X220: Can't access partitioned Win8

[mbressman]

A few years ago I purchased a Lenovo X220 running Window 7 on a regular SATA mechanical drive. After using it for a while, I partitioned the drive and installed Windows 8 so I could dual boot (and try out Windows 8 ). This worked fine for a while, and then I discovered I could install an mSATA SSD into the machine to get much faster performance, so I did that, and installed Win8.1 Enterprise on that mSATA drive (and changed around the BIOS settings so it would boot from that drive first). This also worked fine for a while, and additionally I could see the partitions from the mechanical SATA drive (both the Win7 partition and the Win8 partition). At some point though, something happened to the Win8 partition (possibly the mechanical drive is failing or beginning to fail) and now when I double-click it in Windows Explorer (while running Win8.1 from the mSATA SSD) it gives me an "Location is not available | Access is denied" error message. I want to see if there's any way I can try and fix that.

I also am not able to boot into that Win8 install (on the mechanical SATA drive). When I just tried it the other day, it failed and the built-in Windows utility to try and fix it also couldn't resolve it. I then attempted to use a program called Easy Recovery Essentials, but that didn't help, and also wiped out the dual boot option for that drive (although booting from the mSATA SSD still worked fine if that was set as the first boot device before the mechanical drive).

Yesterday I cloned my mSATA SSD (Mushkin 240 GB) using EaseUS Todo Backup Free 8.5 to a new Samsung Evo 850 SSD (500 GB) that I had bought, and once complete replaced the Mushkin SSD with the Samsung SSD and attempted to boot up. Of course, it gave me a blue screen error right away, but using a Win8.1 DVD and startup repair I was able to get past that, and incidentally it now gives me a boot selection screen on startup that lists the Win8.1 (on the mSATA SSD), the Win7 (on the mechanical SATA drive), and a third option that's blank (but that should be the Win8 on the mechanical SATA drive).

I'll probably buy a regular 2.5" SATA SSD to replace the mechanical SATA in there (and then use EaseUS Todo Backup Free 8.5 to clone it the same way - unless anyone has a better suggestion), but any ideas/thoughts on what I can do right now to fix the Win8 partition on the mechanical SATA drive, or even fix it so that I can access it through Windows Explorer when running Win8.1 from the mSATA SSD?

At one point, I was able to use a command prompt and could browse the Win8 partition (on the mechanical SATA drive) from some bootup utility (possibly the Win8.1 DVD, but I can't recall) so I know the data is still relatively intact. Also, I did try running chkdsk /r on the Win8 partition (on the mechanical SATA drive) at least once (from within the Win8.1 running off the mSATA SSD) and it didn't report any errors as far as I recall, but maybe I should run it from the Win8.1 DVD?

Any help is greatly appreciated! Thanks!

UPDATE: just attempted to run ntfsfix via Ubuntu Live CD, and got these results:

Code: Select all

ubuntu@ubuntu:/media$ sudo ntfsfix /dev/sda3
Mounting volume... OK
Processing of $MFT and $MFTMirr completed successfully.
Checking the alternate boot sector... OK
NTFS volume version is 3.1.
NTFS partition /dev/sda3 was processed successfully.
ubuntu@ubuntu:/media$ 

But no-go still on booting to Win8 on mechanical SATA drive or even accessing it still from Win8.1 on the mSATA SSD.