tool to check and fix disk corruption or file system errors. See this detailed guide to learn how you can the tool. Once  your repaired the drive, see if Reset now.

3. Try marking the drive as ‘active’ with these steps:

a. Open administrative Command Prompt.

b. Type these commands following by Enter key after each:

diskpart

list disk

select disk #

list partition

select partition #

active

exit

In above commands, replace # with the number of disk and partition respectively.

4. Try to repair boot records using this guide.

If problem still persists, see FIX 2 below.

FIX 2 – Advanced Suggestion

1. Access Advanced Recovery Options and select Command Prompt.

2. In Command Prompt window, execute these commands:

In below commands, replace # with the number of disk and partition respectively. Also replace K: with unique drive letter.

diskpart

list disk

select disk #

list volume

select volume #

assign letter K:

exit

bootrect /fixboot

ren BCD BCD.Backup

bcdboot c:\Windows /l en-us /s k: /f all

Close Command Prompt and try to reset your PC then, it should work fine now.

If nothing from above helps, you may consider making clean install. It is equivalent to complete reinstall/Reset.

Hope this helps!