Unmountable Boot Volume

Dear What the Tech, Help!! I shut my computer down last night and today when I turned it on I got the BSOD that stated Unmountable boot volume. I researched the web for solutions and have gone thru booting from CD, using R to get to the recovery console, I tried the chkdsk /p and then fixboot, next did chkdsk /r without success. After chkdsk /r it got 50% completed and stated "The volume appears to contain one or more unrecoverable problems". I also tried to to run bootcfg /rebuild, but this presented "Error: Failed to successfully scan disks for Window installation. This error may be caused by corrupt file system, which would prevent Bootcfg from successfully scanning. Use chkdsk to detect any disk errors" I am unsure what to do next, I have information that I need to retrieve from this drive. Once I get that data off of there I have no problem reformatting hard drive or using the Dell Restore function to take it back to the original config. Can you please help me to figure out how to access the data on there to move to an USB external hard drive or CD/DVD? My pc is a Dell Dimension 8400, Windows XP Media Center edition, with Maxtor 160GB hard drive and 1GB Ram. I do have a Dell Dimension 5100 with Window XP, Maxtor 80GB, 1GB Ram that is running fine and I could use this to set up my failed drive as a slave, but I am unsure how to do this. Can you guide me through the best way to undertake the task of either fixing/repairing my existing hard drive or getting the data off of it Thank you very much, KES

Hi,

Let's see if your hard drive is damaged. First, you need to determine what brand hard drive you have. Unless you happen to know that information, the easiest way to find out is simply to look at the drive itself, and the manufacturer's name will be on a label on the top of the drive. To do this, turn off your computer, unplug it from the wall and wait an hour. Then open the case and you should have a clear view of the hard drive. The manufacturer will be either:

• Hitachi (or IBM for older Hitachi drives
• Maxtor
• Samsung
• Seagate
• Western Digital

There are a couple of more minor manufacturers, but those are the "big-5" with over a 90% market share.

Once you know who made the drive, close the case and plug the system back into the wall.

Now, go to the manufacturer's web site. Under Downloads or Support, etc., you will find the manufacturer's hard drive diagnostics. You should find two versions, one that creates a bootable floppy, the other that creates a bootable CD. Pick one or the other, whichever is more convenient. Then create the bootable disk following the manufacturer's instructions, boot from the disk, and run the diagnostics - there are usually two of them, a Quick one and a much longer Complete one. Run the Quick one first, and if there are no errors, run the Complete one. It isn't necessary to run the Complete one if the Quick one shows errors.

Post what you discover.

If you decide to download the CD version, that will be an iso file. To burn an .iso file, you need to use something like Nero, and do an image burn. If you do a regular burn the CD won't work. Alternatively, you can grab a free .iso burner here:

http://isorecorder.alexfeinman.com/isorecorder.htm

Watch the versions, v1 is for doing the burn on an XP SP1 system, v2 for XP SP2 and SP3. After you download the file, right click on it, and choose Install from the context menu. That will install the .iso burner. You may need to reboot.

After that, navigate to the .iso file, right click on it and there will be a new context menu item called something like "Copy file to CD". Use that, and it will correctly burn the .iso file for you.

Please let us know.

Regards,
John.

