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barbus22

35 Posts

24362

August 23rd, 2007 01:00

Windows XP would not start: Unmountable_boot_volume error

When I turn on my computer, I get the following error message on the blue screen:
 
Unmountalbe_boot_volume
 
The technical information is the following:
 
stop: 0x000000ED (0x823AD098, 0x00000006, 0x00000000, 0x00000000)
 
When I tried to start Windows in Safe Mode, I got the same message with the following technical information:
 
stop: 0x000000ED (0x823E1D30, 0x00000006, 0x00000000, 0x00000000)
 
Please help.  Thank you.

barbus22

35 Posts

August 26th, 2007 03:00

Per your recommendation, I've set the "damaged" hard drive to "Master", placed it in Nexxtech disk enclosure and connected it to the "healthy" computer.  The hard drive started spinning and I got the message that the system recognized new hardware.  When I tried to open "My Computer", that window was completly blank and when I tried to close it, I got the message "The program is not responding".  Then the entire screen got blank and I could not do anything.  So I unplugged the disk enclosure without stopping it first.  As soon as I did it, the screen returned to normal. 
 
I tried one more time...  This time the "healthy" computer did not even "see" the disk enclosure.  The light on disk enclosure was lit up indicating it was powered, but the disk did not spin. 
 
Should I try a different disk enclosure?  Nexxtech is the cheapest one and some reviews critisize it for various problems.  My main concern is that I may damage the "healthy" computer by "playing these games"...  Please help.

mombodog

2 Intern

 • 

12.7K Posts

August 26th, 2007 12:00

Try a better encosure, no you cannot damage the healthy PC by connecting a usb device.

shesagordie

12 Elder

 • 

46K Posts

August 26th, 2007 18:00

barbus22

The hard drive is toast, to recovery the data from it, you need the services of a Data Recovery Company and that can be very expensive.

Bev.




===================================================
Please don't send me questions about your system by DCF Messenger.
Post the issue in the appropriate Board, where they will be answered.

mombodog

2 Intern

 • 

12.7K Posts

August 26th, 2007 18:00

Last resort is to install it in another PC as a secondary drive, see if windows can mount the drive.
 
This would rule out any enclosure issues and if this does not work you probably have a very corrupt file system on that drive, and Windows will have to reinstalled.
 
 

barbus22

35 Posts

August 26th, 2007 18:00

I bought another disk enclosure Dynex.  When I connected the disk enclosure with the damaged hard drive to the "healthy" computer, I got the message that new hardware was recognized. It even mentioned the brand (Toshiba) of the damaged hard drive.  However, when I opened "My computer", I did not see the icon for the damaged hard drive.  When I tried to close "My computer" window, I got the message that the program is not responding.  When I tried to "stop" the disk enclosure, I got the message that it cannot be stopped due to unknown error.  Does it mean that the hard drive in the disk enclosure is absolutely dead?  Or is there anything else I can try to retrieve the data?
 
Here is some background for my problem that I didn't mention before.  The very first symptom was that the screen on my laptop would turn off (go completely dark) after the computer goes into Standby / Sleep mode.  I could not do anything to bring it back to "life" since it would not react to the keyboard or mouse.  So I had to use the power button to restart it.  I had this problem 2-3 times.  This problem occurred only when the computer went into Standby / Sleep mode.  Otherwise, it would work fine for as long as I don't let it go into that mode.  My hard drive was getting very full and I decided to defragment it.  The defragmentation was about 30% complete when my computer went into Standby mode (I was watching the TV) and the screen turned off.  After that I wasn't able to boot Windows at all, including the Safe Mode.  You know the rest of the story from my initial message...

nedzalife

9 Posts

August 26th, 2007 19:00

The hard drive obviously has physical damage to the boot sectors if it's not being recognized on a healthy computer using the enclosure, or the drive may not be spinning up at all. It's a shot in the dark as to whether a program like SpinRite would even make a difference at this point. shesagordie is probably right in that hard drive is completely toast, no recovery of the data would be easily and cheaply available. its very possible that the needle in the hard drive is toast

nedzalife

9 Posts

August 26th, 2007 19:00

new hard drive = reload of windows = solving the error msg you were receiving. if there's anything else wrong with the computer you'll get a different error msg.

barbus22

35 Posts

August 26th, 2007 19:00

I bought 120 GB Seagate hard drive for my laptop.  The box says that professional installation is strongly recommended.  I am a "cheap" guy and would like to avoid expenses as much as I can.  How difficult is it to install a new hard drive and re-install Windows?  Or does this question belong to another topic?  Thank you.

barbus22

35 Posts

August 26th, 2007 19:00

Thank you for your support through the whole process.  Now what do I need to do next.  If I get a new hard drive and have it installed, will it solve the problem?  In other words, could there be anything else wrong with the computer or do you think the problem was caused only by the hard drive?  Thank you.

quintvisk

1 Message

December 1st, 2007 07:00

Hello, I am sure this thread is a bit outdated but I have seen the same issue twice on two seperate computers within the last week.... Does anyone know if there was maybe a patch pushed from Microsoft or possibly Dell that would cause this error? It seems like too much of a coincidence to happen like this. The only common ground I can find between the 2 is that they are both Dell machines and both running XP Home. One is a laptop and the other a desktop. I will admit that both machines appear to be a bit old and neither have been particularly cared for however this seems suspicious. I am yet to find any relevant documents online to resolve the issue aside from the ones already posted here (none of which work in this case since the computers will not boot past the error message)

mombodog

2 Intern

 • 

12.7K Posts

December 1st, 2007 14:00

Quintvisk,
 
It is usually a failing hard drive,  that causes this error, but not always.
 
An update cannot cause it, but could trigger the event in some cases of file corruption
 
Can sometimes be Disk corruption (damaged file system, or heavily fragmented file system)
can be caused by virus or malware
 
The first thing to try is this.
 
 
If this gets the system back into windows, back up your data now, then do a defrag of the drive. After this run the dell diagnostics on the hard drive.
 
Welcome to the DCF

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