[PCPatrick]

I'm sure this problem has been posted before but I could not find it in a search...

When booting my laptop, a blue screen appears, saying "a problem has been detected and windows has been shut down to prevent damage to [my] computer: UNMOUNTABLE_BOOT_VOLUME"

Anyone know what the problem is and how I can get my laptop to boot properly? Thanks.

 

[deleted010511]

That means that it can't find the Hard Drive or the Boot Sector of the drive has become corrupted. Try going into the Bios, does it see the HDD? put your ear to the laptop, when booting up, does it make a clicking or scraping noise? If so the HDD needs to be replaced. If the drive is listed in the Bios and there is no noise coming from it, boot off of your Windows disc and go into the Recovery Console. Once there, in the Recovery Command Prompt type in chkdsk /f/r when you Restart it will run check disk to fix any problems with the file system and boot sector.

 

[Smooth_CriminaL]

Hi,

One thing you can do to check if the hard-drive is dying to is download the diagnostics utility of the hard-drive. Take a look at the manufacturer's website of the hard-drive(Maxtor, Samsung, Seagate, Western Digital) and download the hard drive diagnostics utility.

Download the program and put the diagnostics utility onto a CD. Then boot the computer to the CD and test the hard-drive for any errors. Good luck!!!

 

[PCPatrick]

That means that it can't find the Hard Drive or the Boot Sector of the drive has become corrupted. Try going into the Bios, does it see the HDD? put your ear to the laptop, when booting up, does it make a clicking or scraping noise? If so the HDD needs to be replaced. If the drive is listed in the Bios and there is no noise coming from it, boot off of your Windows disc and go into the Recovery Console. Once there, in the Recovery Command Prompt type in chkdsk /f/r when you Restart it will run check disk to fix any problems with the file system and boot sector.

spike2me,
I didn't hear any kind of noise when booting... How do I get into the Bios? I'm somewhat ignorant with most computer applications, techniques, etc. Thanks.

 

[PCPatrick]

Anyone know how I'd get into my laptop's Bios? Thanks.

 

[steveb1234]

When the computer is starting keep tapping f1 or f2 or the del key - this should open the bios screen- you might see your hdd listed as the primary master on the main tab or the boot tab- if your drive is visible ( detected by the bios) then the problem may be a corrupt boot record. Do not make changes to the bios settings if you do not understand them ( reset failsafe defaults is always ok if you want to try that).
If you have a full Windows XP disc you can use recovery console to try and repair the boot record - if you only have a recovery disc/partion then using that is your only option. This will mean that you lose all data on the drive.

microsoft kb link is http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314058

 

[PCPatrick]

Thanks, steveb1234. On the main bios screen, the only thing I see listed in regard to a hard drive is: "Primary Hard Drive: 60 GB." On the next page, the boot order page, "Internal HDD" and "Modular Bay HDD" are listed--but nothing about a "primary master" from what I see... I do have the full Windows XP disc. From the bios page, can I try the disc to repair? Thanks.

 

[PCPatrick]

Help... Thanks.

 

[PCPatrick]

anyone??? Thanks.

 

[steveb1234]

if you have the OS disc you can try using the recovery console- first you need to set the computer to boot from cd rom first in the bios screen - there should be a tab marked 'boot' or 'boot order' or similar. Place the XP cd in the drive and then power up the computer. A black screen will appear with the instruction 'press any key to boot from cd. Do this and a blue screen will load - let this run for a while. eventually an options screen will appear - if you want to repair press 'r' this will load recovery console.
It will ask for a password but if you have not set an adminisrators password just hit enter.
You will then be asked which windows installation you want to repair ( there should be only 1 instance so just type '1' an hit enter.
You can then try using the fixboot command.
If you can't load recovery console then choosing to reinstall windows is the only option.
Boot from cdrom again and choose the install option instead but you will lose all data.
The install screen displays options - read these and choose to install to your existing partition with a quick format to NTFS.
The rest of the process is mostly automatic except for the activation key and regional settings/keyboard layout.

 

[steveb1234]

Here is a link to the microsoft install guide www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/setup/winxp/install.mspx
Follow this and you should be able to reinstall.
Here is a link to the fixboot command syntax

http://www.microsoft.com/resources/...proddocs/en-us/bootcons_fixboot.mspx?mfr=true

If you can use recovery console the command is 'fixboot C:'
assumong that the C: drive is your primary boot drive.

 

[steveb1234]

You could also try just putting the XP disc into the cdrom drive and starting the laptop.
If the bios can't find a bootable hard drive it should automatically try the cdrom.

 

[PCPatrick]

if you have the OS disc you can try using the recovery console- first you need to set the computer to boot from cd rom first in the bios screen - there should be a tab marked 'boot' or 'boot order' or similar. Place the XP cd in the drive and then power up the computer. A black screen will appear with the instruction 'press any key to boot from cd. Do this and a blue screen will load - let this run for a while. eventually an options screen will appear - if you want to repair press 'r' this will load recovery console.
It will ask for a password but if you have not set an adminisrators password just hit enter.
You will then be asked which windows installation you want to repair ( there should be only 1 instance so just type '1' an hit enter.
You can then try using the fixboot command.
If you can't load recovery console then choosing to reinstall windows is the only option.
Boot from cdrom again and choose the install option instead but you will lose all data.
The install screen displays options - read these and choose to install to your existing partition with a quick format to NTFS.
The rest of the process is mostly automatic except for the activation key and regional settings/keyboard layout.

Everything was going well through pressing "r" to repair. After that, I reached a black, Recovery Console screen. Suddenly the C:\> prompt appeared and nothing happend after that... I'm guessing something went wrong or I need to type something at C:\> ??? Thanks.

 

[Flatbr0ke]

Everything was going well through pressing "r" to repair. After that, I reached a black, Recovery Console screen. Suddenly the C:\> prompt appeared and nothing happend after that... I'm guessing something went wrong or I need to type something at C:\> ??? Thanks.

Try chkdsk C: /f /p /r
this should take a while.Once it's done reboot.
if that doesn't help boot into recovery console again and type in fixboot Say yes to any warning prompts . Let it finish then reboot your computer.
If that still doesn't fix it try fixmbr say yes to the warning prompts. Let it finish then reboot your computer.
Hope this helps

 

[PCPatrick]

Thanks everyone for all your help! By running chkdsk at the C: prompt worked and my laptop (for now) is up and running... Thanks again!