Unmountable Boot Volume?

[Damon]

Hi,

I recently moved a short distance, and in the process I suppose my PC was
left in a box in a hot garage for a few hours before being jostled into my
car and shipped about 20 miles... Long story short something must have gotten
knocked loose because I hooked it up and ran it at my new place, and when
Windows starts to load I get the blue screen and this message:

"Error:

A problem has been detected and Windows has been shut down to prevent damage
to your computer.

UNMOUNTABLE_BOOT_VOLUME

If this is the first time you've seen this stop error screen, restart your
computer. If this screen appears again, follow these steps:

Check to make sure any new hardware or software is properly installed. If
this is a new installation, ask your hardware or software manufacturer for
any Windows updates you might need.

If problems continue, disable or remove any newly installed hardware or
software. Disable Bios memory options such as caching or shadowing. If you
need to use Safe Mode to remove or disable components, restart your computer,
press F8 to select Advanced startup options, and then select Safe Mode.

Technical Information:

***STOP: 0X000000ED (0X8A944900, 0X0000006, 0X00000000, 0X00000000)"

I'm not sure what any of that means but I do recall a similar issue
occurring several years ago, this PC has always been a bit temperamental on
startup. I ran F2 Setup and flicked a few settings on and off but nothing
helped. I also cracked the thing open and did a visual inspection but there
was nothing obvious...

Any ideas?

My specs:

Dell Dimension E510
Pentium 4 3.0 ghz
2.5 gb sdram
Windows XP (media center edition) SP3
Geforce 8800 GT
40gig hard-drive
etc.

I know my way around a computer alright so I am willing to post new
information as needed.

Thanks!

D

 

[JS]

Technical Information:

***STOP: 0X000000ED (0X8A944900, 0X0000006, 0X00000000, 0X00000000)"

I'm not sure what any of that means but I do recall a similar issue
occurring several years ago, this PC has always been a bit temperamental
on
startup. I ran F2 Setup and flicked a few settings on and off but nothing
helped. I also cracked the thing open and did a visual inspection but
there
was nothing obvious...

Any ideas?

My specs:

Dell Dimension E510
Pentium 4 3.0 ghz
2.5 gb sdram
Windows XP (media center edition) SP3
Geforce 8800 GT
40gig hard-drive
etc.

I know my way around a computer alright so I am willing to post new
information as needed.

Thanks!

D

When you restart your computer or upgrade to Windows XP, you receive the
"STOP 0x000000ED UNMOUNTABLE_BOOT_VOLUME" error message
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/297185

 

[Twayne]

As the message said, if it happened again ... : Did it happen again? Or
ws it OK after that?

 

[Damon]

No, I get the blue-screen every time I restart.

I have also not installed any new hardware or software for several months,
sans the occasional game or desktop utility.

D

 

[Twayne]

No, I get the blue-screen every time I restart.

I have also not installed any new hardware or software for several
months, sans the occasional game or desktop utility.

D

I'm coming into this late, so if I'm just repeating other's suggestions,
feel free to say so.

Games are very capable of causing almost every sort of problem a
computer can experience, especially poorly written games. Desktop
utilities, well, if they're oddballs, can do a lot of the same things.

I assume you can't get into Safe Mode then? Seems like you said you get
the same error?

Have you tried uninstalling the "occasional game or desktop utility" to
see if it changes anything. Oh, you can't boot; never mind!

Do you know how, and do you have, the Recovery Console installed? Boot
from the system CD and see if you can use the Recovery Console to look
around. If it's new to you, you'll need to read up a bit on it first or
it'll just look like a standard DOS window to you. It is NOT!
You can run chkdsk for instance from the RC (recovery console) and
various other handy utilities not otherwise available. Chkdsk /r or /p
are good ones to try.

Have you tried a Repair Install? Back up first! It's non-destructive
to data, but ... those are famous last words!

Then again, there's always the full reinstall of everything. I keep
good backups and normally once I've reached an excessive time limit
trouble-shooting I resort to re-imaging my drive (Restoring from
backup). Unless I'm looking for the education, I usually consider the
fastest route to getting things working again. At least with a rebuild,
you know two days plus a few weeks of occasionally realizing what you
forgot, gets you going again if you don't have backups.
If you don't have backups, consider that all the work you're doing
could probably be automated and accomplished in about 20 minutes by
re-imaging the drive. A good backup strategy can be worth its bytes in
gold.

HTH,

Twayne`

 

[Damon]

Besides some minor ones from the 90s the only games I have installed are C&C:
Kane's Wrath and Defcon, two completely legitimate programs that have never
given me any trouble. As far as desktop utilities, we're talking standard
stuff like CCleaner, Adaware, AVG, Driver Detective, ArtRage, etc.

