HELP - Unmountable Boot Volume

Discussion in 'Software' started by Raskolnikov, Jul 15, 2007.

  1. Raskolnikov

    Raskolnikov Private E-2

    Please help me out!

    Yesterday when I first started up my laptop (Win XP SP2) it went straight to a blue screen and told me that an error occured - Unmountable Boot Volume. At the bottom it read an error code with 4 long sections of numbers; I dont have these written down. I turned off the comp and back on and chose the option to boot to the last known good configuration and that worked. I restarted and shut down and power on multiple times yesterday to see if it would have the UBV issue again and it did not.

    Something must happed while it is shut down overnight because again this morning I get the same issue again. This time, though, it wont even boot to the last known good configuration.

    Based on my research yesterday, I think what I need to do is boot to the recovery console and run chkdsk /p and possibly chkdsk /r. I have the instructions printed.

    Is this the next thing you would suggest that I do or should I go with some other option first? Will the chkdsk from the recovery console wipe out any of my data that I should get from safe mode (which did work) before running them?

    Any of your insight would be appreciated.

    Drew
     
  2. baklogic

    baklogic The Tinkerer

    If you run chkdsk /r, you should not lose any data, and it is a good way to start to solve any problems.
     
  3. baklogic

    baklogic The Tinkerer

  4. Raskolnikov

    Raskolnikov Private E-2

    Thanks baklogic.

    Here's an update. While I was in safe mode, I set the computer to run chkdsk on next restart (from within properties of C: drive). I then restarted. It went through the whole deal for about a half an hour (I'm not sure if this is the same thing that would be run from the recovery console but I tried this first).

    The computer has now booted up as normal. I haven't tried to restart yet as I am copying over my music files to DVD (this is all that I do not have backed up). I'll try a reboot after that, but if this works as yesterday, it may restart fine today and then not tomorrow.

    If it does not boot tomorrow, I guess I will need to go through the real deal in the recovery console.

    Does the check disk within the C drive properties do the same thing as within the recovery console?

    Drew
     
  5. baklogic

    baklogic The Tinkerer

    Chkdsk /r, is the same , whatever.
    If it found problems, and it happens again, run the hard drive test.
     
  6. Raskolnikov

    Raskolnikov Private E-2

    When the chkdsk ran and went through its long process, it ultimately restarted but it did not tell me whether or not it found any errors. So I dont really know the outcome of the chkdsk. I guess we'll see the next time I restart -- or tomorrow morning.

    As far as checking the harddrive is concerned, how do I go about doing that? I would need to figure out who manufactures the HD -- properties under My Computer general tab says Dell Inspirion MXC061 Intel Core 2 CPU T5600 @ 1.83GHz. I thought Intel was the Processor so I dont know if it is telling me the HD manufacturer. How do I figure this out and how do I run the check from the manufacturer.

    I will say, and this may not matter, that under the Disk Management utility (i think) it says the C drive is healthy.
     
  7. baklogic

    baklogic The Tinkerer

    If it shows as healthy, then it should be o.k.

    Dell appear to have their own hard drives.
    I would have thought with the spec you have that this is still under warranty, so I would get in touch with them, if the problem persists.
    http://support.dell.com/support/index.aspx?c=ca&cs=calca1&l=en&s=biz&~ck=mn

    Other things to check - have you downloaded updates to a program, just prior to this problem, or, had an add on to Internet Explorer?
    If so , it can be worth disabling , or, uninstalling the update/ add on, to see if they are causing it.
    To disable add ons, Internet Explorer/tools /manage add ons, and click the relevent box. (Adobe, and Apache, have been a problem, sometimes);)
     
  8. Raskolnikov

    Raskolnikov Private E-2

    baklogic, I appreciate you sticking with me on this.

    The only recent updates that I have downloaded/installed were the recent set of Microsoft updates and the regular Windows Defender update. I considered doing a system restore to a few days before this problem cropped up.

    My most recent update on this situation is as follows. I turned off my computer this afternoon for a few hours to see what would happen when turned back on. If you remember, the last thing I did was the check disk on restart from the Properties menu on the C drive.

    The computer booted normally without any unmountable boot volume error. I guess the most I can do is keep using my computer and see it the problem comes back again or not.

    If it does come back, should I do the checkdisk as I have previously, or should I do it next time through the recovery console? Would you recommend a system restore instead?

    I just want to plan ahead just in case.

    Thanks again, I do really appreciate all the help.

    Drew
     
  9. baklogic

    baklogic The Tinkerer

    If the problem returns, just run CHKDSK /R from Windows, and shut down and restart - no need to use Windows CD.
    Windows files often get corrupted by updates/instalions, add ons, antivirus , and things like adobe.
    A good checking utility from your XP CD, is sfc /scannow, to check and replace any corrupted windows files,- to save a lot of typing, this site explains it nicely.(note the space after sfc.)
    http://www.updatexp.com/scannow-sfc.html
     

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