Unmountable Boot Volume During XP Reformat

I am trying to reformat my hard drive from Windows XP Pro to Windows XP Home Edition, see previous post (Downgrade XP Pro to XP Home Edition????) http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=56238.

I was advised by Adrynalyne to make boot disks, which I did OK. After using the six boot disks, I get the following blue screen message on the last disk:

A problem has been detected and Windows has been shut down to prevent damage to your computer.

UNMOUNTABLE_BOOT_VOLUME

If this is the first time you’ve seen this stop error screen, restart your computer. If this screen appears again, follow these steps:

Check to make sure any new hardware or software is properly installed. If this is a new installation, ask your hardware or software manufacturer for any windows updates you might need.

If problems continue, disable or remove any newly installed hardware or software. Disable BIOS memory options such as caching or shadowing. If you need to use safe mode to remove or disable components, restart your computer, press F8 to select Advanced Startup Options, and then select safe mode.

Technical Information:

Stop 0x000000ED (0x82B10030, 0xC000003F, 0x00000000, 0x00000000)


I unplugged my printers and external devices, and now for some reason my computer will not go into safe mode when I hold down the F8 key, whereas it would go into safe mode yesterday.

Reading a previous post someone suggested making the CD Rom boot before the hard drive, which I have done too with no success. I also seem to have lost my Windows XP Pro CD so I do not know if I will be able to set up the recovery console deal.

Dell 4100
1Ghz 133 Front Side Bus
384 Ram
Windows XP Pro installed trying to get it to XP Home Edition



Shawn

 

On the last disk, or just past the Welcome to Setup screen?>

 

It occurs just after I try to run the last disk.

 

Try replacing your IDE cable to your HDD with a new 40 pin ribbon. This should take care of your problem.

 

BJGarrick,

Could you please elaborate a little bit about the 40 pin ribbon? What kind of ribbon do you suppose I have right now? Is this an expensive part to purchase? Do you suppose the riboon I have right now is bad?

At this point I am thinking maybe I should just purchase a legitimate licensed version of XP Pro and reformat the hard drive with that instead of attempting to downgrade.

I also was thinking of downgrading to Windows 98 and then upgrading to XP Home Edition. I already tried this but I get the message that my disk is not FAT32 and I need to create a partition in order to use Windows 98.

I am sure there are more than one way to skin this cat...trying to think outside the box.

Thanks

Shawn