[Raine]

Alrite, I'm no programmer by any means, but I think that I can fix most basic problems with little to no assitance. This, however, is something beyond my skill level, and I'm hoping one of your guys can make some sense of it.

Vanessa downloaded a windows update the other day and after it was installed, it requested she reboot. She did so, however, the computer wouldn't boot. Initially, it was unable to detect either of her hard drives... when it finally did detect one, and windows attempted to load, it pulled a blue screen of death, the title of which was "Unmountable Boot Volume". When I got there, I tried another restart, and again, for about 1/2 an hour, no hdd found. I disconnected the second hard drive (installed about 5 - 6 months ago) and the master drive was detected, but the same problem occured. Managed to get into the recovery console and tried a few basic things like chkdsk and the like, but they refused to work. I tried to do a clean install of windows, but nothing would take.

There is a crap load of data on this old drive that she doesn't want to lose. Her second drive has about 2000 mp3's on it and she doesn't wanna lose any of that as well. What are my options? I've considered installing windows on the second drive and setting the current master as the slave, and trying to salvage all the data that way, but I don't know if that will work/if she'll lose all her music. Advise?

[D-Dub]

1.re-flash the bios

2. go to recovery console and type fix mbr

3. might be the mother board

these things may help or may not

[Phantom]

I don't think flashing the bios will help yah there, but try the fix mbr, windows needs to rebuild it. other than that if you have another comp running take her 2 drives put them in yours and copy the data, then nuke both drives and start from scratch.

[nass]

Phantom,Jul 26 2005, 08:33 PM Wrote:I don't think flashing the bios will help yah there, but try the fix mbr, windows needs to rebuild it. other than that if you have another comp running take her 2 drives put them in yours and copy the data, then nuke both drives and start from scratch.
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first mistake was updating anything, if it wasn;t broken then don't fix it :) but now that she did what I would suggest is taking the primary drive out, the one that contains windows, slap it into another PC and run chkdsk on that drive, let it fix it and hopefully you're set. The mbr fix might work as well.....

[hardk0re]

Make sure you don't have any USB keys or memory card readers plugged to your computer. When mine is plugged in I can't boot up......

My bios has no method of changing this unfortunatly...perhaps hers does if it is the problem....

[Raine]

will fix mbr or fixboot delete any of the data currently on the drive?

[D-Dub]

Raine,Jul 26 2005, 05:28 PM Wrote:will fix mbr or fixboot delete any of the data currently on the drive?
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No just the MBR will get restored

[NOS2Go4Me]

If you put her Windows 2000 / XP CD in the drive, and boot to the point that you can see the opening screens of the install, can you do a repair?

Alternately, in XP's install... use F2 for Automated Recovery.

Also, right at boot-up, at the point you're about to get the blue-screen... can you smack F8 and get to the menu selection screen and choose Safe Mode?

Failing Safe Mode (or first even), try Last Known Good Config.

Just remember as soon as your BIOS listing of ATA devices is shown, start smacking F8.

[Raine]

That's the easy stuff Adam. Tried that right away. Safe mode and last known good config both take me to blue screen of death. Automated system recovery gets me no where. Selecting repair at the installation screen freezes the system. As I've said, I've tried the basics, but to no avail.

[D-Dub]

best bet it yank it out and check on your own computer then, run the diags on it if nothing happends then you know the drive is toast. Try fixing the mbr from your computer also.

[Raine]

LOL it's getting the damned drive out that's the problem. Whoever built her computer made it possible to take off only one side... so how I'm supposed to get the screws out on the side I can't get off, I'll never know... but looks like that's all I'm left with

[scoobasteve]

lol... this may be a stupid question al... but is there a screw holding in the drive rack?

[Raine]

scoobasteve,Jul 26 2005, 05:25 PM Wrote:lol... this may be a stupid question al... but is there a screw holding in the drive rack?
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No screw holding it in, no... Looks like the panel that won't open has been rivited in to prevent people from screwing around with it

[D-Dub]

what kind of model is it compaq?

[Raine]

Nah, it's some generic computer. Not name brand. I'll get the HDD out but will slaving it and putting it in my system work?

[D-Dub]

it should and if it cant be detected then you know where it goes........garbage

[Raine]

Sounds good. She's gonna bring it by in an hour or so. I'll fire it up and report back. Thanks for the help

[NOS2Go4Me]

I started from the beginning. I'll keep my mouth shut from now on, then <_<

[nass]

Raine,Jul 26 2005, 11:34 PM Wrote:Sounds good. She's gonna bring it by in an hour or so. I'll fire it up and report back. Thanks for the help
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make sure you change the jumpers to slave on her HD

[NOS2Go4Me]

If your current HD is set to Cable Select, ensure you change her jumpers first, or check them at least.