Locked Hard Drive

Some very terrible things happened to my computer when I installed EasyBCD on my windows vista OS.

1. My hard drive was locked out. It used to say: 230 GB Available, 218.4 GB Free. Now it says, 230 GB Available, 0.0 GB Free.

2. It tampered with the Vista startup and program files. This made me unable to start my computer with any OS.

When these things happened, I tried to re-install vista using the original install disc, but since the hard drive was locked out, I could not do this.
Since this is quite a critical error, I would appreciate it if someone could help me with this as soon as possible. Thank you.

Note: I made a mistake when installing this; I forgot to install an OS to a patition first.

Hi poet, welcome to NeoSmart Technologies.

This doesn't sound like an EasyBCD-caused bug. EasyBCD doesn't actually touch anything on the hardware level; and won't even modify the MBR without your permission (and many warning dialogs). And even then, nothing can "lock" your hard drive in that manner.

This sounds more like an improper shutdown or a dying disk to me.

Can you boot from your Vista DVD, open the repair options section, and access the command prompt?
From there, run this command:

If it's caused by a corrupted filesystem that should take care of it.

Thank you for the welcome, CG. If neosoft easyBCD wasn't the problem, then it must have been the other program that was activated on the reboot; acronis OS selector. I guess it was a mistake to do this. As soon as I get the chance, I will try the command on the command line of the boot disk. Thanks for your help.

Hi Ametur, no worries.

I happen to know for a fact that Acronis OS Selector does modify the MBR (which can lock your hard drive like what you've experienced.

You need to "scrub" the MBR - if you need help doing that, let us know - it's not too difficult.

Yes, I would like to know how scrub the MBR. Thanks!

First grab a Linux Live CD like Knoppix, and burn it to a CD then boot from it.
Open a terminal (from the programs menu) and type this in:

I'm assuming you have only one hard drive here... it'll be sda. If you have more than one hd, simply change the a to b, c, d, etc.

That shoud clear your HD to how it was when you purchased it - fresh, clean, and cleared of all data

Actually, an easier possibility:
You say you were installing Acronis OS Selector - that means you have Disk Director 10.

Make a boot CD for Disk Director on another PC and boot from it. Select your drive (on the left-hand side), right-click, and clear the MBR from there...