Unmountable Boot Volume

Hey,

I know this is a topic that already exists but my situation is different and I don't know what to do anymore!

Pentium 4; 2,5 GHz; Win XP Pro SP1 & Fedora Core 2 (dual boot); 768 DDR SD RAM; HD Seagate ST3120020A 120 Gb;
HL-DT-ST DVD-ROM GDR8161B
LITE-ON DVD+RW LDW 401S

Win XP Pro and Linux (FC2) are on the same HD and now I would like to remove Linux to reclaim diskspace. The way to do this is uninstall Linux and fix your MBR to get rid of GRUB. fixing your MBR can be done through the recovery console. And that's where the problem occurs.

when I boot my computer i don't have any problem at all but when I boot from the XP cd-rom i get a blue screen saying "Unmountable boot volume bla bla bla". All I can do next is restart my computer.

I already tried some solutions like checking if I had a 80 wire / 40 pin IDE cable etc... And I don't think it's the cd because I used it to run recovery console on my other computer and it works perfectly! The most common solution on google is running chkdisk /r in recovery console but I can't get in RC !

Can anybody help me please, I'm desperate...

You could try installing the recovery console to your hard drive. The recovery console will then be available from your boot menu without the need for the CD.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307654#2

http://www.tweakxp.com/tweak804.aspx

Thx JrzyCrim!

Installing recovery console on my computer did the trick!
The solution was simple but you have to know! :p

Greetz

Glad that worked for you.

I'm also trying to remove Linux, but with a clean reinstall of XP.

I've deleted all of the linux partitions with Fdisk, tried FIXMBR, FIXBOOT and chkdsk /r.

No matter what I do the XP install disk ends up in the blue screen of death....UNMOUNTABLE_BOOT_VOLUME.

I can reinstall windows 98 and linux without a problem.

Any ideas?

THanks

I'd try wiping the whole disk and starting over (assuming you have no info you need to keep on that drive.)

I suggest DBAN
http://dban.sourceforge.net/

The fastest setting should do the trick in this case.

Amazingly DBAN did not work. Ran it overnight had a beautiful clean disk the next day. XP install still gives the blue screen of death.

I guess I'm stuck with either trying a new hard drive and buying a new copy of XP. One of them must be the problem. Seems like the hard drive should be OK if WIn 98 and linux can install OK.

I suggest you install windows 98, will take only 10-20 minutes max. and then upgrade to XP

I had actually tried that once before and I did get farther into the install that way, but had some errors with reading the CDROM: installer couldn't find a file.

THe problem is fixed though. I washed the install disk and changed the hard drive cable. Suddenly everything works.

I ran into the same read error but was able to get by it by popping out the install Cd and putting it back in.

THanks for all of the suggestions.

Np, i am glad that it has helped, although if you had told us what other problems/issues you were having might have been able to help you better.

i tried doing this and i can not instal the cd i know the cd works cuz i tried it on my other computer,,,,any way i cant get out of the error message screen no matter what i try to do. Pleas HELP me asap

getting to the recovery console was silly....must tap the f12 while turning power on....barely a second to spare. Then, must hit the cd-rom option...and any key after that--no time to spare in doing either task.....had to call Dell...stay away from updates....fyi.

I have a dell LATITUDE610 LAPTOP...BLUE SREEN ERROR AS WELL: UNMOUNTABLE_BOOT_VOLUME . CANT GET ANYWHERE WITH IT ...AND NO THERE IS NOT ANY CD TO USE WITH IT.....WHER DO I GO FROM HERE PLEASE ...SLOWLY ,I AM SO FRUSTRATED

oops sorry didnt mean to have caps lock on