Unmountable_boot_volume

I have read the other solutions, but my problem seems to be unique. This problem is on an older Gateway Desktop with Windows XP Media Center Edition with SP1 and SP2. Unfortunately, I can't find the original OS CD. The only XP CD I can find is the one that came with this laptop for Windows XP Professional SP3. When I put that in the CD drive on the desktop it boots up fine. I hit "R" when requested, but the only operating system it gave as an option to recover was itself on the L Drive. No sign of C:\Windows XP Media Center Edition. Does this mean my HD may be toast?

 

That's the CD I can't find. Does Ubuntu have the chkdsk cmd? Or is it possible to download a generic XP replacement from somewhere.

 

You can run chkdsk from:

ERD Commander
MiniXP
BartPE

Pretty much any NT-emulating pre-boot environment. MiniXP is on the new versions of Hiren's Boot CD, if you want to download and use that.

 

Thank you. I checked out Hirem's Boot CD. It looks like it should work so I am downloading it now. It took forever to find the actual download link. It is in very tiny print mixed in near other printed items. Most sites have a big button that says "Download Here!"

 

OK, I downloaded the file and ran the extraction. Now a little window pops up and it tells me to "Now add your files in C:\MyBootCD\CD and then click on Make ISO". What is it talking about? Where do I add said files? I see the Make ISO button, but there is no place to add the files to. There is "Source" and "Target folder on the hard drive". Then it has "Boot file" with grub4dos and isolinux as options. Below that is "Default keyboard (Optional)". Then two buttons at the bottom marked Extract ISO and Make ISO. Target folder on the hard drive is already showing C:\MyBootCD. I tried to change it to the requested folder and clicked Make ISO. It starts to run, then a little Error window pops up saying just "Error". When I click OK on the "Add your files" window, a new window pops up in Windows Explorer File Manager with the requested folder selected. No indication of what I am supposed to do. I am sure all you knowledgable people have all this stuff memorized, but without written instructions on how this is supposed to work, I am at a loss. These instructions do not seem to exist on Hirem's original site, or on the Download site. They have instructions on how to burn the CD, but nothing on how to create the final product that gets burned to the CD. Very frustrating!

 

Ignore all the buttons and just burn the big .iso file you extracted from the .zip to a CD using ImgBurn or something similar.

http://imgur.com/3yfVO.png

 

OK, let me try again. I tried to post this last night but apparently I picked the time you were doing maintenance, or at least your ISP was. I have no problem burning a disc. I found the file you referred to in a different directory. It was in the Root Directory C:\. That is where I unzipped the download. I went ahead and burned this .iso to a CD using Power2Go that came on my laptop. It gave me the option to create the CD as a bootable CD. Since that is what this is supposed to be, I selected this option. CD was burned with no errors. I tried it in the Desktop that I am trying to fix. The CD appeared to be booting up, then it stopped on the following error.

SHCDX33A, 26-DEC-2005. Based on V3.03 SHSUCDX by Jason Hood
and V1.4b SHSUCDX by John H. McCoy, Sam Houston State University

Cannot open CD driver FDCD0000. SHCDX33A cannot load!

A:\>

It would not let me enter any cmds. I had to shut off the computer to get out of it. I then tried it on this laptop with the same result.
When I unzipped the download it also put other files in my Root Directory including an .exe named HBCDCustomize.exe. I presumed this program is supposed to be used to make the real .iso file and put it in the directory where you said I should find it. My previous post is my result of trying to use this program. Since the BootCD I created does not work properly I have to think that it is because it was not created thru the program. Just unzipped. Since I could not find any instruction on Hiren's Home Page, nor on his Download Page, as to how to create the .iso file, I am asking on here how to do so. Is this program HBCDCustomize.exe irrelevant and the unzipped .iso should work? Or am I just too dense to understand the instructions in the program when the instruction do not match any of the windows it provides to do the job? Please re-read my previous post and ignore the references to the Burn Instructions. I only put them in there because they were the only instruction I DID find Hiren's sites.

 

Nevermind! I found the fix. Procedural error on my part. I was burning the CDs instead of Writing The Image. Computer is now fixed. Thank you anyway. :-D:wave