Ahh..can anyone help?

[Zeph]

Hey..

I have a laptop here which is not booting windows!

I switch it on and after going throught the intial spiel it comes up with: UNMOUNTABLE_BOOT_VOLUME on a blue screen..

It does thes when i start: Normally, Last Known Good Configuration and Safe Mode..

Anyone know how to fix this?

Cheers..

[query]

Have you added or changed anything?

Best bet is to boot from the OS CD and use your rescue floppy (which you hopefully made up when you installed the OS;  if not, try a repair without the boot floppy).

If that doesn't succeed, download and make the boot/test/fix disc from the drive manufacturer and thoroughly test the drive - it may have developed bad sectors (i.e., have failed, or be failing).

[Zeph]

the packard bell laptop came pre-installed with windows XP home..it first happened when installing software..

Anyway, it never came with the windows cd..can you downoad the repair files from microsoft to put on floppy??

As i have the recovery disc but cannot afford to lose everything on it..

Cheers

[query]

Yes, you can download the install floppies from Microsoft.  The actual repair disc, you should have made on the system while it was working - it's specific to the system.  Sometimes you can repair without it;  often, you need it.

You can see if you can get the system to run so you can copy the data - alternatively, install a second hard drive, restore the original system to it, and mount the faulty drive so you can copy the data to it.

[Zeph]

it's a laptop, so messing with the HDD is annoying..

i cannot get windows to boot at all..so cannot make a specific repair disk. I also cannot afford to lose my info.. :(

do you have a link to the download for an xp repair disk download?..as i cannot seem to find it.

much appreciated..

[query]

If you cannot afford to lose the data, I would suggest proceeding cautiously.  Since you do not know whether the problem is software or hardware in origin, do the following:

Purchase a cable that will allow you to connect your notebook drive to a desktop system.  Connect the notebook drive and attempt to copy your data to the desktop (which must be running NT, XP or 2000 if the drive is currently formatted as NTFS).

Once your data is safely copied, TEST THE DRIVE for hardware faults with the utility provided by its manufacturer (which will be Toshiba, Hitachi, Seagate or Fujitsu, the only four companies that make notebook drives).

If the drive checks out, attempt a repair.  You can download the XP setup (not repair, setup) floppies from


http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=http://support.microsoft.com:80/support/kb/articles/q310/9/94.asp&NoWebContent=1

In order to do a true repair, you must have already prepared an emergency floppy on this system.  If you do not have it, you can try a repair (from the command console prompt generated by tbe boot from the floppies - there are six of them) using a generic process.

If the data is truly irreplaceable, I would suggest contacting a data-recovery outfit such as Ontrack - but be prepared for the cost, which will run about $3,500 and up for a 20 GByte drive.