Unmountable Boot Volume
Hi Guys,
tried to start a PC this morning to be met by blue screen showing the umountable_boot_volume.
Have managed to insert disc and get to the recovery console. I then typed in chkdsk /p it got 75% through and then the message came up
"the volume appears to contain one or more unrecoverable problems"
I did not know what to do then so exited the program. I managed to type in the chk part by finding a link from google but there was no explanation as to what to do if it did not complete its scan. My knowledge of these things is quite small so any instructions would need to be step by step.
The PC in question runs XP Professional and is a networked PC linked to a server. We have not had any problems with the other PC's.
Would be grateful for some assistance. Great site by the way:smiles:
tried to start a PC this morning to be met by blue screen showing the umountable_boot_volume.
Have managed to insert disc and get to the recovery console. I then typed in chkdsk /p it got 75% through and then the message came up
"the volume appears to contain one or more unrecoverable problems"
I did not know what to do then so exited the program. I managed to type in the chk part by finding a link from google but there was no explanation as to what to do if it did not complete its scan. My knowledge of these things is quite small so any instructions would need to be step by step.
The PC in question runs XP Professional and is a networked PC linked to a server. We have not had any problems with the other PC's.
Would be grateful for some assistance. Great site by the way:smiles:
0
Comments
You may also want to try a repair windows installation. I'd highly recommend the article Thrax wrote a while back: http://www.short-media.com/review.php?r=313
It may help you (although your situation is a little different). I'd guess that there is a problem with your boot.ini file.
Best of luck!
Go to the windows recovery console and type these:
fixmbr
fixboot
chkdsk /r
Reboot when done. If THOSE don't work, we might have some other options.
Thanks again for your time and dilligence
Strahc
Glad that helped!
I'd strongly recommend that you begin to back up your data at this point. If chkdsk /r found any bad sectors, your hard drive may be on a course to failure. If you just type 'chkdsk' at the command prompt in windows, it should give you a drive summary. If you have any bad sectors, I'd recommend purchasing a new hard drive.
Hi Liz_C, Welcome to Short-Media!
To ensure that enough people get to see and respond to your problem, I would recommend starting a new thread in the 'Emergency Help' forum. This ensures that you have a thread dedicated to your issue, and you will get maximum visibility that way.
Also, could you be more specific about your bluescreen error? Is there a specific message that you can see?
Best of luck!
\windows\system32\config\system is missing or corrupt
when I would boot up. So I tried logging into the recovery console, and ran a chkdsk /r, which took awhile, but came back and said it had repaired some issues. I then ran a chkdisk /p and it seemed to look ok.
I rebooted, and still got the same error message. So then I decided to try a method such as in Thrax's guide you linked to. Only problem was, when I got back into the recovery console, any command I type in gives me a
"The path or file specified is not valid."
message, even if I just do a CD .. to change to the parent directory.
So I tried running chkdsk /p again, and now it tells me
"The volume appears to contain one or more unrecoverable problems."
So now I'm in quite a pickle, cause if I try the fixmbr command, it doesn't appear to do anything, just gives me another prompt, and if I try to use the fixboot, it says
"FIXBOOT cannot open the partition."
So now I'm stuck and frustrated, cause now I can't even get anything to work in recovery console. What should be my next step here? I really don't know what caused the problem.
When it started, I had my PC hooked up to my TV and was trying different custom resolutions with Powerstrip. I came across one that didn't work. The screen flickered to black, like it normally does when changing resolutions, but then it never came back up. I just figured it was a resolution the PC didn't like with the TV, so I shut it down, and rebooted, and since then I've had the \windows\system32\config\system error.
TEST COMPLETED WITHOUT ERRORS
ERROR/STATUS CODE: 0000
Running the extended test now.
But I can't find where that is. There's analyze, advanced, geometry, options, MBR Code, delete and quit. Which should I be looking under?
Edit: ok, I found it under the "boot" portion of Advanced.
selected Repair MFT, and it says: MFT are ok
Now what?
I just saw Shorty's post in another thread:
This had to be what happened. I had to force a shutdown when I made that last change to the resolution with Powerstrip, cause the display never came back up, even after sitting there for 5 min (when it's supposed to do that "click ok or your settings will revert in 15 seconds"). So with a black screen and an unresponsive PC, I just forced a power down.
What's the difference between doing a system restore via Windows XP recovery console versus using TestDisk? The reason I ask is:
1)Tried to turn on laptop, but it won't boot b/c of following error:
"Windows would not start because the following file is missing or corrupt: \windows\system32\config\system"
2)Found some possible solutions based on other's advice like:
a)Either trying
chkdsk /p
fixboot
or doing a system restore.
I ran the chkdsk /p /r commands, it looks like the /r function cleaned up the one error that popped up. But based on reports of fixboot causing more problems (based on various forum threads), I'm hesitant to try it. I also don't understand how fixboot would fix the problem, as from what I understand it would create a new partition. (but how does an empty partition solve anything this I don't get).
The second half of that article suggests doing a system restore from the last available checkpoint if the fixboot doesn't work.
(Source: http://www.myfixes.com/articles/system)
B) An earlier response on this forum advises to use TestDisk to solve a similar issue.
C)The last option that I found is from Microsoft: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307545
which basically involves manually copying, then deleting folders.
I would greatly appreciate if someone who is knowledgeable about this topic to please explain how these options differ, what they will do to attempt to repair the situation, and any risks involved with each approach.
My goal is to get the laptop to return to the most recent state possible (with as much info intact as possible).
Thank you in advance for taking out the time to read this.