Hard Drive Disappears from Gparted and Windows Installation After Failed Windows 10 Install

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I recently tried to install Windows 10 to my computer. Before the install, I had a Windows 7 and Ubuntu Linux dual boot with 3 drives: SSD for Linux boot drive, 2TB mechanical for Linux home folder, and 500Gb mechanical for Windows 10. I told Windows 10 to reformat the 500Gb hard drive and then install to there. The Windows 10 installation failed with error 0x80070002 (typed from memory, although, the googling results for that error code seem to match those of before [it is a Windows Update error, so, I am unsure how that could affect the the installation of Windows beyond failed updates, in which case the system should still be usable and my hard drive should still "exist"]). When I re-tried the Windows 10 installation after a reboot, the 500Gb mechanical drive was missing. A Linux Mint live CD was also unable to detect it via GParted. It did show up in the BIOS as a boot option, which, upon selection, simply provides a blank screen with a blinking command prompt cursor.

NOTE: A Windows 7 key was used to activate the Windows 10 installer, but, it was accepted as it should be (for that Windows 7 to Windows 10 upgrade process was initiated but was unable to finish before the expiration of hte free upgrade offer). NOTE 2: I would, of course, like to get Windows 10 working. But, at this point, simply getting my hard drive back would be an acceptable option as well.

john01dav

Posted 2016-11-12T19:50:03.597

Reputation: 326

W10 installation has obviously done what you asked and formatted the 500GB hard disc. I'm surprised the partition has disappeared, but the disc should show in disks, though it should also be in the drop-down list in gparted. You should be able to use either utility to recreate/reformat the partition. – AFH – 2016-11-12T20:06:10.523

@afh it does not show up in gparted at all -- even in the drop down. I also don't have a working windows installation on this conputer. – john01dav – 2016-11-12T20:15:32.533

I was assuming you had no Windows: disks is a utility available on Debian derivatives: if it's not in the applications menu, type gnome-disks from a terminal. – AFH – 2016-11-12T20:23:47.627

Answers

-1

Re-Answer: Boot from your Windows 10 installation DVD or USB, or ISO file, When you see Windows Setup, press the Shift + F10 keys, that would Open Command Prompt, then type these one at a time:

diskpart
list disk    you will be able to see a list of all your disks 
select disk "type the number of your 500gb hard drive without quotes, e.g. `select disk 0`"
clean
exit

Jiraiya Sama

Posted 2016-11-12T19:50:03.597

Reputation: 1

I do not have a working windows 7 installation. It also does not show up at all in the windows 10 installation or in gparted at all. – john01dav – 2016-11-12T20:16:24.013

Asked: 2016-11-12T19:50:03.597

Viewed: 803 times

Active: 2016-11-12T20:42:32.023