BSOD On Startup. Please Help :(

When I turned on my computer this morning, I got a blue screen of death that reads: "UNMOUNTABLE_BOOT_VOLUME"

I tried booting to last known good settings or w/e and each type of safe mode-- neither of these worked.

I searched online for a fix and read about recovery console, so I inserted my original XP CD and proceeded to try that. I pressed, R, got the recovery console up, and tried using the chkdsk /r and chkdsk /p method. During the scan/repair process after I ran chkdsk /r, it stopped at 29% (Almost like a freeze). After about 3 hours, I came back and figured it was hopeless, restarted the comp, and repeated the same process. This time, it stopped at 25% and gave me this error: "The volume appears to contain one or more unrecoverable problems."


My computer still does not start, and I still get the same BSOD message.


It would be *nice to recover some of the files if it is at all possible, but I don't think I am willing to take it to a service shop at the moment.

Let's say that I forget about all the files on my computer and say "screw it, i don't even want them." How would I proceed from here? Would buying a new HD and installing that fix my problems? I don't know much about computers, but I imagine you would take the old one out and put the new one in, then insert the original CD and install XP/everything would be ok?

I really don't know. Any advice is MUCH appreciated. I'm in an a pickle here, and I need my computer back fairly quickly .


Thanks in advance,

David

 

:wave Welcome to Major Geeks! :major

You can recover the files if you want. You'll need a 2nd drive to store them on like an external USB drive or a flash drive, or if your PC has two CD drives and one is a burner, you can use the burner. You'll need 2 CD drives because we'll be using one for a boot CD called "The Ultimate Boot CD for Windows" or simply UBCD4Win. You can download it from here and you can read the "how to build the CD" at this link. Once you have the CD built, you boot to it. If using an external USB drive (or flash drive) be sure it's plugged in BEFORE booting to the UBCD4Win. Once it's loaded up, you'll see the very familiar look of a Windows desktop. Click Start > Programs > File Management > Explorers and select one of the several file explorers listed. I like 'xplorer2lite'. Then you browse the hard drive in the top pane, and open the external USB drive (or flash drive) in the bottom pane. Then right click a file/folder you want to save, and use the ol' copy-n-paste routine from the top pane to the bottom pane. When you're done, power down BEFORE unplugging the USB drive. If you have 2 CD drives, boot to the drive that you don't want to burn with, and put a blank in the burner. Then use one of the included burning programs to burn your stuff to CD. Easy!

On the other hand, if you don't want to save anything, the first thing I'd do is run a diagnostic on the HD to make sure it's mechanically sound. If it's healthy, there's no reason to buy another drive. You can download the free diagnostic tool from the HD maker's web site. They are usually bootable tools, so follow the manufacturer's info on creating the boot disc and running the tests. If the drive passes the test, the diagnostic program usually includes an option to erase/wipe/format the drive. You can use this feature, or (since you know the drive is mechanically and physically sound) just boot to your Windows install disc and perform a clean install using the steps in this guide.

I hope this helps! :-D Good luck!