Emergency "volume appears to contain one or more unrecoverable problems"

edited November 2009 in Hardware
Hi All,

Was doing some googling and came across this forum. Seems this place knows the most about hard drive related issues.

My story is as follows, i removed my PDA from my activesync and then a whole bunch of children windows opened up in my taskbar (this has happened once before) - In order to avoid this i switched off the computer as this really slows it down...

On restart i got "Unmountable boot volume" blue screen which automatically restarts the laptop...
I've attempted to restart into recovery console and run both chkdsk /r and chkdsk /p - both of which stop on "volume appears to contain one or more unrecoverable problems" error at 37% -

I then ran a "fixboot" - It said that my boot sector was corrupt and that it is now fixed. On reboot the first screen i got wasnt even the WinXP logo but a blank gray screen. I restarted the laptop again and i get the Unmountable story again...

Basically my question is: Should i go ahead with a repair install or something like that? If possible i would like to lose as little time doing this but if i cant the data integrity is the most vital to myself. (Applications can be reinstalled)
Or, is there any way i can fix this above problem?

Thanks for your time guys,
marko

Comments

  • ArmoArmo Mr. Nice Guy Is Dead,Only Aqua Remains Member
    edited October 2006
    the problem is the Unmountable Boot Volume error message can be caused by both hardware and software. your hard drive maybe physicly damaged, but usually its a software problem. usually a reinstall of windows takes care of this, unless the disk is going south. The thing that concerns me about the hard drive is that checkdisk freaked out on it. checkdisk stopping is not a good thing.

    one option to try is Maxtors hard drive testing utility. it wors on all types of hard drive, saved SCSI drives. PowerMAX will tell you in ~30seconds - 45 minutes ( depending on if the system detects problems in the quick scan )if will tell you whats going on and if it finds a problem it gives you a RMA problem code for maxtor hardd rives ( which you need if you ever have to RMA a maxtor hard drive )

    i reccomend the bootable CD ISO image found here:
    http://www.maxtor.com/portal/site/Maxtor/menuitem.3c67e325e0a6b1f6294198b091346068/?channelpath=%2Fen_us%2FSupport%2FSoftware+Downloads%2FAll+Downloads&downloadID=113

    if it comes back that no errors were detected, its pretty much bank on a software corruption issue.
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited October 2006
    Sometimes, and this is pretty rare, powering down a system when the hard drive is reading/writing (As in opening windows from data stored on the disk), something called a head crash can occur. A head crash is defined as the drive read armature, the magnetic tip that spans the platters of the HDD to read data, scraping against the platters of your HDD which can cause all sort of errors. The most common errors are failing chkdsks, unmountable boot volumes, blown MBRs, etcetera.

    I suggest Hitachi's DFT as opposed to Maxtor's test equipment, as I find it's a little more thorough. Testing time should be about 30 minutes. If the failure code is 0x70/0x72, your drive is toast. If it's 0x00 success code, it's software.

    If it is 0x70/72, it's important that you stop using that HDD until you're sure of a method to recover your data. I recommend a cheap external hard drive enclosure and another computer, with a lot of DVD-Rs on hand. :)
  • edited October 2006
    Hey Guys,

    Thanks for the fast reply,

    I've downloaded both the tools. Tried the Hitachi tool first and after running a Quick Test i got a Dispostion code of 0x00...
    I guess going on this it's software? I'm currently running an Advanced Test as we speak to see if that can figure out what the problem is...

    Assuming that it is software and windows with it's infamous blue screen what would you guys recommend?
    I tried doing a windows XP repair install earlier on but for some reason i didnt even get the option to do a repair install - I ended up at the NTFS quick format / full format screen and i didnt want to go any further there...

    Basically i guess i'm thinking it's the following:

    1. Some corrupt .sys or .dll files somewhere. Before i hard rebooted the laptop i got an error in the systray saying something like "drwin - DLL initialization failed"
    Possible Solution: XP reinstall?

    2. Missing MBR / Partition table etc -- When i boot into Recovery Console and i do a "DIR" under C:\> it says "cannot enumerate list" but under G:\> which is another partition a "DIR" shows me the directory listing...
    Possible Solution: Running "mbrfix" - The thing is that it comes back with one of those "are you sure sure sure messages" and i'm not willing to do any more damage...

