Fixing a Windows Unmountable Boot Volume
My nephew had his first encounter with the infamous Blue Screen of Death which left his desktop computer utterly useless. Having been appointed the family “computer guy” many years ago, I received the casual, yet mildly panicked, inquiry, “Hey, can you fix Thomas’ computer? It says something about an unmountable boot thingy.”
What I did to fix the unmountable boot volume
The basic problem has been encountered by countless Windows users: A Blue Screen of Death that states somewhere in its total melt down of error information “Unmountable Boot Volume.” Fortunately in my nephew’s case the error didn’t turn his computer into a door stop. To fix the problem I had to boot the computer from a Windows XP CD in order to enter recovery mode. Then, I ran CHKDSK /p to repair the volume, ran FIXBOOT to rewrite the boot section, and rebooted the computer. Everything went off without a hitch and now my nephew is back in business.
Boot Windows XP CD, CHKDSK, and FIXBOOT in greater detail
My road to repair sounds easy, and for the most part it is; however, in an effort to be more complete, here is a more detailed description of each of the steps previously listed:
- Insert your Windows XP CD into your CDROM and restart your computer.
- Depending on the boot sequence defined in your computer’s BIOS, you may have to enter into the BIOS and set the CDROM as the first boot device.
Note: Normally, during the initial start up a message is displayed on the screen instructing you to press <DEL> or some other key to enter the BIOS. Depending on the speed of your computer, you may have to restart your computer several times to catch the message and hit the right key in time; however, when in doubt, refer to your computer’s documentation.
- Once the Windows XP CD has completely booted you’ll be left with 3 options: install a new copy, repair an existing copy, and quit
- Choose the repair option
- The repair console will open and prompt you to select the Windows installation you want to repair. Normally this option is C:\WINDOWS.
- Select installation you want to repair to continue which will ultimately leave you at a command prompt (normally C:\WINDOWS).
- At the prompt enter CHKDSK /P to check for errors on your hard drive.
- In the case of my nephew’s computer, CHKDSK cycled through the “performing additional checking or recovery…” process 3 times before it was finished. One of the last messages that CHKDSK wrote to my screen was “chkdsk found one or more errors on the volume”. Okay, that was good news… I think. Hopefully, it also repaired those problems.
- Next, type FIXBOOT at the command prompt and press enter. You’ll get asked about whether you really want to write a new bootsector to the C: partition. Type “y” for yes.
- FIXBOOT runs pretty fast, but it should leave 2 more messages on the screen: “FIXBOOT is writing a new boot sector”, and “the new bootsector was successfully written.”
After you’re done with each of these steps, it’s time for the moment of truth — remove the CD from the drive, reboot your machine, and hope for the best.
Try try again
If these steps don’t solve this problem, try it again just in case you missed something or by some other fluke the initial repairs didn’t take. If a second attempt still doesn’t solve the problem, it’s time to start thinking about a fresh install.
NOTE: This post was entered into the PureBlogging group writing project. If you want to join the project, check out the post at PureBlogging.com.
Share, Bookmark, or Email this post
|
|
If you liked this post, subscribe to TechTraction's RSS feed or TechTraction's email feed
Filed under: How-To & Tech Tips
[...] Fixing a Windows Unmountable Boot Volume by Bret Sweeden [...]
[...] Fixing a Windows Unmountable Boot Volume by Bret Sweeden [...]
[...] Fixing a Windows Unmountable Boot Volume by Bret Sweeden [...]
Don’t you love being the family “computer guy”? Very good detailed instructions. Thanks.
Yeah, it’s the curse of knowing too much. Kind of like this clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-hZDZONzyY
Yeah, CHKDSK is really useful - helped me on a number of accasions with similar problems.
If the drive still won’t boot, I usually stick it in another PC as a slave - that way you can (barring major physical damage to the HDD) copy any important files off.
If you don’t want to actually fit it inside another PC, you could just use an enclosure to convert it to a USB external drive.
Yes Stephen, that’s a good point. If the volume won’t mount converting it to a slave drive or inserting into an external enclosure will allow you to boot from a new drive and still rescue all of your important data. Thanks for the comment.
Excellent Solution! Tried losts of things but this worked perfectly. Simple enough once you get into the BIOS and change the boot sequence! Thanks
Thanks for the positive comment Greg. Happy the solution worked for you.
Oh, I know all about being ‘the family computer guy’!
Now there’s a curse if there ever was one!
And the worse thing about that curse is having to repeat yourself over and over and over and over.
