Emergency Help (Unmountable Boot Volume) !

IceIce
edited July 2010 in Hardware
Hey everybody, I'm having serious problems with my computer. I'm not really good with computers so I might not be correct in everything I say.

I had some problems with pop ups, viruses and so on (I couldn't start My Computer or Explore, the CPU% usage of explorer.exe went up to 99% as soon as i tried to start any of these)...so I got a windows XP CD and tried to do a repair. IT asked me for an administrator password which I didn't know and the 3rd time i got it wrong it rebooted the computer. Then I tried to re-install windows and a blue screen appeared saying blah blah blah Unmountable Boot Volume...that screen appears anytime i start the computer, right as windows starts loading so I can't get anywhere...i tried to put an ms-dos system disk in - same thing, no effect...

please tell me what to do because I need my computer for my job and if I don't get it fixed soon I'll have serious troubles...

i'll probably open it and disconnect the hard drive and try to leave only the CD-ROM connected and see if i can install windows from there

any thoughts, suggestions and ideas are welcome, thank you all in advance...
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Comments

  • profdlpprofdlp The Holy City Of Westlake, Ohio
    edited February 2004
    Ice wrote:
    ...i'll probably open it and disconnect the hard drive and try to leave only the CD-ROM connected and see if i can install windows from there...
    What would you install it to if your HD is disconnected? :scratch:

    Go into the BIOS and look for a place where you can set Boot Order (or words to that effect). Make your cdrom drive the first boot device.

    With your WinXP CD in the drive, restart the computer. Watch the bottom of the screen, if you see a message "hit any key to boot from CD" make sure you hit a key.

    The comp will boot off the CD. Let it go through its rigamarole and try another repair install. Are you sure you have all of the virus crapola removed?

    See how far this gets you. There are other steps you can take if this doesn't do it. Don't worry - we'll help you out if we can. :thumbsup:
  • GunnyGunny
    edited February 2004
    I would recommend a complete format of the hard drive, then installing windows.
    If you have data that you don't have backed up and really need it, then go for a repair, but I'm not real sure that an install will get rid of all your problems
  • IceIce
    edited February 2004
    thanks to both of you but i cant get this working

    1. i switched the boot order and no matter what i do a screen pops up asking me whether to start windows or to start the windows setup...from there no matter what i do the blue error screen appears...

    2. i cant format the drive because i cant get to a command prompt

    i really dont know what to do, thanks for the help though
  • profdlpprofdlp The Holy City Of Westlake, Ohio
    edited February 2004
    Do you need to save your data off the drive? Or just get the computer back working?
  • IceIce
    edited February 2004
    well, i'd rather do both but the most imporant thing to me is to get my computer working again...
  • primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' Boopin Detroit, MI Icrontian
    edited February 2004
    What are your hard drive(s) hooked up to.. Unmountable boot volume means XP can't find your drives, and the most likely culprit is that you don't have the drivers installed. Give me details about your hardware - what kind of motherboard, SerialATA or IDE, if it's RAID or not, SCSI, etc.. You may need to hit "F6" when it says "Press F6 to install third party drivers" or whatever it says and have a floppy ready with the drivers on it.
  • IceIce
    edited February 2004
    well, like i said i dont know much about computers

    the computer is an 1600 athlon with an 40 GB hard drive

    there is an option where i can press F6 but i dont know how or why to use it...i'll try to look up all the information u asked for and give it to u, hopefully it'll work...
  • primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' Boopin Detroit, MI Icrontian
    edited February 2004
    Did you buy the computer at a store, or build it yourself? What I really need is the motherboard make and model. That would help a lot.
  • IceIce
    edited February 2004
    Prime suspect - good thinking!

    we got it fixed, we had to connect the hard drive to another computer, defragmented it, formatted it and all that stuff...there were some bad sectors (caused by a virus?) on it...i got a friend of mine to help me, since i'm not that into computers, he did some stuff with the motherboard as well, i'm sorry about not knowing what he did but computers are just not my thing...anyway, we got it fixed, i'm installing new things on it now, i lost a lot of information but we'll deal with it...thanks to all of you that tried to help, i hope i won't have to come to the forum again lol
  • profdlpprofdlp The Holy City Of Westlake, Ohio
    edited February 2004
    The "bad sectors" thing is an indicator that your hard drive may be about to croak. If you don't want to go through the same business again soon, you will want to test it out. (Assuming your friend hasn't already done that.)

    What brand is your hard drive? The manufacturer will have a simple test to find out if it's about to die on you. For peace of mind, you should check it out. You have raised the question of a virus; have you scanned the drive with a good AV program using the latest definitions?

