Unmountable_boot_volume

Dell Inspiron 5100 laptop, XP Home, SP1

When you try to boot up, it goes through the POST, then the black "Windows" screen appears for a couple of seconds, the a Blue Screen with the following message...

A problem has been detected...blah, blah...

UNMOUNTABLE_BOOT_VOLUME

And then the usual Blue Screen message regarding hardwar/software changes.

The only changes made were a Cingular wireless GSM card and drivers, and spyware removal.

The Unmountable Boot Volume thing scares me a little. Could it mean the Boot Sector is toast? Could a Repair Install fix this?


Any advice is greatly appreciated.


Adrynalyn...WHERE ARE YOU?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!


-Steve

 

CAUSE
1.The file system is damaged and cannot be mounted.
2.You use a standard 40-wire connector cable to connect the UDMA drive to the controller instead of the required 80-wire, 40-pin cable.
3.The basic input/output system (BIOS) settings are configured to force the faster UDMA modes.

RESOLUTION
If it be the connector cable problem then replace the 40-wire cable with an 80-wire UDMA cable.
If it's a BIOS settings problem then load the 'Fail-Safe' default settings, and then reactivate the most frequently used options such as USB Support.

If it's a damaged file system case then:-
1.Insert the Windows XP CD-ROM into the CD-ROM drive, and then restart the computer.

Click to select any options that are required to start the computer from the CD-ROM drive if you are prompted.

2.When the "Welcome to Setup" screen appears, press R to start the Recovery Console.

3.If you have a dual-boot or multiple-boot computer, select the installation that you must access from the Recovery Console.

4.When you are prompted, type the Administrator password. If the administrator password is blank, just press ENTER.

5.At the command prompt, type chkdsk /r , and then press ENTER.

6.At the command prompt, type exit , and then press ENTER to restart your computer.

This takes a bit longer, but the system should boot back into Windows.

 

Cool, thanks bro.

It's a laptop, so I doubt is scenario #1.

Question, how do you reset BIOS defaults on a Dell laptop? I can't find that option in the Setup.

Also forgot to mention...It does this no matter which Boot Option is selected (Safe Mode, etc.)

I'll try to run the RC. Will a Dell XP Home CD provide me with what I need for that?


Thanks.

 

Don't own a Dell and the On-line Owner's Manual isn't any help. Sorry

 

Hey Steve.

Sorry, I was asleep

Yeah, the Dell CD will provide you with what you need to get to rcon. Its a full blwon XP CD just rebadged.

chkdsk /r should fix it as already mentioned

Or you could use that WinPE CD you created some time ago.

 

It worked!

Thanks Shadow and Adryn.

Go back to sleep, Adrynalyn Didn't mean to wake you up!

Hey, since you're up, I was wondering what you've been up to ever since the whole MS layoff thing? Hope all is well!


-Steve

 

School, went back for computer engineering. I was going to take summer classes but my wife and I are moving into a new house in 2 weeks, plus she has to take real estate license renewal classes.

So right now, I am trying to get things in order between fixing up this house for rental and getting that hosue ready to move in

I ran into an old colleague of mine yesterday working at Best Buy. Talk about a fall from grace


Last month they canned EVERYONE in the US. Now they have started to move in on Canada.

Can't entirely blame MS, its the crappy outsourcer they chose. I have nothing but contempt for that company.

 

Where can I find a dell xp boot disk? Is there somewhere to download 1? Or can someone upload 1. I have a dell inspiron 4100 that I bought on ebay a while back. It was working fine untill it got dropped. Now I get the unmountable boot volume screen.
Please any help would be very thankful.

Mark

 

1. Call Dell and order a replacement CD.
2. You should really make your own thread regarding this