Unmountable boot volume

Discussion in 'Hardware' started by skd44, Apr 24, 2006.

  1. skd44

    skd44 Private First Class

    I have had a problem for about two weeks now, my computer will not boot and a blue screen that says unmountable boot volume keeps appearing. I have tried everything, including downloading the XP startup disks, but I can't even get those to run either. I downloaded those bc I have a compaq laptop and it didn't come with an XP disk. What should I do? I have been told that my hard drive is finished and that the only way to fix it is to get a new one, but I will lose anything. Is there ANY way to get my emails or music off the hard drive before I get a new one???
     
  2. Mada_Milty

    Mada_Milty MajorGeek

    You couldn't get XP boot floppies working? Did you configure the BIOS to boot from floppy?

    And as for CDs...you laptop came with NOTHING?!? No CDs at all?
     
  3. skd44

    skd44 Private First Class

    I switched the boot order to boot from the floppy but it doesn't even seem to be reading the floppies, and the only disks that the laptop came with were the system recovery cd's, which if I use those I will lose everything and have everything restored to factory. Those CD's don't give me any option to do anything but restore the entire laptop to factory. I don't know what else to try.
     
  4. Mada_Milty

    Mada_Milty MajorGeek

    Oh jeeez... no recovery console, nothing? That's hella lame of Compaq. With this being a laptop, I don't suppose there's much chance you could set this drive as a slave, and copy your personal files over to a master?
     
  5. skd44

    skd44 Private First Class

    Yeah unfortunately for me it didn't come with recovery console, thats why I downloaded the bootable floppy disks but those won't work as far as I've tried. As far as the slave master thing you mentioned, what does that entail or mean, I am afraid I am not familiar with any of that. I spoke with someone I know through family that worked at Comp USA in the tech dept and he told me that I have no options bc when he has seen the unmountable boot volume error that in most cases the hard drive is shot and unrecoverable. I'd like to believe there is some way to recover some of my files, at least me outlook express emails, bc I have alot of important work stuff on there. Any other suggestions???
     
  6. Mada_Milty

    Mada_Milty MajorGeek

    Please see this link for an explanation of master and slave drives. Essentially, you would be setting your old HDD up as a secondary drive so that you can pull files from it.
     
  7. bigbazza

    bigbazza R.I.P. 14/12/2011 - Good Onya Geek

    Not sure whether this will help but can you remove the 2.5"drive from your laptop?
    There is a cheap adapter / power connector / cable , that will allow a 2.5"drive to be installed into a desktop. The adapter is a combined power and pin connector and easliy connects to a desktop power connection. This may not help but may make it slightly easier as you can, at least, connect it to a working PC. Bazza

    ===

     
  8. Mada_Milty

    Mada_Milty MajorGeek

    Damn! Cheers, Bazza! That would be SLICK
     
  9. skd44

    skd44 Private First Class

    I am not sure that I follow your suggestion. What would be the advantage of removing my floppy drive and connecting it to a desktop PC? Are you saying to do this so I can run the bootable XP floppy disks on my laptop? I am not sure I understand completely? Sorry, I am just not familiar with alot of this stuff.
     
  10. bigbazza

    bigbazza R.I.P. 14/12/2011 - Good Onya Geek

    My new laptop came with a hidden partition and another partition with XP installed. It also came with the option to backup info to 3 recovery disks. First one covered the hidden partition, second one I found out was M$ XP Pro, third one was Toshiba applications and drivers.

    What I am getting at is, can you check out the disks in another PC, to see what is on them. One, or more, may be XP and allow you to do a system repair, rather than recovery (to factory installed).

    Don't lose heart yet. There are plenty of more knowledgible folks, than I, here, who are only to willing to help. Bazza

    ===

     
  11. Mada_Milty

    Mada_Milty MajorGeek

    Yeah, he's right....major geeks have beat the unmountable boot drive before! Also, setting the HDD as slave, if it didn't allow you to recover in the manner Bazza describes, it should at least allow you to copy important files over.

    You may want to do a search for people with similar problems. You may find your answer there!
     
  12. skd44

    skd44 Private First Class

    Thank you very much gentleman, I will try and see what I can find, I am not giving up yet, its just frustrating is all. I will check the bootable floppy's on my roommates desktop, but I want to be careful not to do anything to his machine either.
     
  13. bigbazza

    bigbazza R.I.P. 14/12/2011 - Good Onya Geek

    No, I'm talking about removing your HARDDRIVE from your laptop, and installing into a desktop, with a special connector /cable / adapter. In some laptops it is easier than in others. Laptops are a lot more difficult to disassemble than desktops, as you already are aware. Sometimes it is a major exercise to remove a hard drive. Bazza

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