I only see two distinct possibilities here: One, that something physically
happened to the tower during transport, which would really really suck. Or
two, which is that the last person to use my PC was my visiting mother, who
has never touched my computer in her life.

When she came over I opened up her account on MSN, which I've also never
done before (I only use mine) and she had to wait while the computer
downloaded several dozen megabytes of her personal e-mail and settings,
information that has never been on my computer before and very possibly
contained a virus or something (she knows nothing about computers).

I grilled her over the phone last night but she doesn't remember doing
anything strange, but she also doesn't remember if she shut the thing down
correctly, which is a bad sign. So I learned my lesson on that account.

I've had this PC since 2005 and have never reformatted it or bothered to
back it up; It still runs great and I never felt like undertaking the hassle.
I back up my most important stuff on a flash-drive once in a while but that's
the extent of my paranoia.

To answer your first question, yes, I tried running Windows in Safe Mode
with the same result. But you've provided some interesting potential
solutions that I'll try when I get home from work... if I can even find my
"system CD" (I assume you mean the Windows XP disc that came with the
computer.) Assuming I ever even got one when I bought the thing in the first
place, it is buried deep inside a moving box somewhere. Egh.

Thanks and I'll get back to you,

D

 

[aLexx]

Hi I am getting the same error, unmountable_boot_volume. I cannot get into safe mode, cannot use the recovery console, no XP cd came with my computer. I have a Sony Vaio bought it in 2005, XP Media Center Edition SP3, GeForce 9800GT, 250GB IDE HD, that's all I can remember about my specs right now. I have downloaded an install disc for MCE SP3, but I still can't get into the recovery console.
Please help.


------------------------------BLUE SCREEN--------------------------------


A problem has been detected and Windows has been shut down to prevent damage to your computer.

UNMOUNTABLE_BOOT_VOLUME

If this is the first time you've seen this Stop error screen, restart your computer. If this screen appears again, follow these steps:
Check to make sure any new hardware or software is properly installed. If this is a new installation, ask your hardware or software manufacturer for any Windows updates you might need.

If problems continue, disable or remove any newly installed hardware or software. Disable BIOS memory options such as caching or shadowing. If you need to use Safe Mode to remove or disable components, restart your computer, press F8 to select Advanced Startup Options, and then select Safe Mode.

Technical Information:
***STOP: 0x000000ED (0x866A4C08, 0xC0000006, 0x00000000, 0x00000000)


------------------------------BLUE SCREEN--------------------------------


Regards,
Alex

 

[Gerry]

Damon

Does the BIOS recognise the hard drive?

Given your explanation of events I would check the cabling from
motherboard to drive. Also use an Air Duster to remove dust within the
computer casing.
http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/dim5150/en/sm/index.htm

One can never be certain but this is not a driver issue. The references
to games causing the problem are a "red herring".

Unmountable Boot Volume
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/555302

Background information on Stop error code
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms797142.aspx

0x000000ED: UNMOUNTABLE_BOOT_VOLUME
The kernel mode I/O subsystem attempted to mount the boot volume and it
failed. This error also might occur during an upgrade to Win XP on
systems that use higher throughput ATA disks or controllers with
incorrect cabling. In some cases, your system might appear to work
normally after you restart.
Source: http://aumha.org/a/stop.htm

Description of the Windows XP Recovery Console
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q314058

Try booting with all hardware peripherals, except keyboard, mouse. and
monitor, disconnected.

If you have important data files to be recovered you need to do this
before trying to fix the computer! Do you?

--


Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[Damon]

Well, I can't find either my XP CD or my Dell Utilities CD... I'm going to
have my mom send hers up from San Diego but otherwise it looks like I'm
screwed. I also did a thorough check of the inside of the case (with
air-duster) and nothing looks undone. Oh well.

Thanks any way guys.

D

 

[Bennett Marco]

Well, I can't find either my XP CD or my Dell Utilities CD... I'm going to
have my mom send hers up from San Diego but otherwise it looks like I'm
screwed.

If she doesn't have the EXACT same computer you're DEFINITELY screwed.

 

[JS]

It's still worth a try as I found one Dell CD
that worked fine on two different models.

 

[Damon]

My friend dug out an old XP CD for me to use so at the very least I can
reformat I guess.

