Unmountable Boot Volume - Please help me.

[Mike]

So I'm getting an Unmountable Boot Volume error which of course means
that I can't boot into Windows. I can't do anything, I can't boot into
safe mode or use the last known good configuration thing. It seems
that I have a damaged file system. I have Windows XP Home Edition. OEM
version. No disks came with the computer. I've read Microsoft's
knowledge base articles about this problem but I'm still confused.

What exactly do I do to solve this problem with an OEM version of XP?
HP says I need a Recovery Console CD. But Microsoft's website seems to
imply that I don't need the CD that I can download the Setup disks for
Floppy boot install. There are 6 disks. Then if I boot with them then
I should be able to access the recovery console. But another Microsoft
article says something about installing the Recovery Console. So now
I'm totally lost and I really don't want to screw this up.

Does anyone know what exactly I'm supposed to do to fix this problem?

 

[Doug Knox MS-MVP]

Use the boot disk set, and when you get to the point where you're prompted
to Setup or Repair, choose Repair. This will begin the Recovery Console
session.

The only way you can install the Recovery Console startup option is if you
have a full version (or upgrade) CD. Use the command X:\I386\Winnt32.exe
/CMDCONS where X is your CD-Rom drive letter. If you have an I386 folder
on your hard drive, you might, and that's MIGHT, have WINNT32.EXE. If so,
then you may be able to install the Recovery Console anyway. However, you
must be in Windows to run the command.