    I guess i'd like to have everything back to normal with as little fuss as possible but barring that i really need my data more than anything and if i have to pay a data recovery company to bend me over without lube then i guess i got no options :sawed:

    Marko
  • profdlpprofdlp The Holy City Of Westlake, Ohio
    edited October 2006
    Let the full hard drive test run its course. If it comes up with no errors, give TestDisk a try.
  • edited October 2006
    profdlp wrote:
    Let the full hard drive test run its course. If it comes up with no errors, give TestDisk a try.

    Will do, Advanced test is still busy running. Downloading TestDisk now. This doesnt seem to be a bootable utility?`

    My problem is mainly that this is a laptop so removing harddrive and plug and play elsewhere is quite a mission. If possible i'd like to solve everything through booting screens but if not i'll do what i gotta do :hiding:

    Thanks
  • profdlpprofdlp The Holy City Of Westlake, Ohio
    edited October 2006
    rawcode wrote:
    ...Downloading TestDisk now. This doesnt seem to be a bootable utility?...
    Nope, just add it to a bootable CD, floppy, thumbrive, whatever. :)
  • edited October 2006
    Hey guys,

    Ok it seems like i'm in a bit of trouble now...
    The advanced hitachi test is finished and the following error came up:

    "Problem detected on a Non-Hitachi disk drive etc...
    Disposition code: 0x70 "

    Does this mean that the drive is toast? :sad2:

    Please let me know how you guys would proceed from here? A data recovery company wants to charge me like $800 U.S to recover the 40GB hard-drive.
    This is going to be painful, whatever the process is... :shakehead

    Marko
  • ArmoArmo Mr. Nice Guy Is Dead,Only Aqua Remains Member
    edited October 2006
    if you have a WindowsXP CD, BartPE along with network support can be a god send.
    http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/

    its a crude windows shell that allows access to the disk if its available. it boots directly from a CD. i belive when you create your Image with it, it has defual generic drivers for network, so you can just connect to another machine by mapping a drive

    well worth looking into
  • edited October 2006
    Armo wrote:
    if you have a WindowsXP CD, BartPE along with network support can be a god send.
    http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/

    its a crude windows shell that allows access to the disk if its available. it boots directly from a CD. i belive when you create your Image with it, it has defual generic drivers for network, so you can just connect to another machine by mapping a drive

    well worth looking into

    Thanks, i downloaded BartPE and made a build from one of my windows XP SP2 CD's; I'll need to free up some space on my portable flash so i can do some recovery (i need about 20-30GB)

    Does any1 know if i'm going to have to run things like Easy Recovery or something like that? I think i have easy recovery 6 on my laptop but that's the hard-drive that needs to be recovered haha :doh:

    Is there any way i can restore everything to what it was? Image of the hard-drive etc.... ? It took me a while to customise the laptop to what it was and now i gotta start all over again. Any recommendations would be much appreciated.

    Oh and finally, What i need to know though is, with that disposition error of 0x70 do i need to replace the hard-drive?

    Thanks for all the help guys
    Marko
  • edited October 2006
    Hey all,

    BartPE loads up but what seems to be happening is that whenever i try launch the File Manager or try analyse the harddrive through BartPE i get hanging.

    I'm very suspicious that the drive is physically damaged now. I also fear that the more work i try and do on it the more irreparable data damage i might be doing?
    :aol:

    If anyone has any ideas how else i could recover the drive besides hand it in to the professionals please let me know... :eek3::eek3:

    Thanks all,
    Marko
  • primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' Boopin Detroit, MI Icrontian
    edited October 2006
    I would not power that drive up again if you want to have any hope of recovering the data. At this point, you are probably needing professional drive recovery. It can cost around $1200, if the data is worth that much to you, you don't really have a choice. :-/
  • edited November 2009
    Sorry to add a comment to this message after over 3 years, but i came across this forum after searching google with a problem i have with my pc. I have exactly the same problem with my pc as the original post, however when i tried Hitachi's DFT i got a 0x00 success code. My problem is where to go with this now, any help would be gratefully received.
Sign In or Register to comment.