D

 

[Damon]

Alright, my friend lent me a Windows XP Pro CD (mine is Media Center Edition
but whatever) and I ran the chkdsk /r and /p function from the F2 Repair
Console and the Recovery Console, after a few minutes of dicking around the
computer restarted and now it won't even load to the Windows logo, now I get
the DELL logo with the little loading bar and then the monitor reboots and a
message flashes quickly on the screen, something about "invalid this" and
"reading from" that... Then I get the DELL logo again and so on and so forth
into eternity.

So I went into the Windows installation tool to just do an overwrite install
of XP Pro and it said the data on the selected drive (and the only drive, C:/
but apparently unidentifiable) is too damaged to do an augmented install,
that it will have to do a full reformat, okay, so I tell it to format and I
try both the "quick" option and the regular option, both times on the blue
screen when the yellow bar gets to the end and it says "setting up files for
install" afterward the computer restarts and I just get the DELL logo over
and over and over again like before.

So now my computer is even more screwed. Great. Any ideas or is it time to
invest in a custom built rig?

D

 

[JS]

Yes,

If the Dell BIOS has an option to
disable automatic reboot on error then do so.
You might get a better look at the error message.

If that doesn't work then try another hard drive.

 

[Damon]

Alright, bought a new hard-drive (WD CAVIAR SE 160GM SATA HD 7200RPM 8MB
3.5LP 3YR), installed hardware, installed WinXP Pro, and that's all well and
good...

....but I can't seem to connect to the internet to proceed with
updating/bringing it up to standard. Our ISP is Comcast Broadband, and I've
used it successfully on the same computer in the past. It's always on and we
reset the network several times, but no matter what when I hook the network
cable up to my computer, and it lights up, nothing happens in Windows.
Nothing pops up telling me "new connection detected" or anything. "New
Connection Wizard" is useless; it tells me no network or even network
hardware can be detected. Which is odd, because I have used our Comcast
network flawlessly on my computer in the past (before the new HD and OS);
nothing shows up in the Connection Settings window. Yes, everything is
plugged in where it is supposed to be.

Any ideas? I know this seems off topic at this point but now that I have a
new HD that problem is more or less solved, and if I can get online then I
can easily take it from here.

Thanks,

D

 

[JS]

When you installed XP you most likely did a "Clean Install".
If yes then you need to install the motherboard chipset
and other device drivers, one of which will be for your
network adaptor.

Use 'Device Manager' to look for any yellow question marks

Since you need to get above mentioned drivers,
ask your friend to download the XP drivers (and there will be
a number of them) from Dell's web site for your specific make and model.

 

[Damon]

The only thing I was able to install though Add Hardware was "Microsoft
Loopback Adapter", which is the network hardware I believe. Remaining
question marks are "Ethernet Controller, PCI Device, Modem Device, Video
Controller and Universal Serial Bus. I downloaded all the drivers marked
"urgent" from A
href="http://support.dell.com/support/dow...mension 5150/E510&os=WW1&osl=en&catid=&impid=">this</a>
page of the DELL site, that being the Intel Chipset and Network drivers (The
rest being optional), extracted them onto my computer, restarted, no result.

I've never done this before and methinks I'll probably be consulting a PC
repair place pretty soon. Sad, but I'm simply tired of dealing with this
stuff. I needed my computer running weeks ago and I'm losing money over this.
Thanks for all the help any way, folks.

 

[JS]

Extracting those files is one half of the process.

Now that you extracted each of the driver files
(each to it's own directory).

1) The chipset driver should be a self installing .exe file
that you run and then reboot the PC.

2) Next go back into Device Manger and for each device that
has a question mark, starting the 'Ethernet Controller' right
click and select 'Update Driver' and choose the option to
select the location of the driver, which would be the directory
where you extracted the Ethernet drive. This should get your
Internet connectivity back. Then work on installing the other drivers.

 

[Damon]

Okay, it took a while and some tricky searching, but it worked! I've got
internet and have spent the last few hours downloading all Windows updates,
firewalls, anti-virus, drivers, etc. to bring my rig back up to standard.

So, naturally, the only thing left not working is: Sound.

Everything else is installed in Add New Hardware but when I go to install
the "IDT High Definition Audio CODEC" I get the conclusion: "This device
cannot start (Code 10)"

And all other driver downloads don't seem to work... Any ideas?

Thanks for all the help so far.

D

 

[JS]

Most likely you have the wrong sound driver.

Download and run Belarc Advisor:
http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html
It will identify the specific sound chip or card installed
in your PC. Then go back to Dell's web site and double
check that you downloaded the correct sound driver file.

As an alternative you sometimes can get the sound driver
direct from the sound chip/card manufacture's web site.
One of the more common makers is called "RealTek" but
there are others.