    Good to hear that you've made it this far - make it a clean sweep and put the problem away once and for all. We'll be glad to help you if you need it. :)
  • IceIce
    edited February 2004
    The hard drive is a 40 GB Maxtor, I'll test it and see what happens.

    I'll probably buy a new one soon because I need more space anyway. Thank you all once again
  • profdlpprofdlp The Holy City Of Westlake, Ohio
    edited February 2004
    In case you need it, here is a link to Maxtor's PowerMax drive-testing utility.
  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited February 2004
    ...thanks to all of you that tried to help, i hope i won't have to come to the forum again lol

    We hope that it won't be a necessity to come here again, but we also hope that you will WANT to come here again and again. Not a computer savvy guy? We can fix that! Stick around. Personally, I started doing my own fiddling with computers just a few years ago. Swapping out RAM was a major undertaking. Now, thanks to this forum and this forum's parent, I build computers.

    :wave:
  • muddocktormuddocktor
    edited February 2004
    Leonardo wrote:
    We hope that it won't be a necessity to come here again, but we also hope that you will WANT to come here again and again. Not a computer savvy guy? We can fix that! Stick around. Personally, I started doing my own fiddling with computers just a few years ago. Swapping out RAM was a major undertaking. Now, thanks to this forum and this forum's parent, I build computers.

    :wave:

    My sentiments exactly. Just because you got your computer back up and running doesn't mean that you have to leave, Ice. You can keep on coming back here and you might pick up a little info that will help you down the road, as well as make you feel much more comfortable when you get into a situation with your computer again.:)
  • IceIce
    edited March 2004
    lol thanks for the warm welcome, i will try to come down here and check out what's goin on occasionally and maybe pick up this and that so i can be more computer savvy in the future.

    my computer is working fine now, i am starting to read some of the threads here, so i should be around , thanks once again :vimp:
  • VaiosVaios Greece
    edited May 2004
    Hi all! New in this forum, I was having the same problem as ice, but I had a brand new PC... I also tried everything you suggested, but had no luck.. I was able to boot from a Win98 boot cd and everything worked fine when I tried to install Win98 but I really wanted WinXP.
    I even changed the board, the hdd, the PSU, the VGA card, I changed everything except the DVD..The solution to my problem was to change the DVD drive I was booting from. :banghead: :banghead: The Da**ed DVD was working great but would produce this error when trying to install from a bootable Winxp or Win2k cd ( with or without a HDD installed)..
    That's all, I hope I was able to help... Thanks to all! :thumbsup:
  • hammhamm
    edited June 2004
    Hey, new here as well

    Vaios, just thought you might want to double check your IDE cable connecting your DVD drive. Make sure its an 80-pin and not a 40-pin.

    I had the problem too, some motherboards will force the best UDMA setting neglecting the fact that you're using a crappy cable.

    Judging from what you've said, I would be 99% sure your cable is causing your problem.

    good luck and regards
    - ham
  • UrbanDragonUrbanDragon
    edited June 2004
    Here is how you can fix the Unmountable boot volume issue. Boot to the xp cd and choose repair. (NOTE: if you did not supply an admin password when installing xp just hit enter when asked for the password.) at the recovery console you will want to issue the following command.
    chkdsk /r it will go through a 0% - 100% process. then issue the command
    fixboot
    I have used this many times and it does work.
  • billy1raybilly1ray
    edited March 2005
    I think this may be a virus. I had to restore my pc today from CDs. It is too strange or ironic that so many people are having issues.....
  • UrbanDragonUrbanDragon
    edited March 2005
    billy1ray
    Are you a moron?
    What in the computer software business is ironic or strange... Is it a virus because your computer slows way down when running a bunch of apps on a win9x box then closing them out to find the box still runs slow..... NO that is due to memory management issues by microsoft.. where the program lays hidden in the memory, not getting cleaned out.

    Just understand and realize that this is not an uncommon problem.. and to prove this is not a virus check this MS article.
    http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=http://support.microsoft.com:80/support/kb/articles/q297/1/85.asp&NoWebContent=1+


    It seems like everyone wants to blame a virus or spyware/adaware program now days and just F&R (format & reinstall) the box...... What fun is that......
  • billy1raybilly1ray
    edited March 2005
    lol, sounds like someone is a bit stressed. I actually am a computer programmer and have been in IT for 10 years. I have turned this over to our PC support team (of 25 people) that have found the virus origin and are creating a boot-up disk for users that may need it from the office. You should probably do your homework before you jump to conclusions. Better Luck Next Time. BTW, I have repaired this on 6 pcs in this town alone, obviously a virus.
  • TexTex Dallas/Ft. Worth
    edited March 2005
    billy1ray wrote:
    I think this may be a virus. I had to restore my pc today from CDs. It is too strange or ironic that so many people are having issues.....

