Unmountable boot volume....Fixboot.....Unable to load OS

C

Certain

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jun 16, 2005
Messages
141
The title explains just about everything, but I'll explain further.

I run Windows XP Pro SP2. Two days or so ago I ran into a problem. I got the BSOD with the error that read "Unmountable Boot Volume".

So I ran a google search and found some instructions on how to combat this. I found one method that said.

1. Boot from Windows disc and press R for recovery.
2. At prompt type: chkdsk /p
3. Then type in: fixboot

After I did this, I got a message saying it found an error with Chkdsk, and then it fixed the boot sector.

I restarted windows and got the "Error loading Operating System" error.

On the website where I found that first method that I used, it said that if the first way didnt work, to do everything over, just run "chkdsk /r" and dont do any of the other steps. Just the chkdsk /r instead of chkdsk /p.

I did that and it took forever, but when it finsihed, it said that it found and corrected one error on my volume. After this finished I restarted my PC, but I still got the "Error loading Operating System" error.

It should be noted that this is a normal ide drive and not a sata. Any help would be appreciated.
 
Boot from your XP disc again and try to repair the install using the first repair option (first time it asks). If that doesn't work, boot back from the disc, do a full repair, which is the second prompt for repairing, after it detects what OS(es) is/are currently installed. Then, re-run Windows Update.
 
DeaconFrost said:
Boot from your XP disc again and try to repair the install using the first repair option (first time it asks). If that doesn't work, boot back from the disc, do a full repair, which is the second prompt for repairing, after it detects what OS(es) is/are currently installed. Then, re-run Windows Update.
Click to expand...
So I should follow the first set of steps again and see if that works?

As far as the full repair, I'm not sure what that is exactly. Is there something I have to type in at the prompt or something?
 
You aren't going into the recovery console. Both of the steps I mentioned are from the actual install routine.
 
DeaconFrost said:
You aren't going into the recovery console. Both of the steps I mentioned are from the actual install routine.
Click to expand...
Oh, I see what you are saying now. That first repair, is the automated system recovery. I'll give that a try. The second one that you are taking about after it detects everything is the recovery console....I think. After the disc finishes loading everything it will ask if you want to install windows or if you want to press "R" and repair an installation which will then take you to the recovery console.
 
The first one isn't the automated system recovery. It's when you hit R, at a question giving you options to repair or do a fresh install.

The second option is after you pick to do the install, and after it detects a current OS, it will ask you if you'd like to repair the detected OS.

Neither one involves the automated system recovery or the recovery console.
 
DeaconFrost said:
The first one isn't the automated system recovery. It's when you hit R, at a question giving you options to repair or do a fresh install.

The second option is after you pick to do the install, and after it detects a current OS, it will ask you if you'd like to repair the detected OS.

Neither one involves the automated system recovery or the recovery console.
Click to expand...
Ohhhhh. Gotcha. It all makes sense now. I'll try it out soon as I get home. I'll let you know if it works.
 
Dude, I'd replace that drive right away. This isn't the FAT days where data can just get corrupted and the disk is ok. These are NTFS days, which implies your disk is on it's way to coaster land...

Booting to recovery console, and running FixMBR and Fixboot might fix it good enough to do backup...

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
 
Ranma_Sao said:
Dude, I'd replace that drive right away. This isn't the FAT days where data can just get corrupted and the disk is ok. These are NTFS days, which implies your disk is on it's way to coaster land...

Booting to recovery console, and running FixMBR and Fixboot might fix it good enough to do backup...

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
Click to expand...
Yep. Thats all I was trying to do was boot the drive so I could pull everything off. It was an older pata drive and I was changing to a sata anyway. It just had never given me any problems so I was going to change over while it was still good, but before I got the chance, this happened.

As far as all the methods that I tried, nothing worked. I could not get the drive to boot. Before I came to this forum looking for a solution though, I had tried to put my unbootable drive in an enclosure and pull everything off of it. For some reason, I couldnt access the drive from the enclosure. So during the process of trying to get the drive to boot, I ran chkdsk /r in the recovery console and it found and fixed the errors. Later after I exhausted all my possibilities trying to get the drive to boot, I put my sata drive back in my system and tried to read my old drive from the enclosure again. This time it worked. I guess the chkdsk fixed whatever problem the drive was having and was causing me not to be able to access it.

So I wasnt able to get it to boot, but I was able to recover all my data. Thanks for the help.
 
Ah, as Stewie Griffin would say, "Victory is mine!". Well, it's yours at this point.
 
Go into your BIOS and make sure your hard drive didn't get switched to "Automatic" . Try LBA or Large and see what happens.
 
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