Unmountable boot volume

So out of nowhere (at elast to my untrained eye) I my pc started running funny. It would suddengly stop responding then I would get a blue screen telling me to restart and check any recently added programs etc. Like a dummy, I ignored it and just restarted without trying to fix anything. Now when I power on it goes right to the blue screen with the message telling me "unmountable boot volume."

I run windows xp home on a dell inspiron. I am currently on my hp pavilion.

I googled unmountable boot volume and came up with the following link

http://www.techtips4u.com/kb/sw/SW00014.htm

Problem is I don't have the windows boot disk and I can't quite figure out how to make one. So I guess I am wondering if acronis can provide the answer? I have the rescue media, not sure if thats the same as the windows xp boot dusk. If not can anyone help direct this noob?

 

Hi pcu,

Boot up the computer, but go into your Computer Bios. Set the Defaults and restart the computer. Once restarted, go back into Computer Bios and make any necessary changes and save the changes.

Now try booting up the computer. This problem occurs with Computers having a mixture of Hard Drive types. Referring to Regular IDE Hard Drives and SATA Hard Drive.

 

The TrueImage Recovery CD is nothing like the Windows installation CD unfortunately.

However, you can boot from the TI Recovery CD and make an image of your hard drive. Select the entire hard drive (all partitions) and make an image to an external USB drive or some other location. This will allow you to get back to where you are now in the event that an attempted fix makes things worse.

You will also be able to recover data files from the image by mounting it as a virtual disk drive.

Have you called Dell tech support? They may have specific experience with this problem on your particular system.

 

OK so I ran my hard drives utility feature and it gives me two options. 1) Erase the whole disk or 2) rewrite the corrupted sectors.

So I'm thinking option 2 is the way to go. First I need some help making the image and whatnot.

First ?: To make the image do I need the external HD to be at least the same size as the as the laptop HD that I am trying to make the image from? For instance the laptop is a 160GB. I own a 150GB external HD. Is that going to work or will I need to purchase another external 160 GB HD?

I have not called Dell. I can surely try but in the past they have been absolutely useless.

 

Anyone know?

 

Unless your 160GB hard drive is completely full, you should be able to save an entire disk backup image to the 150GB drive. Even if the 160GB were full, you'd problably still fit the image since TI doesn't save the swap file, hibernation file and uses compression. Also only the used sectors of the hard disk are backed up. If you have only 50GB of data on the drive your image might only be 30-40GB. If you have 100GB of data then the image may be 60-80GB. It just depends on what types of files you have and how well they compress.

 

I hope you guys are still visiting this thread. You will probably see that I have not posted too much in the forum.

I have the same problem of "Unmountable_Boot_Volume". I also have a rescue disk from January 2006 that is not being picked up from the CD drive. I have a USB drive but it is pretty small and is one of the kind that may have partitions and that loads software and pretty much disables one of my computers. I am not feeling confident about using that suggestion for fear that I will spend a lot of time fixing problems related to the solution rather than on the current problem.

1. I might be able to work with the BIOS suggestion in this thread. Would "thecreator", or someone who knows the details behind "thecreator's" suggestion help me out? I am in the BIOS interface but do not know what it means to "set the defaults." If the suggestion relates to the "boot order" I currently have the following selected in order: diskette drive (even though this laptop does not have one); internal hdd; usb storage device; and cd/dvd/cd-rw drive.

2. I have a desktop that runs the same version of XP professional. Can I create a new rescue cd on that device and expect it to boot my laptop?

Thank you for your help.

 

My advice is to download the demo of "paragon justboot corrector", the demo is a good hard drive analyzer, it'll let you read your boot.ini file and check your partitions and their drive letters. Maybe you can see some obvious damage in the that area.

On a side note, a problem similar to what you are encountering occur to me on windows xp, the computer was taking too long to start up and would occasionally shutoff and several times gave me the blue screen. I assume it was a hard drive problem, thinking someone move the computer while it was writing to the hard drive. The computer finally refuse to bootup. I decided to restore a new image to the same hard drive, but that didn't work. I decided to use a new hard drive, but that also didn't work. My copy of paragon justboot corrector wouldn't even boot up the computer (which never happen to me). I finally fix the problem by replacing the motherboard and power supply (I think it was the motherboard, but I decided to replace the power supply too.)

