Unmountable boot volume error.

[Jefe]

Vaio GVN Fe790G
Win xp Pro/SP2
HD 160 Fujitsu
Intel Core Duo @ 1.66 ghz

I haven't installed any software/hardware, turned it off yesterday and just gave me the blue screen from hell.

I tried to run a recovery, I do a chkdsk /p and /r, but shit stops at 25% saying "the volume appears to contain one or more unrecoverable problems." I did a bootfix and apparently it was successful but that does shit, I still get the errors.

Any ideas before I do a format? Halp BG ur my last hope!

[Cephius]

How many times did you do a chkdsk /r? I've had it take 3-4 times before it actually went through, and then the comp booted up fine. If it still fails, yeah, you're fucked.

[Jefe]

Liek 5 tiems already >_> Piece of shit always stops at 25% ;(

[Atma]

Try typing Fixboot. This creates a new boot sector for the computer and will probably solve the problem. I'm pretty sure I had this problem myself and that's what I did to fix it.

[Cephius]

No surprise, but sounds like a critical hard drive failure. I'd say at this point you're gonna want to look for options for data recovery, and order a new drive. My suggestion would be to buy/borrow a IDE/SATA to USB adapter and plug in the hard drive to a working system. If it works, you'll be able to copy stuff off the bad drive, minus whatever sectors got corrupted. There are various data recovery programs out there too incase there's anything unrecoverable that you need to get off there. But yeah, I'd give up on the drive, if a hard drive fails a chkdsk like that pretty much means you're out of options.

[Jefe]

Well, I did the fixboot and the shit was "successful," however, I still can't get a /chkdsk /p/r. etc. to work.

At this point I think I'll try to run knoppix to see if I can recover all my projects and photos. Then reformat this thing. I think I'll do diagnostics to find out if it's the hd or the godamn OS ;(

[Shuemue]

Have you run anything like Quicktech to test the hardware?

[Cephius]

To my knowledge, all "fixboot" does is rewrite your boot.ini file. It won't fix a corrupted hard drive.

And honestly, the chances your OS is to blame for this is rather slim, especially since you say you didn't make any major hardware or software changes prior to this. It's likely a hardware failure, drives do that all the time and unfortunately formatting doesn't always fix the problem.

[Rags]

Had that happen on a Pc 20 months ago. The problem was my hard drive went. I luckily got it to boot. An then after reformatting it I had the same thing happen a month later.

After that day I went out and bought an external hard drive. Now everything I do I have saved in 2 places on my Pc and on my external hard drive. If projects are finished I will store them on cd's and dvds.

[Vyvian]

If the hard drive has mechanically failed, a format won't fix it, I wouldn't take the chance on that drive, replacing it is the best bet.

[Zigma]

Uh, everytime I look at some of the advice people give, I just want to shoot myself in the head or bash my brains in. Chances are your hard drive is fine and the file system (NTFS most likely) went bad.


Are you running chkdsk /p from the recovery console straight from the hard drive, or from a windows xp cd?

[Cephius]

Uh, everytime I look at some of the advice people give, I just want to shoot myself in the head or bash my brains in. Chances are your hard drive is fine and the file system (NTFS most likely) went bad.


Are you running chkdsk /p from the recovery console straight from the hard drive, or from a windows xp cd?

Right... because chkdsk failing multiple times at the same point clearly means your hard drive is just peachy. Get over yourself. This forum is for helping people. None of the advice was so horrible that it warranted a statement like that.

Even if your right, "chances are" you're wrong and there is something wrong with his physical drive. It's worth checking out every possible option, but I still maintain that "try to recover your shit and buy a new drive" is the best option here.

[Akucaen]

Let my experience teach you all something.

I lost not only my music, videos, saves, but my personal documents as well, all collected on harddrives since I first got my computer. Since I outgrew my harddrives in size well before they bit the dust mechanically, I never worried. Lo and behold my very first Maxtor drive decides to critical fail on me not 2 years into its operation, a head crash. Now, in my ignorant 'safety net', I'd simply copy-paste my entire set of data on the new, faster drive, and reallocate the old drive to be my windows and installed programs drive, using the 2nd and new one for media and documents.

