UNMOUNTABLE_BOOT_VOLUME

WingedAura · ‎09-29-2010

Recently, I got a blue screen error saying "UNMOUNTABLE_BOOT_VOLUME."
Since, I'm not that much of a tech-e. I was wondering if someone could help me revive this laptop.

It is a TOSHIBA Satellite (Pro) A110. Not sure if the "Pro" is there.

It is running Windows XP Home Edition.
And... It's around 5 years old; Warranty has expired.

When it was purchased, it only came with manual and product recovery cd (and advertisements).
I don't want to reformat it, since I have [just] a month ago.
Is there any other way?

I will try to provide as much information as needed. I'm kind of desperate to have it fixed.
If there is a possible way, then I'll reconsider buying a new PC (as I think it can run faster, but it's NOT portable).

Jerry_Lippey · ‎09-29-2010

Bug Check 0xED: UNMOUNTABLE_BOOT_VOLUME

The good news is that one can usually recover from that situation.

The bad news is that one must be a bit of a techie to do it. Also, you need either an installation CD or a floppy drive to reach the Recovery Console.

You can in most cases repair that situation by booting to the Recovery Console and running chkdsk /r. See KB555302 and KB297185. (I've made this repair many times.)

-Jerry

graywhaler · ‎05-08-2011

Hi,

I am also having the unmountable boot volume error. I was able to start once using last good configuration (after receiving the error 2-3 times) and it ran well all day, but this no longer worked after I shut down once. I think I need to boot with an install cd, but I do not have one (the one that came with the computer only offers to slick the hard drive and reinstall). The computer does not have a floppy drive. Is there a way to create a bootable cd using another xp machine? Or is there a way to get a bootable cd from Toshiba?

One other bit of info. McAfee found two trojans on its last check and cleaned them. I think that this may have something to do with my current problem. I am hopeful that if I can get into the repair console, that I may be able to make a repair without losing data (all of which is backed up, but restoring to a new computer is time consuming and expensive).

Thanks!

Jerry_Lippey · ‎05-09-2011

I was able to start once using last good configuration (after receiving the error 2-3 times) and it ran well all day, but this no longer worked

If the problem recurs, it's likely there's an intermittent hardware malfunction causing it.

Try booting into one of these operating systems to run chkdsk (or equivalent): BartPE, Knoppix, UBCD4Win, and Ubuntu

-Jerry

graywhaler · ‎05-09-2011

Hi,

I have been working on getting an install disk but don't have it yet. On a lark tonight, I started the laptop to see if anything changed. This time WIndows (instructed to start normally) indicated that a disk needed to be checked for consistency and it ran chkdsk on its own. Itfound 14 bad sectors and reconfigured and then restarted. Now Windows will start, but when I select my user name to begin work, it gets hung up in the start process. I see all my desktop icons and my wall paper, but cant do anything else and the icons in the lower right (where the network status and mcafee etc show up) didn't display. I am wondering if I still need to do a fixboot, or if I've moved onto another problem altogether.

Thanks for your earlier response, I look forward to hearing what you think.

Jerry_Lippey · ‎05-10-2011

Which model computer is that? Which Windows XP?

You can pick up a Windows XP installation CD really cheap these days.

(Fixboot is a Recovery Console command that rewrites the Active partition's boot record. There is no problem with that.)

-Jerry

graywhaler · ‎06-05-2011

Sorry for the delay between posts. The computer has been up and down since my last post. For some reason, it ran chkdsk on it's own without me needing a install disk to force it to do so. The computer would normally start after this and run fine for a while, and then after a few days, run chkdsk again. It normally finds 10-12 sectors that are bad (not the same ones so far as I can tell, I wrote down the sectors a few times with no matches) and then finishes. I guess my question is, does this indicate a hardware fault? If so, I will probably replace the laptop since it is 6 years old. Or, if this indicates a corruption in the operating system or some similar fault, I will probably go through the effort to reload the OS (maybe trying Ubuntu). I have already backed up all of my data from that computer. One note, this problem began after McAfee detected and removed 2 viruses. I wonder if that is related.

I am working on a Satellite M55-S3262 with XP and SP3.

Thanks and regards

Jerry_Lippey · ‎06-05-2011

Satellite M55-S3262

does this indicate a hardware fault?

The short answer is yes, in my opinion it does.

It's likely to be in memory. Run a long test (overnight).

Windows Memory Diagnostic

-Jerry

graywhaler · ‎06-07-2011

Hello again,

I ran the memory diagnostic overnight using the extended tests and is found no faults. I am guessing that my next step is to get the XP disc and force it to do chkdsk again since it won't do it on its own anymore. But, I think this would be just a temporary fix since it's run chkdsk any number of times without clearing up the problem.

Otherwise, maybe I could try to reload the OS or try another OS?

Thanks again.

Jerry_Lippey · ‎06-07-2011

The gold-standard test for software vs hardware trouble is to restore the hard disk to its original out-of-the-box contents using Toshiba recovery media. Those are the discs that came with the computer.

Third-party vendors offer them for old machines.

Digitalmedia-labs.com

I think it's time for a new computer.

-Jerry