Worst case is the motherboard, but I would check that it's not a corruption of windows first.

http://www.justboot.us/boot_corrector.htm

 

If you browse through the BIOS menus, you should find an option for "Restore Default Values", "Load Setup Defaults", "Load Fail-safe Defaults" or "Load Optimized Defaults" or something along those lines. Basically, it sets all the BIOS options to the defaults for maximum compatibility.

Yes. The TI rescue cd is device independent. So if you need to create it on another computer you can. You would need to set your BIOS options to boot the CD drive before the hard drive so it can boot.

 

0. Do you have an image backup of the drive? You want to just restore to your last good backup.

1. Can you boot from a CD or floppy that will allow you to run chkdsk/r?

2. Easiest way to check the hardware may be to obtain a Linux LiveCD. I'm using Ubuntu. You can then boot from the LiveCD tosee if you can aqcces the drive.

 

Thank you for all of your suggestions. I have started with the Acronis boot disk suggestion and am now in the process of attempting a full backup of my machine that will not boot. My intention is to recover the files that I worked on and were not included in my last backup. Since the laptop was balking already anyway, I then figure to reformat the drive and restore files. I have two additional questions so far:

1. How can I format a disk that will not boot?

NEVER MIND!

I received an error "Failed to read data from the sector 73,508,238 of the hard disk 1." This was during Acronis attempt to conduct a full backup. I suppose I can try the incremental backup but that will likely lead to the same result? Am I toast or what else can I do now?

Thank you.

 

You need to restore the drive to the last good backup PRIOR to the errors occuring.

You then need to use chkdsk /r to see if the drive is good.
And also use the diagnostics supplied by the drive manufacturer.

If you are lucky, this will result in a working drive, but all changes since your last good backup will have been lost. If you really need those files, then do NOT further use the drive, and contact a data recovery service such as OnTrack.

Do NOT use the TI image from the backup that just failed.

 

This note is directed to Howard Kalikow. I would like to see if it is at all possible to retain one particular file on my hard disk as well as the Outlook file. My problem is that I had become lax about my backups because of a workgroup network problem that I am having. I was one week away from having that licked when this happened. My last backup is a month old.

In reading your first post, you recommended that I download Ubuntu so that I can use LiveCD. I am about 20 minutes away from having that download on the desktop of a new Windows XP laptop.

My question is about LiveCD. I do not see anything yet in the documentation about that. Nor do I see a search function on the Ubuntu web site. Can you guide me in how to access LiveCD once I put the Ubuntu download onto a CD?

 

I found the entry that made me think that I could start my damaged computer from the Rescue Disk and make an image of my hard drive. My experience tracks what Howard Kaikow wrote; that approach did not work for me on my first attempt. jmk94903, though, is also a frequent contributor. So, is there a way to boot from the rescue disk and make an image of my current damaged hard disk? I would only use that image to extract 2-3 files, not to reimage a hard drive somewhere.

Is the "TI Recovey CD" the same thing as the "Rescue Disk?"

I feel pretty ignorant asking these questions and thank the posters for your patience.

 

I had this happen during the transition from Windoze 3.1 to Windoze 95. I procastinated about gettin a Windoze 95 backup program. ZAP! Power surge killeda disk drive. Cost about $465 to use a data recovery service. Fortunately, I was ableto get ALL files.

Ubuntu documentation

Just insert the CD and reboot.

You'll get a working Ubuntu OS. The OS is created in memory, none of the disks are changed

Ubuntu should create a mount point for each of your Windows drives.
So, the first thing you need to try is navigating to the misbehaving partitition.
If you are lucky, you will be able to copy the files you want.

If your Windows partitions are FAT32, no problem, just copy the files to where you wish.

If all partitions are NTFS, then repartition to get at least a small FAT32 somewhere, then copy the files to the FAT32 partition. Or, if Ubuntu LiveCD supports this, copy the files to CD-RW.

If you have Partition Magic on floppies, you can boot from the PM flopies to repartion a drive.

Otherwise, withing linux, as I recall, the built in partition manager is a program called parted. As I recall, it's on the System menu.

 

TI can only image partitions that are good.
If you are lucky, you might beable to backup the drive, even tho you cannot boot the oS.

BUTT, and I do have a big butt, do NOT RESTORE such an image.
You might be able to recover individual files.

 

OK. I am starting to think that I am just too ignorant about linux to have much hope in this area. I went to the Ubuntu web site to try to figure out how to create a live CD. I found a post there that said to take the downloaded image of version 7.04 and write it to a CD using a Windows program. Once the CD booted, it would gve me the option to run the program off the CD or to install it on the hard disk.

