Trouble with Unmountable_boot_volume

Following a power outage, I encountered this error: Unmountable_boot_volume

I was unable to get to the recovery console from the XP CD. I then downloaded the Windows Set Up disks and rebooted off of floppies. After getting to the recovery console, I ran chkdsk /r, chkdsk /p and fixboot. It would read to 25-32% and then gave me the message that "one or more unrecoverable errors may have occurred." I can't get past the blue screen Unmountable_boot_volume error message.

Googling Unmountable_boot_volume provided lots of information. This is from the Microsoft site: Because of the write-pattern optimization in IDE disk drives, the caching routines sometimes write data out of order to keep drive write speeds at the fastest possible level depending on where data is located on the disk. This opens a timing window where the NTFS disk system could have critical tables damaged if a write is not finished.

I suspect that the power outage corrupted some file/function and feel that the fix somehow relates to this issue.

Any help that can be provided to help me correct this problem will be greatly appreciated.

Patrick

 

Did you see this report? http://support.microsoft.com/kb/297185
show some info from your comp.

 

Thanks for your response.

I have followed each of the steps noted in that report and can't get past the blue screen/error message.

The computer is a Gateway desktop system with windowsXP OS. The microsoft site mentions that in some cases a loose HDD cable would explain the error. The tower hasn't been moved so I don't think a loose cable is likely the cause. Since this occured following a power outage, I suspect that a boot file has been corrupted and hasn't been fixed with the recovery console chkdsk /r, chkdsk /p, fixboot sequence.

Any other guidance would be greatly appreciated.

 

Unfortunately, your hard drive has probably been damaged in the power outage Go to the HD maker's web site, download and run their diagnostic tool to confirm the drive's health. If it's fixable, the diag tool should offer the option for repair. If not, hook up the drive as a 2nd drive (slave) on a healthy PC and burn your data to CD/DVD's. If the drive is less than 3 years old, you should be able to replace it under warranty for free either thru Gateway or the drive manufacturer. Good Luck!

hd2k

 

Thanks for the suggestions. I'll give them a try.
PC