Thanks for the comment Stephen.
dude thanks a ton. you saved my data.
i was about to format my pc & install new xp. i looked at your website at the right time and saved all my data that i hadnt backed up !
thanks again
Hey Shankar, I’m glad you found my tutorial helpful. It’s very rewarding to have written something that helped someone avoid a disaster. Thanks for the comment.
You rock bret. You just saved my business.
Glad to have helped Rob. Thanks for the positive comment.
Thanks so much for the information. I managed to figure out how to do the check disk on my computer the last time it froze up, but I kept having to periodically run the check disk so that the blue screen would not stop me from actually booting windows. I am glad you added the fix boot section to your instructions because I think that should prevent me from having to constantly run the check disk in the future.
Mylisa, thanks for commenting and letting me know that you found this article useful. I’m falling behind in my tech tip posts here at TechTraction but the fact that you and other readers find these tips helpful has encouraged me to get back on track.
Thanks again for the comment.
Excellent advice. Even to a noob this can save a lot of heartache and lost data.
I am the “expert” for family friends and anyone who knows me.
The recovery console is not as scary as it seems - as long as you follow the instructions! (and haven’t lost your memory of how to do it!)
Thanks
Thanks for the comment Rev Turtle. Nice to meet another “family expert.”
Thanks so much for the information. I managed to figure out how to do the check disk on my computer the last time it froz up, but I kept having to periodically run the check disk so that the blue screen would not stop me from actually booting windows. I am glad you added the fix boot section to your instructions because I think that should prevent me from having . YOUR WEBSITE HAS GREATLY HELP ME!
This seems fairly sound advice, but I’m still having problems. I get to step three and the computer becomes unresponsive. Pressing “R” does not bring up the recovery console, and the other two options (F2 to install and F3 to quit, if I remember correctly) also do nothing
One thing I should probably point out is that I’m not using the disk for the version of XP I have on my computer. I’m using XP Media Centre 2004, and I don’t think that my computer even came with the disk as it was already installed, so I’m using a copy of the same disk for XP Professional which is installed on another computer I have access too
Could this be causing the problem? If so is there any way around it? I’m pretty screwed if there isn’t
Bret you are the man!!! Followed your concise instructions and saved my day. Thanks Much! - Bob S.
Bret you are the man!! You saved my day. Thanks Much - Bob S.
Uhh when I do chkdsk /p It says it is checking the volume and performing additional checking and recovery 3 times. It is also going really slow like i started it last night and it is only 9% complete.
When I enter the CHKDSK /P or CHKDSK /R, it says that the volume appears to contain one or more unrecoverable problems. When I enter FIXBOOt, it says “FIXBOOT cannot find the system drive, or the drive specified is not valid.”
Is my hard drive toast? And, if so, is there any way I can get the data off of it?
Hi Matt, sorry for the delayed response.
Your hard drive is pretty close to being toast but there is one more thing you can try. Check out SpinRite (http://www.grc.com) from Gibson Research Corp. Lots of people have had positive results using this utility to save a drive. Good thing is that the tool has a 30 day money back guarantee. If it doesn’t solve your problem, just return it and get a complete refund.
I tired SpinRite and had no luck but that hasn’t stopped me in believing it does work. I was trying to save a drive in a RAID configuration which I think was more than it could handle. I ended up returning mine and got a complete refund without any hassle.
If SpinRite doesn’t do it for you, then get a new drive and reinstall your OS. Then, once your machine is back up and running, plug in the old drive into your IDE cable (assuming that is what you have) and make it a slave or second drive to the primary drive. If the drive is still working, but the OS on it is toast, you should be able to access the drive and remove the data you want to save. You can also achieve the same results if you buy an external hard drive enclosure and convert it into and external drive connected to your computer via USB.
The thing to keep in mind is that right now your machine won’t boot from this drive but that doesn’t mean that your data is gone. There is hope. You just have to be willing to try what I’m suggesting before you toss the drive into the trash.
Good luck and thanks for the comment.
Hi Phil, sorry for the delayed response.
CHKDSK shouldn’t take as long as you are describing. Unfortunately, I believe your only option is to power off and try again; however, be prepared for limited to no success at this point. If you still need to save the data on your drive, see my above comment to Matt regarding SpinRite and adding it to a machine as a second drive.
Good luck and thanks for the comment.
Hi Bob Saulus, thanks for the positive comment. Glad you found the post useful.
