I wanted to install Kali Linux besides Windows 8.1 in my laptop. So I deleted the partition after installing Kali Linux but now I am not able to run Windows 8.1… I tried few recovery actions but it says hard drive is locked. Can anybody help with a solution please?
Â
Hello,
Linux installation is completely different and installing Linux on a PC with Windows installation is quite hard and risky at the same time. It sounds like you’ve removed the partition for Windows that has removed the Windows installation.
In order to have Windows back in your PC, you have to install your Windows 8.1 completely anew.
First of all, retrieve your installation media. Next, make sure that the partition you used to install Windows is present. If not, create a partition to install Windows with GParted. It’s a free partition manager to boot into and change partition size and others. Download GParted, create a bootable pendrive with UNetbooin and boot the pendrive from your boot menu. Reduce partitions of the present partitions and free-up some space.
Then, insert the Windows installation media and boot into it. Install Windows 8.1 generally.
You can add your Linux installation to boot menu with the help of EasyBCD. Download EasyBCD.
Normally, when you purchase a laptop, your hard drive will normally have a single partition for the operating system or for Microsoft Windows 8.1, since it is your operating system. But if your attempt to install Kali Linux was successful and after the installation you deleted the original drive C partition then you also deleted Windows 8.1.
Once a partition is deleted, there is no guarantee that you can still recover it. If you have a bootable CD that is capable of recovering a deleted partition then this is worth trying. Kali Linux is a Debian-derived Linux distro maintained and financed by Offensive Security Ltd. It is designed for penetration testing and digital forensics.
If you planned to have a second operating system aside from Windows 8.1 making your computer to dual-boot, I guess you did it wrong. This is not the right way to boot your computer on 2 operating systems. Since you already removed the partition for Windows 8.1, you should install Windows 8.1 again and do a little research on how you can install Kali Linux alongside Windows 8.1.
Making a dual-boot system with Microsoft Windows and Linux is different and kind of difficult than when dual-booting with different versions of Microsoft Windows like Windows Millennium and Windows XP, for example.
