HP Proliant ML150 Windows drive locked

[8Bart]

hy,

I'm configuring a set of 5 servers to replace an industrial SCADA system.

Today we finally received the extra RAM sticks we ordered, to install those I powered down the servers and installed the RAM, no problem until the last server where I think the system wasn’t (completely) powered down. so probably I  just unplugged it while still running (Only realized it afterwards).

Now when I try to boot the system I will get the following screen (see attachment) telling me: "The drive where Windows is installed is locked. Unlock the drive and try again".

It seems like the drive is inaccessible, but the smart storage administrator doesn’t seem to give any errors or warnings.

I tried sfc /scannow and it told me it repaired some files but it didn’t solve the problem (did it have access to de drive somehow?)

Also unplugging one of the drives doesn’t seem to help, it recognizes the failed (unplugged) drive but still can't boot.

I guess it has something to do with the raid, but I’m not very experienced with this, so to not unrecoverable break the install I'm here to ask for help.

I really would like to not reinstall because it will involve getting the SCADA license renewed and based upon how long those guys take for basically anything it will cost us even more time we don't have.

I hope I have given enough information and someone has the solution, but feel free to ask for more details!

System information:

Proliant ML150 gen 9 servers
2x 500GB HDD in raid 1 (Sata drives on the SAS bus) (smart array with intelligent provisioning, used suggested settings)
operating system: Windows server 2012 R2 standard

[8Bart · Accepted solution]

Hi,

I also posed this question on the microsoft technet forums (Technet forum post) and the problem has been solved now, here is how: 

What ended up working was first loading the RAID Driver in the Win PE command prompt (not rebooting afterwards although it asked to) to gain access to the drives over the command prompt.

Then I restored the registry from the RegBack folder over the command prompt here is an excellent guide: How to Restore Registry Hives on Windows 7

I like to mention that I also executed the “sfc /scannow” command, but I don't think it was necessary.

I hope this is enough information to help others with a similar problem, but feel free to ask for more details (not that I'm a computer magician, but I like to try).

Kind regards
8Bart

[sandeepkarakkat]

Hi Bart,

Thank you very much for your post; It helped me through resolving the same issue I had. But in my case, i didn't had a registry backup which made things even worser. I had to load the RAID drivers, set the partiotions and then to fix bcdboot in order to get through, I have followed the guidelines as per the below webpage (Fix #5)

https://neosmart.net/wiki/the-drive-where-windows-is-installed-is-locked/

Kindly let me know your e-mail if that is ok.

Regards,

Sandeep A K

Personal Info Erased

[DenielMurillo]

Hi, You're awesome. That worked for me perfectly. Here I put all the commands.

copy C:\windows\system32\config\regback\system c:\windows\system32\config\system

copy C:\windows\system32\config\regback\software c:\windows\system32\config\software

copy C:\windows\system32\config\regback\security c:\windows\system32\config\security

copy C:\windows\system32\config\regback\sam c:\windows\system32\config\sam

copy C:\windows\system32\config\regback\default c:\windows\system32\config\default

My server has just started and it is working righ now.