I burned the CD with "ubuntu-7.04-desktop-i386.iso." When I started the damaged computer with that CD, I got a message that says "No bootable devices". Apparently I do not yet have the LiveCD.

I am stubborn, though. My questions are:

1. What do I have to do to get LiveCD?

2. Once I get it running, how do I determine the condition of my partitions?

3. If my HD is still running, How do I use TI to create the image? What I mean is, I already received that error message about not being to read a sector when when I tried to to create a full backup. Is there something I can do to get around that.

4. While I am at it, I might as well ask this, too. There have been other posts about running chkdsk /r. How can I create a boot CD that will allow me to do that?

If my questions indcate that I just have too much to learn to be able to pull this off, please tell me that. I am close to the limit of the amount of time that I am willing to put into this.

Thank you all for your help.

 

You need to create an image on the CD using the .iso file, not just copy the .iso to the CD.

For example, with Roxio's EMC 7, you could start Creator Classic, then select the item Burn from Disc Image File. You would then select the .iso file and burn the CD.

Another way is to go to a local store, such as Barnes & Noble or Borders or ... that carries Linux magazines. In recent issues, such magazines have included an Ubuntu 7.04 CD. &.04 is called Feisty, so you might see that name.

The magazines, IMNSHO, are largely overpriced, ranging from, say, $12.99 to $19.99 per issues, but if you want a CD, that might be easier if you cannot figure out how to create one from the .iso file.

Another medhod is to buy an Ubuntu CD, orget one sent free.

If you go to the main Ubuntu web site, there is a mechanism to get a free CD-ROM, but, as I recall, that can take several weeks.

THere are also links to places that sell a CD-ROM, which would be faster.

See How you can get Ubuntu.

 

Wow. Thanks for clarifying that. I have Nero on the computer that works; there is a function called "burn image to cd" and *.iso is a supported file type. I am looking forward to getting home and trying this.

I have a feeling that the attempt will be futile. The disk is making a very slow repetitive sound like it is stuck trying to access one point. On the other hand, when it is trying to boot in safe mode it gets as far as loading a bunch of drivers before it fails. I am getting conflicting messages about the state of the hard drive and hopefully this will help me sort out what is happening.

 

The messages are still conflicting, but the conflict may be moot. I probably cannot do much more with this drive. I got linux running on CD. Howard, thank you for telling me about making an image. I still have no idea why that was important but I probably would not understand the explanation, either.

Once I got linux running, it took a LONG time to do anything. When I tried to read files on my HD, I ended up walking away, doing some chores and checking every now and again to see if it was finished. When it finally finished reading my Documents and Settings folder, it said something about being sorry that it could not read all of my files. Apparently it could not tell me which ones it could not read. I did not get as far as figuring out how linux looks at partitions, but since the stuff I want is in Documents and Settings, it probably does not matter.

This has been a great learning experience but I think it is time for me to go back to to the comfortable world of point and click, viruses, worms and balky programs that try to combat it all.

Thank you all for your help.

Tag Van winkle

 

Linux is telling you that you partition is very ill, as was Windows.
THe reason for trying Linux was that sometimes a drive may not be bootable, but can still be used as a non-OS drive by Linux, or if you have a multiboot system, another OS on the same PC.

THere's also the possibility that the drive has gone physically bad.
Sometimes you can save the drive with chkdsk /r, other times you need to justreformat, and lastly, replace the drive.

You'll need the diagnostics from the drive manufacturer to test.

You likely have only two choices.

1. Pay a data recovery service, such as OnTrack to try tto recover thefiles.

2. Reformat the drive and restore your mostrecent backup, losing everything since te last backup.

 

I checked into data recovery and determined that it is too expensive for a situation where I can rebuild the one file that is truly critical.

As for seeing if the drive still works at all, thanks for pointing out the manufacturer's diagnostic disk. I am going to look for that right now.

 

The disk diagnostic says that I have an uncorrectable data error or the disk is write protected. Since I do not have the second condition, I apparently have a serious problem.

Also, I think that you may have misunderstood my lack of understanding about linux. I really get the value of using an operating system that is loaded in memory rather than on the hard disk that may not be working. The distinction that I do not understand is why an image worked and a copy did not.

But, frankly, I am very happy now to know for sure that the drive is dead. I can move forward in reentering my data without having to wonder if I am wasting my time.

Is there a post or a guide somewhere on the forums (or elsewhere) that would tell me the default locations for the Microsoft Office Outlook files and customized configuration files for Word and Excel?

Thanks again, Tag Van Winkle