BleepingComputer.com: Unmountable boot volume

Okay so I ordered a reconditioned external cd drive that was produced for use with my Dell latitude C400 laptop. When I get it do I put the XP disk in and see what happens?

Wait? Now i'm confused. Are you asking for help, or are you asking what to do w/ the cd drive?

This post has been edited by jnk1296: 12 September 2010 - 01:11 PM

I need help. When i put the xp disk in and run the recovery console it says there is nothing on my hard drive!! and when I set up xp instalation it goes to the error message 0x0000008e what do I do now?

I'm not following...what's the connection between an external CD drive...and the fact that you get an Unmountable Boot Volume error?

System manufacturer and model?

The Unmountable Boot Volume refers to your hard drive.

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

If it's something minor, running chkdsk /r from the XP Recovery Console may fix it.

How to use CHKDSK in the XP Recovery Console - http://pirules3.14.googlepages.com/recovery_console_chkdsk

If not, then I would suggest running the appropriate hard drive diagnostic on the drive.

Bootable Hard Drive Diagnostics - Vox - http://usasma.vox.com/library/post/bootabl...iagnostics.html

Louis

Oh...what led to your trying to use the Recovery Console or reinstsll XP?

This post has been edited by hamluis: 29 September 2010 - 06:01 PM

Like Louis, I also am not following the connection between an external drive and the unmountable boot volume error.

Ran into this exact situation yesterday.
Run the recovery console
Change to the C: drive by typing C: and hitting enter
The prompt should say C:\>
From there type CHKDSK /R (caps do not matter)
It could take several hours. Let it run to completion (in my case yesterday it took almost 4 hours)
When the system returns you to the C:\> prompt, restart and see if windows load

my laptop is kinda old and has a compartment on the right side that my 9 year old pulled out, this is where the hard drive is. Since then it has not worked, first I got the unmountable boot volume error message . So I bought an external cd drive since the laptop did not come with one ( I bought it second hand) so that I could run the recovery console. But all the checks say I have nothing on my hard drive. That is why I was trying to reload xp on there. The blue screen says it cant load it on that partition. Had to walk away, before I stomp on the laptop

this is a dell C400 laptop that does not have a built in cd drive.

Sometimes...I know how doctors feel when they have to drag symptoms out of prospective patients .

Seems it would have been a lot simpler to just explain everything in your initial post...

I can't help you with an external optical drive...haven't used one since 1998 or so and here are the Specs for Dell Latitude C400.

IMO...any number of things could be wrong here.

Louis

The system I did the other day said that it could not read the file structure on the C drive.
I thought it was completely gone.

chkdsk /r fixed it

Ok I'll try that. I don't know why my original post is gone, where I explained all this when it first happened, I not very smart on the computer as you can all see!!!!! But thanks for all your help, you should have a "help for ding bat red heads" section on here, for women like me!!!

You have filesystem corruption on your hard drive, when your 9 year old pulled out the drive, it was on and so it got stopped in the middle of writing files to the drive before it could finish.

Have you been able to boot to the recovery console from your XP disk? If not I'd be happy to help you so you can run a CHKDSK /R C: command and fix the corruption.

Make sure when you insert the drive back into the machine, you do it with a little quickness. Oftentimes I find if I dont push the drive in quickly, it doesn't get a good connection to the computer and can cause intermittent problems or the drive won't detect at all. Only insert and remove the drive when the power is off on the computer and the battery and power supply are removed. This hard drive is not a "hot swap" device and can get damaged from taking it in and out with the power on.

<<I don't know why my original post is gone, where I explained all this when it first happened...>>

Is the following what you refer to as "my original post"?

http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/topic343512.html

If not, it's the only other topic I see that you have made in this forum or any other BC forum.

Louis

no that was not the original post, i must have messed that up too!!!! thanks for the help, I'm gonna try doing what Gabrial said to try........

Great. Let us know how it goes, and if you need further assistance.