John, Thanks for the help, but it appear my drive has failed both the short and long test, see below for the log files. ————— SeaTools for DOS v2.13bPGE ————— Device 0 is ATA Device Maxtor7Y250M0 Y661071E On Intel ICH6 Max Native Address 488281249 Device is 48 Bit Addressed - Number of LBAs 488281249 ( 250.000 GB ) This drive supports Security Features SMART Is Supported And ENABLED SMART Has NOT Been Tripped DST Is Supported Logging Feature Set Is NOT Supported POH 64998 Started Long Test 1/8/2009 @ 19:56.36 [ 104294 – ][ 104295 – ] [ 104296 – ][ 104297 – ] [ 104298 – ][ 104301 – ] [ 117774 – ][ 117775 – ] [ 117776 – ][ 117777 – ] [ 117778 – ][ 117779 – ] [ 131694 – ][ 131695 – ] [ 131696 – ][ 131698 – ] [ 131700 – ][ 146046 – ] [ 160391 – ][ 160392 – ] [ 1384126 – ][ 1384127 – ] [ 1384128 – ][ 1384129 – ] [ 1384130 – ][ 6589967 – ] [ 6589968 – ][ 6589969 – ] [ 6589971 – ][ 6659855 – ] [ 6659856 – ][ 6659857 – ] [ 6659860 – ][ 6660494 – ] [ 6660495 – ][ 6660496 – ] [ 6660497 – ][ 6660498 – ] [ 6661832 – ][ 6661833 – ] [ 6661834 – ][ 6673742 – ] [ 6673743 – ][ 6673744 – ] [ 6673745 – ][ 6674097 – ] [ 6674098 – ][ 6674142 – ] [ 6674143 – ][ 6674144 – ] [ 6674446 – ][ 6674447 – ] [ 6674448 – ][ 6674449 – ] [ 6675486 – ][ 6675487 – ] [ 6675488 – ][ 6675489 – ] [ 6675518 – ][ 6675521 – ] [ 6675522 – ][ 6675526 – ] [ 6675527 – ][ 6675528 – ] [ 6675529 – ][ 6675530 – ] [ 6675531 – ][ 6675532 – ] [ 6675533 – ][ 6675566 – ] [ 6675567 – ][ 6675568 – ] [ 6675569 – ][ 6675570 – ] [ 6675571 – ][ 6675572 – ] [ 6675573 – ][ 6675582 – ] [ 6675583 – ][ 6675584 – ] [ 6675590 – ][ 6675591 – ] [ 6675598 – ][ 6675600 – ] [ 6675601 – ][ 6675602 – ] [ 6675607 – ][ 6675614 – ] [ 6675615 – ][ 6675616 – ] [ 6675619 – ][ 6675620 – ] [ 6675623 – ][ 6675638 – ] [ 6675639 – ][ 6675640 – ] [ 6675641 – ][ 6675642 – ] [ 6675644 – ][ 6675654 – ] Long Test FAILED 1/8/2009 @ 20:07.22 ————— SeaTools for DOS v2.13bPGE ————— Device 0 is ATA Device Maxtor7Y250M0 Y661071E On Intel ICH6 Max Native Address 488281249 Device is 48 Bit Addressed - Number of LBAs 488281249 ( 250.000 GB ) This drive supports Security Features SMART Is Supported And ENABLED SMART Has NOT Been Tripped DST Is Supported Logging Feature Set Is NOT Supported POH 64998 Started Short DST 1/8/2009 @ 20:08.1 DST – FAILED - Read Element LBA = 104294 Short DST FAILED 1/8/2009 @ 20:08.16 ————— SeaTools for DOS v2.13bPGE ————— Device 0 is ATA Device Maxtor7Y250M0 Y661071E On Intel ICH6 Max Native Address 488281249 Device is 48 Bit Addressed - Number of LBAs 488281249 ( 250.000 GB ) This drive supports Security Features SMART Is Supported And ENABLED SMART Has NOT Been Tripped DST Is Supported Logging Feature Set Is NOT Supported POH 65009 Started Long Test 1/8/2009 @ 20:08.28 [ 104294 – ][ 104295 – ] [ 104296 – ][ 104297 – ] [ 104298 – ][ 104301 – ] [ 117774 – ][ 117775 – ] [ 117776 – ][ 117777 – ] [ 117778 – ][ 117779 – ] [ 131694 – ][ 131695 – ] [ 131696 – ][ 131698 – ] [ 131700 – ][ 146046 – ] [ 160391 – ][ 160392 – ] [ 160394 – ][ 1384126 – ] [ 1384127 – ][ 1384128 – ] [ 1384129 – ][ 1384130 – ] [ 6589967 – ][ 6589968 – ] [ 6589969 – ][ 6589970 – ] [ 6589971 – ][ 6659855 – ] [ 6659856 – ][ 6659857 – ] [ 6659860 – ][ 6660494 – ] [ 6660495 – ][ 6660496 – ] [ 6660497 – ][ 6660498 – ] [ 6661766 – ][ 6661832 – ] [ 6661833 – ][ 6661834 – ] [ 6673742 – ][ 6673743 – ] [ 6673744 – ][ 6673745 – ] [ 6674097 – ][ 6674098 – ] [ 6674142 – ][ 6674143 – ] [ 6674144 – ][ 6674446 – ] [ 6674447 – ][ 6674448 – ] [ 6674449 – ][ 6675486 – ] [ 6675487 – ][ 6675488 – ] [ 6675489 – ][ 6675518 – ] [ 6675521 – ][ 6675522 – ] [ 6675526 – ][ 6675527 – ] [ 6675528 – ][ 6675529 – ] [ 6675530 – ][ 6675531 – ] [ 6675532 – ][ 6675533 – ] [ 6675566 – ][ 6675567 – ] [ 6675568 – ][ 6675569 – ] [ 6675570 – ][ 6675571 – ] [ 6675572 – ][ 6675573 – ] [ 6675582 – ][ 6675583 – ] [ 6675584 – ][ 6675590 – ] [ 6675591 – ][ 6675598 – ] [ 6675600 – ][ 6675601 – ] [ 6675602 – ][ 6675606 – ] [ 6675607 – ][ 6675614 – ] [ 6675615 – ][ 6675616 – ] [ 6675619 – ][ 6675620 – ] [ 6675623 – ][ 6675638 – ] [ 6675639 – ][ 6675640 – ] Long Test FAILED 1/8/2009 @ 20:12.35 Any recommendations as to what to do next. Is there anyway to retrieve my files from this drive? Or should I start seeking a local retrieval service and pay the big bucks? Thanks in advance for the help. KES

