Unmountable_boot_volume after cloning

I am upgrading my laptop (Gateway M405) from its 60G HDD to a WD 320G HDD. I am running XP SP2. I cloned using the automatic settings expanding the partition to the new drive's size.

When I boot from the new drive (other drive is removed), I get the error on a full page of text that is there for only a second then it reboots. So, windows is trying to boot.

The computer has only one drive slot, so I cloned using USB. I swapped the drives and cloned from USB with same results. BIOS recognizes the drive (obviously since it is starting windows).

Same results when starting in Safe mode.

Any ideas?

 

Try booting from the TI rescue CD and doing the cloning from that environment. Be sure to remove the second drive before trying to boot into Windows.

 

John,

Thanks for the reply.

I had already cloned from the CD and d/l'd the updated version of TI and tried to clone from that CD, but with the same results.

So, it doesn't work whether I try from the boot CD or in Windows (don't actually have the option in Windows to clone). The files are there but it is not bootable.

With XP SP2 I would think drive size is not a problem. The BIOS sees the drive as the correct size.

 

Hello majordad,

Thank you for using Acronis True Image

Could you please provide us with the exact title of your product? What is the build number of your Acronis software?

To find the reason of the issue we need the exact error message that appears at the system startup. Please try to stop the screen by hitting the "Pause" button.

Also, have you tried FixMBR operation, rebuild BOOTCFG or Windows Repair Installation?

Thank you.

--
Oleg Lee

 

I am using TI HE 2009, build 9709 or something. Got the latest from you website.

Pause doesn't stop the error message from clearing - lasts about a second. Last line is 0x0000000000ED or some such number. The error is unmountable-boot_volume.

When booting from the CD, I don't have the options you suggest.

 

They are talking about an XP CD. Those commands are Windows ones and available from the console. Depending on how your laptop is setup, you might be lucky and be able to get to the F8 screen and be able to use the command line option - somehow I doubt it though, in which case you will need to beg borrow steal? a copy and get to the console option that way to run the commands.

Somewhere in the sticky topics I think there is a link to an Acronis MBR remaker - though this is a standard one so only works well if you jave just the one partition.

This is a known XP problem as Microsoft have a knowledge base note on it.

According to MS this problem is caused by having disk caching enabled, and ends up having it's MFT corrupted , if it is writing information to it and for some reason doesn't finish.

MS's suggestions are - boot into the Recovery Console - and run chkdsk /r

Apparently SP2 and SP3 are supposed to have solved the problem.

If it is the MFT that is addled or the index files it uses, then a FIXMBR probably won't solve the problem as it won't rewrite the MFT entries - but chkdsk will.

Colin

 

Hello all,

majordad, you should check whether suggestion to fix MBR helps. Here are the instructions:

Please boot up from the Windows Bootable CD, then go to the Recovery Console (the
first Repair option you come to).

From the command prompt please type:

FIXMBR C:
FIXBOOT C:
BOOTCFG /rebuild

After that, please reboot your computer.

If you prefer to fix MBR using a CD, then please download special Acronis utility. Use it to create a CD and boot the machine from the CD.

The MBR will be rewritten once you boot the computer from the created media and confirm that you want to fix the MBR.

Please let us know the results.

Thank you.
--
Alexander Nikolsky