Solved $secure corrupted during a failed CHKDSK, need help on how to proceed

[FloAmi]

So like the title said, my $secure corrupted (or supposedly so, as I keep getting an error) after my computer kept shutting itself off while it had been scanning the disk. As of right now I'm downloading updated copies of my personal files onto my external hard drive manually since I cannot run Windows backup right now. I'm unsure what to do from there though.

Looking it up, it seems like reformatting and doing a fresh install/starting from scratch, is the best bet before the hard drive is corrupted further, but I do not have a disk copy of Windows 7 Home Premium (the computer came preinstalled with it). I know I can download it from Microsoft again with my registration code, but I do not have a DVD or a USB to put it on. Just the external hard drive.

Since I only have about 500 GB used, and will have about 500 GB left on the hard drive, I was wondering if I could install Windows 7 from my external hard drive? If so, how would I go about copying the windows files onto the hard drive and starting it up from there? I would really like to avoid messing up the install, since I don't know any stores that sell Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit, and I'm sketchy on buying it off of Amazon or Ebay. Plus I don't want to corrupt my external or the files on it. Any advice?

 

[FloAmi]

I want to update that I found my old USB drive, but it says its only 3.76 GB. Is that big enough to boot/reinstall Windows 7 from?

 

[samuria]

"C:\$Secure is a metadata file kept by NTFS holding the database of drive
security settings. If it becomes fully corrupted, you'll lose access to the
drive."

But it may be worth a chance if you convert ntfs to fat32 it doesnt use that so may work if it then works you can convert it back How to Convert NTFS to FAT | MiniTool Partition Wizard Tutorial

 

[FloAmi]

"C:\$Secure is a metadata file kept by NTFS holding the database of drive
security settings. If it becomes fully corrupted, you'll lose access to the
drive."

But it may be worth a chance if you convert ntfs to fat32 it doesnt use that so may work if it then works you can convert it back How to Convert NTFS to FAT | MiniTool Partition Wizard Tutorial

Ahhh I ended up resetting to the factory setting before seeing this and I think that fixed it (I don't see the warning popping up anymore?) But now it's stuck configuring Windows features at 30% and I'm not sure how to fix that.

 

[FloAmi]

I just wanted to say for anyone with future issues who also has a pre-installed OS that the factory reset seems to have fixed the problem, so I'm going to mark this thread as solved.