BleepingComputer.com: UNMOUNTABLE BOOT VOLUME

Hi Guys,

I have a:

Dell Dimension 8250
Windows XP Professional SP3
Intel® Pentium® 4 CPU 2.40 GHz
768 MB of RAM

Nothing new was installed or anything, one night it was giving us problems so we restarted it and it gave us a BSOD that said UNMOUNTABLE_BOOT_VOLUME. I tired another restart and when I did it came up with a msg before loading windows that said "Alert! System Voltage Low". I searched online for what to do and found out that the BIOS battery need replacement. I replaced it and the computer started up good. It went on to do a system scan and found a few bad sectors that were "restored"? I wanted to see if the hardrive is in a good shap or if it needs replacement.

Please let me know your thoughts and how to check the hardrive if there are anymore problems that it has. I ran a MBAM scan and it didnt find anything. Windows runs now good.

Thank you!

Run the chkdsk /r command on the boot partition/drive.

Since you can boot into XP...Start/Run...type chkdsk /r (with space between k and /) and hit Enter. Answer Y to query and hit Enter. Reboot system and let the command complete (system will boot into XP when done).

Unmountable boot volume errors are pretty common, running chkdsk /r normally handles it.

Unmountable Boot Volume - http://support.microsoft.com/kb/555302

Louis

Hey hamluis,

Thank you for your input. The computer crashed last night again after I ran chkdsk /r. I am running another chkdsk /r now and it says:

"Windows replaced bad clusters in file \Folder\Folder1\File of name (null)."

on 2 files so far. It is 7% complete.

Let me know your thoughts if you can think of the source of the problem!

Thank You!

Let it run...chkdsk /r is supposed to move files from bad clusters to new locations on the hard drive .

You may have a lot of bad sectors so it could be time-consuming...but let it run.

Louis

It got done and it had about 6-7 files in the list. I did another one and it is scanning again so far im at 20 % and no files detected. Are bad sectors always gonna be there or can they be fixed? Should I get a new harddrive?

Unlike many persons...I don't consider bad sectors a cause for panic. I've run drives with such, with no failure or loss of data.

Bad Sectors On Hard Drives - http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?art...1583&page=3

http://www.tech-faq.com/bad-sector.shtml

I will add...the fact that there is a tool in XP to recover such...should indicate that it's not necessarily time for "The sky is falling" syndrome, IMO.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bad_sector

But continued bad sectors can be an indication of physical damage to the drive, as opposed to something much less to be feared.

FWIW: It's always wise to have various spare computer parts: hard drive, mouse, keyboard, NIC (IMO).

Louis

After the last chkdsk finished and restarted now the computer is stuck at the boot menu (like when you press F8) and doesnt move. If you choose a selection it stop the seconds counter at the bottom and doesnt go any where.

Any suggestions?

Thanks for your help.

Reboot, tell us what happens.

Louis

Now its giving me:

WINDOWS/SYSTEM32/CONFIG/SYSTEM
FILE IS MISSING OR CORRUP.

=\ !!!

I think I should just replace the harddrive..... Let me know your thoughts!

I always run a hard drive manufacturer's diagnostic on a drive...before I consider replacing it. These are available at the respective website of various hard drive manufacturers.

Hard Drive Installation and Diagnostic Tools - http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/topic28744.html

Louis

The harddrive doesn't even work as slave now....
I bought a new WD hardrive and I am installing everything over again.

Thanks for your help hamluis. Please close the topic.

Easily done, happy computing .

Louis