Unmountable boot volume (I've tried what I know)

[ShortThrow]

My friends computer was acting up so I said I would take a look at it.
I restarted the computer and got the screen of death.

I tried booting in safe mode but got the same message.

I inserted the OS disk did a repair with chkdsk, fixmbr and fixboot, then restarted and got the same message.

Since I can't even get in with safemode, I can't really back anything up so a complete reformat is an absolute last resort.

I can't think of anything else to do so I come to you all!

Thanks.

PS- He said he hasn't installed anything new on the laptop and didn't install anything new since he bought it. And since I cant boot it at all all I know is that it's an athalon 3400 with XP/

 

[__Camouflage__]

Do a repair install... It sounds like a bad video driver.

 

[ShortThrow]

how do I go about that without wiping the hd?

 

[superdave1984]

A repair install doesn't format, it just installs over the existing installation with replacements for missing or bad files.

 

[ShortThrow]

But how do I do that. All I know how to do is select R to get into the recovery console

 

[fixal0t]

when you select install, it will ask you if you want to format, or install on top of the previous installation.

 

[superdave1984]

Just select install, not the recovery console. Then you will get the option for a repair install. The recovery console is a different dog.