And this was the downfall of all my data. My 4 year old WD drive outlasted my new Maxtor, and I swore off them forever. And no, don't preach to me about your favorite HD brands, or that it's ignorant to write off a company after one bad product. Not only will I not listen, I don't care. I'm still fucking pissed off about it.

Anyway, if you think anything is off... ANYTHING, you run a goddamn chkdsk, you run a SMART utility to check values, and then you submit that report. (Speedfan does this.) If you see anything out of the ordinary, including reallocated sectors, don't be a penny-pinching, stupidly-faithful, "My brand will never fail me" retard and back your shit up and get ready for shit to happen from that point on.

Though at this point, it sounds like you'll be lucky to get anything off that drive. Good fucking luck. (No, I mean it. Good luck. I really hope you do. I damn near cried when I lost mine. 10 fucking years of data. Most of it irreplaceable.)

[Zigma]

Uh, everytime I look at some of the advice people give, I just want to shoot myself in the head or bash my brains in. Chances are your hard drive is fine and the file system (NTFS most likely) went bad.


Are you running chkdsk /p from the recovery console straight from the hard drive, or from a windows xp cd?

Right... because chkdsk failing multiple times at the same point clearly means your hard drive is just peachy. Get over yourself. This forum is for helping people. None of the advice was so horrible that it warranted a statement like that.

Even if your right, "chances are" you're wrong and there is something wrong with his physical drive. It's worth checking out every possible option, but I still maintain that "try to recover your shit and buy a new drive" is the best option here.

OK

[Isiolia]

More than likely, if it was a problem in the filesystem, checkdisk wouldn't be halting like that. I've had it fix that exact error message on a machine, no sweat. Rarely does it actually fail. Every time I've seen it halt like that, it's due to physical issues with the drive. Doesn't mean it's that 100%, but chances are good...

Can do a fixboot, fixmbr, etc. Run other utilities. All that. If you can afford to just get another drive and work on recovering data from that one, it'd be better. Or at least back the stuff up from it to another machine so you're free to format the drive.

[Akucaen]

Oh, and since you have critical few hours (if that) or HD spintime left, pull that harddrive, get a new one, install windows on the new one, and get an enclosure or USB adaptor so you can pull the files that way.

DO NOT LEAVE THAT HARDDRIVE POWERED UP AND SPINNING ABSOLUTELY MORE THAN YOU HAVE TO.

[Shuemue]

Have you run anything like Quicktech to test the hardware?

You fucking idiots are arguing over whether he may or may not have physical errors on the drive, yet there are utilities that'll give you a pretty good idea one way or the other.

[Jefe]

First, thank you all for your recommendations. Well, after 3 more times, the damn thing was able to fix w/e was wrong with it. I'm not sure if it was the BOOT.INI.

I was able to get my shit back, and I will run fujitsu's diagnostics to make sure it isn't a hardware issue or at least to find out what was it (maybe OS related?). Also, I've backed up my shit just in case it hits the fan again. Thanks.

Cheers

[Cephius]

Have you run anything like Quicktech to test the hardware?

You fucking idiots are arguing over whether he may or may not have physical errors on the drive, yet there are utilities that'll give you a pretty good idea one way or the other.

We're just trying to provide suggestions. It's pretty stupid to say "your advice makes me want to kill myself" or "you're all fucking idiots" when people are just providing help for any possible cause to the problem posted. Put away your need to have the biggest e-penis for two minutes and realize people on this forum are just trying to help others. Unless advice is blatantly wrong (and guess what, nothing here is wrong even if it didn't end up applying to the OP, same with your advice) keep your retarded comments to yourself.

[Shuemue]

Protip: Telling someone to replace hardware, before testing it, makes you look a fucking idiot.