Freaky Unmountable_Boot_Volume error - Dell Dimension 8400

[Guest]

OK, my 8 month old Dell Dimension 8400 with a 915 motherboard is giving me
the "Unmountable_Boot_Volume" error. Nothing has chnaged on the PC since I
bought it - no hardware, no software. When I try to start in to safe mode,
same error.

When I try to run the ASR, Setup says it can't find a hard disk. The BIOS
recognizes the drive fine (a Maxtor 160 GB SATA).

So I bought a new WD 160GB SATA, took out the Maxtor, stuck in the WD.
Guess what - BIOS recognizes the drive, XP Setup can't find a hard disk. I
tried all 4 SATA ports - same problem.

Any ideas?

 

[Guest]

Hi Russ,

I've experienced a very similar problem with an ASUS CUSL2 mobo last week.

OK, my 8 month old Dell Dimension 8400 with a 915 motherboard is giving me
the "Unmountable_Boot_Volume" error. Nothing has chnaged on the PC since I
bought it - no hardware, no software. When I try to start in to safe mode,
same error.

No Critical Updates downloaded nor installed? No SP2 installed?

When I try to run the ASR, Setup says it can't find a hard disk. The BIOS
recognizes the drive fine (a Maxtor 160 GB SATA).

Same here! I ran all the diagnostics from Western Digital and all return
clean. So do MS diagnostics!

So I bought a new WD 160GB SATA, took out the Maxtor, stuck in the WD.
Guess what - BIOS recognizes the drive, XP Setup can't find a hard disk. I
tried all 4 SATA ports - same problem.

I am wondering whether there were any Critical or otherwise XP Updates that
downloaded and installed on my system last week. Anyone knows of any last
week(4/20/2005 or so)?

Kurt

 

[Guest]

Caveman:

Sorry - should have clarified - XP SP2, fully up to date (automatic updates
are turned on).

Also, the Dell hard disk diagnostics do report a read/write error on the
factory installed Maxtor 160GB SATA, but that shouldn't have made a
difference to the new WD SATA.

Also, this Dimension is currently not using any RAID.

Thanks...

Russ

 

[Guest]

Sorry - should have clarified - XP SP2, fully up to date (automatic updates
are turned on).

Also, the Dell hard disk diagnostics do report a read/write error on the
factory installed Maxtor 160GB SATA, but that shouldn't have made a
difference to the new WD SATA.

Hi Russ,

So I am guessing that stuff has been downloading and installing to your
machine from MS. Everytime I had a significant problem with XP it was an
update that was eventually found to be to blame. You probably have free
support calls from Dell or MS, this might be the time to use one.

Caveman