Windows Xp Problem: Unmountable Boot Volume blue screen

Nodferatu

was on my pc other day and it froze up, so i restarted it, and when windows xp was loading, a blue screen pops up saying 'unmountable boot volume' , and a few option appear like start in safe mode, start in safe mode with networking debug mode etc etc. it doesn't matter which one i pick same screen comes up.
I'm on a windows xp home edition if that helps to know, any advice on what to do?

chin_grin

Follow this.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/555302

asif2011

Do you know anybody that's good with computers? Sounds terminal to be honest, you could do a " Chkdsk c: /r /f " at the command prompt if you could get there but sounds like a corrupt file system or knacker hard drive. Probably looking at a new computer, maybe lost what was on it, guessing at the age...

yoyo

Sounds like the hard disk is failing/failed so if you have any valuable data on it download Ubuntu on another machine, Burn onto a CD-R, boot off the CD and use the Live CD (don't install) to try recover what you can

Nick

Nodferatu

my machine is 6 years old, i got a new hard drive installed in it about a year and a half ago due to similar problem, i don't mind losing everything to be honest as i have everything backed up from it, ironically updated the back up a day before she broke down on me. but id still like to try fix it rather, the problem is i don't have original xp disc as i bought the pc everything was pre installed. its a damn dell of course...

An unmountable boot volume is usually caused by either a failing hard disk or file system corruption. I have seen cases where insufficient RAM can cause this problem due to the amount of file system activity caused by the page file being accessed constantly. But the majority of the time it's bad sectors on the hard disk.

yoyo

Nodferatu wrote: »

my machine is 6 years old, i got a new hard drive installed in it about a year and a half ago due to similar problem, i don't mind losing everything to be honest as i have everything backed up from it, ironically updated the back up a day before she broke down on me. but id still like to try fix it rather, the problem is i don't have original xp disc as i bought the pc everything was pre installed. its a damn dell of course...

Download SeaTools For DOS on a working machine (CD ROM ISO Image), burn it onto a CD-R and boot off it, run an advanced test. If the hard drive reports errors the machine isn't fixable without a new drive, not Dells fault you've just been unlucky to have two hard drive crashes, it happens . At least you have your data safe . Also you may find a fresh XP install work perfect, but over time, days, weeks, months, hours... youll have the same issue

Nick