    Uhhhh.... It's a sorta common problem. Caused by many differant things actualy.

    UrbanDragon gave the best advice in the thread by far. "formating" should be the last option not the first one coughed up. It's a last resort to be used when there are no other options available and I am still shocked at how many cough up "Yep lets format the disk" as the FIRST option to solve any one of a hundred problems.

    And I have been in this buisness 20 years and would love to be doing work in your town with you as my competition.

    Tex
  • billy1raybilly1ray
    edited March 2005
    While I do not proclaim to be an expert, I definately NEVER look at reformatting as the first option. I did in this case, as I was considering doing it before. I had already backed everything up.

    I definately am not hear to anger anyone or to pretend to know more than anyone. If it, indeed, is not a virus, I stand corrected, but I am happy to have my pc back again. Hopefully, I will be able to help others in the future as I am sure I will be asking you guys for help.
  • MankulMankul
    edited August 2005
    UrbanDragon wrote:
    Here is how you can fix the Unmountable boot volume issue. Boot to the xp cd and choose repair. (NOTE: if you did not supply an admin password when installing xp just hit enter when asked for the password.) at the recovery console you will want to issue the following command.
    chkdsk /r it will go through a 0% - 100% process. then issue the command
    fixboot
    I have used this many times and it does work.



    I've done this before and it sometimes works.

    Now my screwed up WinXP is on my SCSI disk and formatting is the LAST option.

    I know it can work using repair with a WinXP CD, but I'm faced with ANOTHER problem.

    The C: on my SCSI disk is reaching its capacity limit, so when I boot via CDROM using the WinXP CD, and it installs the drivers and stuff, I got a blue screen in the middle of that cos it says that I don't have enough space!! ARGH!!!

    now I know the importance of leaving space for my C:, among other things!

    so anyone have any idea how I can get thru this?


    here's an ides of my setup:

    OS Drive on SCSI HDD:

    The rest of the partition is shared about 4 other PATA HDD most of which have reached 80% capacity. Not all partitions are bootable, and I forgot which ones are bootable.

    How get get a way round this?

    Should I use a spare HDD, make it bootable, set at BIOS to boot from this spare HDD, then install Winxp on this spare HDD, then after installation, in Windows environment, fix my SCSI partition with checkdisk. Can fixmtbr be done in winXp environment for my scsi? then after fixing my SCSI parition table, go to BIOS and boot from my SCSI.

    besides this way (assuming it works in the first place!) is there other ways to get round my problem?
  • TexTex Dallas/Ft. Worth
    edited August 2005
    TRy recovery console intead. Just run chkdsk from there.

    You can reinstall xp on any drive. Doesnt have to be bootable. It can put the 5 or 6 files needed to boot on any drive. Or just mod the boot.ini on the present drive

    Tex
  • MankulMankul
    edited August 2005
    Tex wrote:
    TRy recovery console intead. Just run chkdsk from there.

    You can reinstall xp on any drive. Doesnt have to be bootable. It can put the 5 or 6 files needed to boot on any drive. Or just mod the boot.ini on the present drive

    Tex


    what you mean recovery console? The console you get when you boot with WinXP CD? if that's the case, I can't cos it will give me a BSOD which state that my disk is full.
  • Red58Red58 Berzerkeley
    edited October 2005
    Oh, my. I've read all the posts to this thread, done my homework on MS KB and have proceeded to the Recovery Console.

    Ran chkdsk /p and made it through 75% with an error message at the end to wit, "The volume appears to contain one or more unrecoverable problems." Ran chkdsk /r which stopped at 25% with the same error message. <sigh>

    System: Gateway 500SE
    Intel (Nimitz) Pentium 4 - 2.0 GHz
    Windows XP Home Edition (SP1)

    No peripherals attached except modem card.

    Any suggestions or am I just SOL?

    Thx.

    Red
  • TexTex Dallas/Ft. Worth
    edited October 2005
    Your not SOL but you need to probbaly attach that drive to another computer and recover the files before proceeding.

    Tex
  • profdlpprofdlp The Holy City Of Westlake, Ohio
    edited October 2005
    Run the diagnostic program from the HD manufacturer to make sure it's not a failing drive. If it comes up clean we'll take it from there.

    Good luck. :)
  • TexTex Dallas/Ft. Worth
    edited October 2005
    But if it is starting to get flaky... He shouldnt power it up or play with it or anything except trying to recover the data???

    Tex
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