Started with Unmountable Boot Volume error

wgrogers

I am about at the end of my abilities and like the posts I've read here on your board so thought I'd ask for some help.

Wife has a Dell D510 Latitude, Win XP Pro, doesn't do much with the thing except email, definitely not a surfer or gamer. However, someone kicked the AC adapter when it was plugged in and the laptop was on, it seems that is where the issues began.

First, I got a BSOD with the unmountable boot volume error. I ran chkdsk /r a few times and got windows desktop back but all the settings were off. I tried to update firefox today and got a shutdown error 24 which persisted even when I tried to restart the computer.

There was also an error, delayed write failed, when I tried to update the browser which was a precursor to the 24 stop error.

I've tried to run chkdsk /r but it wont go through all without hanging and I can't restart the system now without getting the 24 error.

Not sure which way to go now, I've seen using repair feature on the recovery console but when I use the CD to boot, I don't see a repair and there are three partitions showing when I select the option to install XP. Three? Where the three came from I have no idea. I bought the laptop from Dell and I've never monkeyed with her HDD.

What is my next step or, what other information do I need to post in order to get to the next step? Your help is much appreciated.

Cyclonite

Sounds like a bad hard drive. I'd download the HDD manufacturer's diagnostic tool (there may be one in the BIOS), burn it to CD, then boot from it and run the diagnostic tests. Chances are it'll come up saying a bad drive. At that point, you'll need to pick up a new drive.

wgrogers

Cyclonite, thanks for the idea. Contacted Dell and had them on live chat, we did a system diagnotic test for all hardware and everything passed. They said it was something with the OS but since I was talking with HDW division, they couldn't help further.

I was able to get back to the desktop and open outlook express, internet explorer, but when I tried to open Firefox, got a 'Windows Delayed Write Failed' message that windows was unable to save all the data for the file C:\$Mft. Then firefox opened. Next a balloon appears from tray saying 'Windows Delayed Write Failed' Windows was unable to save all data for the program C:\program files\real\realplayer.

Not sure what $Mft is or why it was opening realplayer, I wasn't using realplayer only opening firefox. Also, firefox does not seem to be working well either. IE seems to be okay, but firefox only shows some images and some pages display characters like source code written in wing-dings.

Next step???

Thrax

I know their hardware diagnostic passed, but all of these symptoms are strongly indicative of a failed hard drive. There is very little else in the system that can produce the symptoms you are describing and, to be honest, Dell's diagnostics aren't especially thorough.

wgrogers

So any suggestion on how to verify a HDD fail? Is there another source, website, et al., that offers diagnostics more reliable? I'd rather not buy a new HDD if that is what it is, for the money, I'd buy a new machine. If it is software, I'll do whatever to fix but don't want to chase my tail, so to speak.

Ryder

What brand of HDD is in the PC? Find out and then download the proper tools for the HDD from the manuf.

Seagate or Western Digi most likely.

Thrax

There are several hard drive tests on this software: http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/ -- you can download it and burn it to CD.

I must ask, though. Why would you buy a new system when a new hard drive is, at most, about $100? If you're not an average user, you can spend about $60 tops.

kryyst

For what it's worth I had a similar experience with a lenovo recently. The crash specifics were different but all the types of problems pointed to bad harddrive. Normally I would have saved myself the grief and just bought a harddrive but the unit was under Warranty.

Anyway did the whole deal with lenovo's diagnostics and their support and nothing would be detected. So fine I'd reload the os from image and it'd be fine for a couple days sometimes even a week. Then it'd crash, maybe once, maybe a couple times then be fine for a bit more. So back on the phone diagnostics etc.... Nothing wrong with the hardware - so they won't cover it. So I reloaded the image again.

This continued about a two months. Finally they harddrive failed and the diagnostics supported that and I got a replacement under warranty. Now this may not be your case but take away this. That a harddrive can fail or start to fail long before the diagnostics will prove it.

However because I'm assuming this is a warranty issue you'll have to fight tooth and nail about it. While it does sound like a harddrive issue it could also be a motherboard issue.

Anyway. Have you tried booting up in safe mode to see if the errors continue.

Tushon

Use UBCD, run DFT or open the case and check which manufacturer the HDD actually is and run that scan also. Some of them have short versions, which can detect big problems, but if they have a choice between short and long, run both if the short passes.

wgrogers

Thrax wrote:

I must ask, though. Why would you buy a new system when a new hard drive is, at most, about $100? If you're not an average user, you can spend about $60 tops.

If you must ask Thrax, it's not because of the HDD. It's that, plus the display, plus battery, plus memory, plus cooling fan, etc. This has an LCD display that's got a fracture. Small, but noticable. When the fan kicks in it sounds like someone fired up the blender for margaritas. Has 512mb ram but the HDD is a Toshiba (for all who have asked), and if this gives you an idea of the age, it's a whopping 40GB hard drive. I know, I know, who could ever use 40GB of storage?

Seriously, I would buy a replacement drive and set it up for the kids & get a new unit to replace this at the same time. I'd rather not spend on a new computer, I would prefer to fix this for now but I know the hard drive will only become more unstable if that is what it is.

I am not a tech when it comes to these issues, so some of the things I see are a question in my mind like why, when I ran the XP set up and selected the option to install windows, so I could try to repair XP, I saw 3 different partitions in the box to "select an installation". Now, after I've done the diagnostics and got back into the desktop, I tried set up again only now I see only C:\Windows "Microsoft Windows XP Professional" in that "select an installation" box.

That kind of thing makes me wonder what exactly am I dealing with here? Is that a hard drive or OS problem? Does that make sense? I'm going to try to repair windows, just for grins. I'll then get a copy of the diagnostic tools you've all mentioned and give that a go.

Thanks for reading and all your suggestions.

Thrax

The trio of selections suggest someone has previously installed Windows but failed to complete the installation, or failed to reformat the drive properly when performing a new install. In either case, the symptoms you are describing cannot be caused by any Windows issue I've ever seen or heard of, and I have seen or heard of quite a few.

Cyclonite

Or they are restore partitions. A lot of machines have the hidden recovery app partition, plus a partition that contains the compressed recovery image, and then the Windows partition.

wgrogers

I am not sure what they were, I couldn't get them to show last time out. Did a repair to XP but still is unstable so, seems like the hdd is the thing. Thanks all for your assistance.