Would preforming this process on this link work to resolve error I am having?

http://webcast.broadcastnewsroom.com/artic…e.jsp?id=8658-3

Thanks,

KES

KES, no, that won't help. If you can't read the drive, there is nothing you can do. The most likely cause is electronics failure in the drive hardware. You could try mounting it as a slave drive in another computer, just in case it's not the drive itself but something else in your computer. Unlikely but possible. You're only recourse is a professional data recovery shop. This is not going to be cheap. I've seen $1000 (US) mentioned as a starting point. Don't you have any kind of backup?

You could get a distro of linux that includes a Live cd and boot to the live os, then try mounting the disk to see if you can still access the data for recovery to an external drive.

I've seen SpinRite help bring a drive back so that data could then be recovered. I use it as a maintenance tool myself. This product is at grc.com Knoppix is a linux-type option you could try. googling on it will yield information.

Rich…..WOW talk about sticker shock. I did have some stuff backed up on disk but not everything. I like the idea of trying to set the drive up to be a slave, but I have never done this. Can you provide any step by step instructions. Like I said I do have a Dell Dimension 5100 that works fine, it also has a Maxtor drive but only 80GB, whereas the one that had failed was a 250GB (I think I stated that incorrectly in first post). If you could provide the instructions I would like to give it a try. Both machines are XP Pro. Thanks in advance for the assistance. Also like the idea of using distro of Linux with Live CD and attempting to mount the drive. Briefly reviewed this and look feasable. Have you done this before with success? Thanks for all the help so far!! KES

I have rescued files from an xp disk when the MBR got messed up using Ubuntu, (it has the drivers to read and write ntfs) so yes its possible, the question is, is the Directory structure still there.

I would say try out seagate's util (it supports maxtor) and throw the hdd in your other pc, (but then heh if windows reads it, there's your answer)

You could then backup any data you can to that hdd, cd dvd etc.

Then for S&G (since people have already said it's gone, why not try) get @active killdisk (free eval) and boot that and zero out the drive. if that freezes, you know it's screwed. however, you may be able to bring it back from the dead.

just a thought.

Kes, Where are you located? File recovery with defective HW is not a simple task. I have some experience and like to keep in practice. I would be willing to make an attempt (FREE) if the costs for disk shipping are not too steep. I am near Ottawa, Canada. Recursion

1. surf to youtube 2. search for "hard drive recovery" (the "Advanced Hard Drive recovery" procedures are my favorite) I didn't explain well before about SpinRight. Had a hard drive that was clicking and wouldn't mount on windows. Ran level 2 with spinrite on it and drive came back and mounted on windows. we then got the data. I wasn't a full believer myself until I experienced it first hand. Before I used spinrite on it, the owner of the drive was told by a techRepair shop that the drive was shot and recovery not possible. if it's an NTFS volume I'd say you've got a fairly good chance but limited attempts if it's mechanical problem so planning, of course, on each attempt is key. —– I'm realizing that "not possible" is a relative situation with technology.

Thanks to all for the help and suggestions in this posting. I did try to put drive in as slave in my other pc, but it would not recognize. I was about ready to try SpinRite but decided to try the live cd option first, just for giggles. I used the Knoppix version of live cd and was able to get into the hard drive and copy all my "lost" files to an external hard drive. Again thanks to all for directing me in this quest, your efforts are much appreciated. One last question, should I try to use the Dell PC Restore option and take system back to the way it was when I first took it out of the box, or just reinstall Windows from CD that came with pc? If neither of these will work, then it looks like I am in the market for a replacement Hard drive. Thanks again and have a great weekend! KES

Well, I think that your restore partition would put more software than just the operating system on the machine. I never like the junkware that comes on new pre-built pc's. I feel that all software inherently has a weakness/exposure and don't like having anything on my machines that I don't use. I find it a pain to have to uninstall programs that come on the machine "out of the box". The Dell XP SP2 disc, only OS type I've used from Dell, only puts the operating system on (not sure of vista discs). If it were me that'd be my choice. I run killdisk on a machine before I re-install the operating system. When I'm re-installing due to infection then I wipe all partitions on the drive. If I'm re-installing due to another reason, I leave the restore partition on there (never know if that cd will get lost and the restore partition then needed). There may be some commands that will have a new restore partition put on but I do not know for sure when it comes to a Dell OS cd. Just my thoughts. Glad your data's back. Not too many things better than when a drive is recovered and data restored.