Windows XP continuously reboots 0x000000ED

When I try to boot the computer, windows goes into an endless cycle of rebooting. I have used F8 to suppress auto restarts, and I am presented with a STOP error. The details of the error are as follows:

UNMOUNTABLE_BOOT_VOLUME
0x000000ED (0x8A52990, 0xC0000102, 0x00000000, 0x00000000)

But wait. Its not as simple to solve this issue as other posts might lead you to believe.

I can run the windows repair console and access the files on the drive, so I have run CHKDSK, FIXBOOT and FIXMBR to no avail.

My next course of action was to get a known good hard drive and plug that in (an IDE drive vs the previous SATA drive). I used a 80 line IDE cable, but was presented with a similar, but non-identical error:

STOP: 0x0000007B (0xBACC3528, 0xC0000034, 0x00000000, 0x00000000)

I have trawled through countless knowledgebase articles and forum posts and tried everything I found, but with no luck. I am hoping for a quick sanity check on my method - hopefully someone can spot something I've missed.

I have tried updating the BIOS to the latest version, and I have since replaced or fully tested every part of the computer I can think of. The one weak point in my test is the CPU - is there a higher function of the CPU that would only be called when windows starts? Could that be causing the issue?

The tests I have run on each part are as follows:

Motherboard:
Replaced with fresh
CPU:
Floating Point Load Test
Memory:
MemTest86+
Graphics Card:
Removed
HDD:
Ran manufacturer's full media test from Ultimate Boot CD as well as replacing SATA with known good IDE as mentioned above.
PSU:
Replaced with fresh ALPINE-500W
Cables:
Replaced IDE cable with fresh 80-line cable. Also switched SATA cables.

Please help - I've been stuck on this issue now for 2 weeks and tried everything I can find with no sign of success.

Thanks in advance-

-Selwyn

 

Greetings, sleeke.

Sounds as if you've certainly tried the normal approaches - kudos for an excellent opening post.

One quickie might be to boot to a live Linux environment (Mint and Ubuntu are a couple of good ones). You'll have to burn the download to CD as an image file: if you don't already have an image-burning software, ImgBurn is a good freebie.

If you can boot to the Linux CD, you might be able to tell if this is a hardware vs. software problem.

 

The 0x7b BSOD may be because the IDE disk came from a different computer.

As the original disk is SATA and you seem to have ruled out the other internal hardware already, I'd hook up the SATA drive to another PC and scan it for malware.

 

Thanks to you both for your quick responses, and great ideas I hadn't thought of.

Special thanks to Satrow - I wasn't aware that 0x0000007B might be caused by using a drive from another computer. I thought it was a very similar error to 0x000000ED from the literature I had read, possibly an IDE equivalent.

I was sure I had tried (and failed) a clean install of Windows XP on a fresh drive, but after trying it again this evening it seems I was mistaken, as a fresh install seems to have solved my issue. Now I just have to recover all the data from my non bootable disk!

I have to say I feel a little sheepish, but very glad that someone could reveal where my false assumptions were.

One thing I am worried about now is this: Should I re-format the hard drive with the faulty MBR, reinstall Windows and continue using it, or am I likely to have the same error in the future? I never did trace the cause of the error, so I guess it could be down to hardware failure on the part of the hard drive. Does anyone here know if this is usually the cause, or are there other explanations?

Thanks again for the help!

-Selwyn

 

It always helps to have a few heads around with computer problems; we each have differing experiences which in turn, will lead us along different troubleshooting paths. Anyway, I'm very pleased that you've made fast progress on this now

As to the SATA drive, as I inferred earlier, I suspect that malware maybe responsible for your problem and really needs further troubleshooting to make sure it's clean. I'd attach it to a protected PC as a slave and scan it with your A/V and Malwarebytes.

Worst case scenario is that it had a MBR redirector virus and that in trying to fix the MBR, it's made the disk unusable - very rare but I have seen it on one occasion.

So, one step at a time, I think. If you can get the SATA drive fully fixed up and operational, it'll make a better, faster boot drive than the IDE.