Frosty, the problem might be as you suspect — different version of XP than is installed on your system. Best thing to do is try and boot another XP Media Center Editor machine from the same CD just to see if you can get to the recovery console. This might be a difficult thing to test because you first have to find another machine running XP Media Center Edition. If you can’t, at least confirm that you can boot another XP machine and get to the recovery console with this CD. It’s a good idea to rule out the CD as the problem. If you’re still stuck, then only thing I can suggest is to contact the computer manufacturer to see if you can get a “recovery CD.” If all of that fails, you can try SpinRite as described in my previous comments or burning a copy of Knoppix (http://www.knoppix.net) to a CD. Boot Knoppix and use the disk rescue tools to see if you can repair your broken drive. I’d probably start with SpinRite and then move on to Knoppix. Last resort is to try my previous commented suggestions of adding the bad drive as a second drive to a working machine as a way to extract your data before you toss the drive in the trash.
Good luck and thanks for the comment.
I am having no luck with this. I may not be computer literate enough, I thought I was. Anyway, when I start up with the XP CD I only have option to type R for recovery, F for format, or Q to quit. If I do recovery, I still never get to the command prompt screen. HELP!!!
Now my CD drive has quit working so I can’t even use my XP CD.
Dana, it’s starting to sound like a motherboard failure or a failure with the cable that connects the hard drive and CD to the motherboard. I suggest you open your computer and see if the hard drive and the CD drive are connected to the same cable. If so, and if you have an extra cable (most likely IDE), then swap out the cable and try again. If that doesn’t work, see if there is an extra available IDE port on your motherboard. If so, try and move everything over to this port. If that still doesn’t work, it looks like you’ll need a new motherboard or perhaps it is just as easy to get a new computer. Keep in mind, do NOT throw out your old machine just yet. If you get a new machine, you probably still get your data off your old hard drive. You can either connect it to the new machine as a second hard drive or buy and external hard drive enclosure and convert it into an external USB drive. Then you should be able to access the drive and copy all of your old data to your new machine.
Hope that provides some help. Thanks for the comment.
Bret,
what do you do if you don’t have a floppy drive and your CD-ROM drive doesn’t work (and hasn’t since way before this problem)? To complicate matters, I am working with a laptop, so taking out the hard drive is significantly trickier than with a desktop (I’ve done that several times before). I have USB port available to me, and I’ve tried running through BIOS to reconfigure that way, but no success thus far. BIOS does show my hard drive, so I believe I’ve just got the corrupt .ini file.
Suggestions?
Hi Melissa thanks for the question. Unfortunately you don’t have many options as I see it. If your laptop is fairly new (made in the last few years — newer is better), then it might allow you to boot it from a USB drive. Trick is you need to get an OS onto a USB drive to boot from it. Here is one article I found that outlines the process to create a bootable USB thumb drive (http://www.weethet.nl/english/hardware_bootfromusbstick.php). If that doesn’t work for you, you can always try and get your hands on an external USB connection capable CD ROM drive to boot from. Final option is the one you don’t want — dismantle machine and remove laptop and place in an external drive enclosure so you can at least salvage your data.
Hope that helps.
Thank you so much! My computer hasn’t worked in 3 weeks! I followed your steps and everything is great!
Hi Ryan glad you found the article useful. Thanks for the positive feedback
All Hail Bret! Thanks so much. I know you’ve heard it before, but you saved my (6 years worth of data and valuable programs) butt.
A portion of the volume was unrecoverable and FIXBOOT couldn’t find a boot partition; but it booted right up into XP! Thanks again.
Thanks for the help. Worked like a charm after I found my XP CD. Had the Blue screen and it was caused by a virus. After I got it back up, I ran Malbytes “free” version and it cleaned my computer of the virus.
Thanks again
Thanks for the information. The information you posted saved my laptop! I thought I was doomed, but luckily I found your site.
Glad I could help Kyle. Thanks for the positive feedback.
Hi I’ve been stuck with this for 2 days and I still can’t figure out what to do!!! I went into recovery console and pressed R then I typed in chkdsk /r and after more than one hour at 28% completed it says “The volume appears to contain one or more unrecoverable problems”.
Then I type in fixboot c and it came back saying Fixboot cannot open the partition” Please help me I have all my real estate saved here. Is this suppose to go all the way to 100% cuz mine just went to 28% when I got the message?
holy crap it worked! simple enough also! my only issue was figuring out how to get into BIOS to move the cdrom to the 1st boot device. I’m still not sure how I did that but I did and everything went smoothly. Thanks for saving me a few $$$!!!
THANK YOU SO MUCH YOU SAVED MY LIFE and computer THANK YOU!!!!! Your instructions are the best
Also since I didn’t have a windows XP CD this website also saved my life. So for those who don’t own a windows XP installation CD download this package to access the Recovery Console.
http://tips.vlaurie.com/2006/05/23/recovery-console-for-those-without-an-xp-disk/