BSOD

Hi all, Working on another friends PC. When it trys to boot it gets a BSOD UNMOUNTABLE_BOOT_VOLUME Stop:0x000000ED (0x82385030, 0xc0000102,0x00000000,0x00000000) The system is an AMD Abit-NF7 with 2300 barton chip. 512 corsair ram. ATI Radeon video. It has 2 HD's don't remember the make model for those. 1st boot with Knoppix yielded mostly HD errors Then tryed disconnecting the primary HD and setting the 2nd to master and booting with Knoppix and into "failsafe" It does boot but only into the backdrop screen. I'm very very rusty on Linux. Mostly what I'm trying to let the friend know is what needs to be done/bought to get it working for him. I'm thinking or getting the feeling it's the MoBo but would like some input, links, reading material, etc to be sure before I tell him he needs to re-build/upgrade the computer. Also another kind of strange thing is the power. The power only goes completily off when shut off at the PS unit. If just powered off with the power button, the fans and indicator lights remain on. That's another thing that gives me the feeling somthing is wrong with the mother Board. Thanks ahead of time for any input. Adavis

Hi,
Sorry to hear of the problem with your friend's computer.

Sometimes these errors can be fairly easily resolved, but others can end up with a format and reinstall.

For these reasons I recommend the following:

1 Ensure that his back up of all important stuff is 100% up to date, accurate and reproducible. Installation discs ready & available
2 Even if his last back up is only a day or two old take the opportunity to update it.
3 If the machine won't start in safe mode using last good config (as it probably won't) then use Knoppix to get everything copied.
4 Using the Windows Installation disc enter the recovery console and use chkdsk /r (note the space, it's essential)
5 This will try and repair the file structure and you may need to run this (all 5 stages) 3 ,4 or more times for a good fix
Note if you can't get the data off, with Knoppix try Slax as this Linux live distro, like Knoppix will give you access to the hard drive automatically, but be careful not to try writing anything to the hard drive, just get the important stuff off.
6 If he has a good disc Image (Ghost Acronis, Drive Image, Paragon or similar) then he is practically home and dry. However its surprising how few folks do this.
Some good reading here:
http://www.pcdoctor-guide.com/wordpress/?p=3117
or here:
http://www.xptuneup.com/xptuneup_stopmessages.htm
and here:
http://www.aumha.org/a/stop.php
Let us know how you go.
Regards
paws

Thanks for the reply Paws. Saving the data isn't really an issue. He already attepted to reload windows. Which failed each time he attempted it. He's not concerned about any data on the HDs. Just getting the system working. What I was trying to do is advise him on which compent(s) need to be replaced, and at the minimum cost. Since the I/O seems to be faulty I get the feeling the motherboard needs to be replaced. The system does POST, and attepts to boot into which ever OS I'm booting with, but never does boot all the way up. Windows normal, Windows Safe, Windows Boot disk, Linux (Knoppix) normal, and Linux failsafe. Before I tell him he needs to replace the motherboard I kind of wanted to get a second opinion.

Hi, OK I understand, and as you say it could be a hardware problem. Its a bit worrying that it won't boot into Linux. However as the data is not an issue, and before spending money on hardware see if you can format the drive or, delete the partition and reformat. If you can then its worth trying. Try downloading the disc manufaturers hard drive diagnostic tools, run them and see what the result is (The Seatools are good) Using format or diskpart from the recovery console via the Windows installation disc would then be my first choice. next best choice would be to slave the hard drive to a known good machine and see if it can be seen from that OS, if it can, then use Windows Disc Management to delete the partition and format, now try a fresh install of Windows. Try a new (clean) hard drive in the old machine, try a Windows fresh install from the Windows SP2 installation disc (not the manufacturers reccovery disc) if it works OK, ie seen by the bios and Windows installs then the rest of the hardware is OK. If still no joy then maybe its time to start switching over the hardware, after making sure that all daughter boards are removed cleaned and reseated, together with the memory (use Memtest on an overnight run to check. See how you go Regards paws

Thanks Paws, I'll take your advise. I have some spare parts and working PC I can play the swap game with. To be honest It's been a long time since I've had to do any real Diag work, I'm very rusty but should have thought about swithing out known good parts. tyvm for the mem jogg. I'm working on it now thru windows console, good thing is DOS commands are so ingrained in my mem I don't think I'll ever forget about the basics Fdisk, chkdsk, etc. I'll post again as I find/figure things out. Just to let you know whats going on since you've been so much help Thanks again. btw the links for the stop code(s) made some good reading.

Hi adavis. That's good to hear, Yes you are right…… those old DOS commands take us all back a bit! Let us know how you go. Regards paws