Unmountable boot volume.

[Chris_Luu]

Hello everyone. I have had this BSOD message for awhile, and have taken many steps to overcome it.

I just used a Windows XP PRO ( my OS ) to repair it using recovery console ( small note : when it asks which windows installation to use, it says my S: drive, not my C: drive. )

I used chkdsk, which I think everything turned out well, and fixboot, which found a error, and supposedly corrected it. I restarted my computer, and it's still there.

I decided to post on the forums, because you guys should be more knowledgeable than I I know I might have to format, but if I have to, I want to back up my data also, which I do not know how to do.

Any help, would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Baez]

What does the blue screen message say?

 

[Chris_Luu]

Unmountable boot volume. Do you also need the stop code? I will post it if needed.

 

[Baez]

Ouch that's the blue screen message? Sometimes these are hard to get rid of.

Many times the cause of this is a bad cable. Have you tried changing your SATA/IDE cables?

Also does this come up before Windows has even loaded?

 

[Chris_Luu]

I have not tried changing the cables, but I don't think that is the problem because during FIXBOOT, it states that there was a bad boot sector.

Also, the blue screen appears when the Windows screen is loading. I am guessing I have little options left, so I was thinking if I could install windows on to my other hard drive ( I have two, C: and S: drive ), and boot from S: instead.
Ugh, I hate these kinds of problems.

 

[Baez]

What brand of hard drive is the one that had bad sectors on it? There's still one more thing to try.

 

[Chris_Luu]

Both drives are Maxtors. C:/ is around 20 gigs, while S:/ is 180 gigs. The C:/ drive has the bad sectors, and is the one I boot from btw.

 

[Baez]

Download PowerMax and burn the ISO to a CD. Boot from the CD and run the test on the hard drive.

PowerMax is Maxtor's own utility and doesn't only check for bad sectors but checks for a bad drive as well (eg. the chip on the bottom of the drive becomes corrupt).

If they are newer drives, 1 year or less, you can use SeaTools instead and it should work. If you do use SeaTools make sure you run the long test.

Once the tests are finished if the utilities say the drives are fine, you have a corrupt installation of Windows beyond repair.

 

[Chris_Luu]

Thank you a lot, I really appreciate your help. Sadly, I have no access to a cd burner until later this week, so hypothetically this does not work, what are other options?

 

[Baez]

Have you made any changes to anything before your computer didn't boot anymore? And is your drive and IDE drive?