unmountable boot volume - blue screen of death!

angellotz

hi,i hope someone can help, we're completely lost!

my mums laptop is 3 or 4 years old. it's an advent and not the best in the world, but it has all her invoices and accounts packages on it so we desperately want to save it!

it's been very slow for a year or so, taking about 5 minutes just to load up a word document.

when we switch it on it starts up as normal, then the black and white screen with the start up options comes on (safe mode etc) and then a blue screen flashes up. it comes and goes so quickly that all we've managed to catch is the part of the message that says "unmountable boot voume".
the laptop won't run any disks, we've tried pressing f2 etc to get to the settings, and we're not having any luck!

is there anything we can do other than take it to a repair shop? we could realy do with saving the docs from it, and preferably save the laptop!

any help would be much appreciated!

tia
x

odeed

My nephew laptop had same/similar problem with BSOD at boot up, I think caused by corrupted boot files/drivers. I solved it by reinstalling windows.

However, I used linux on USB flash drive to boot pendrivelinux 2008 from http://www.pendrivelinux.com/ to access the directories with the files that needed backing up before reinstallation.

exup

another option is to install windows - but make sure you dont format the dirve.
if you put an operating system disk in - then you should be given the option to install on a fresh partition - this will keep all the old files and operating system to one side on the hard drive . so you can simply log into the new O/S and retrieve the files you need from the old folders .
Once you have got everything off then you can format the whole hard drive and fresh install.

CAUTION - if you are not sure that the new operating system is installing on a fresh partition. then don't let it carry on -otherwise it will format the harddrive automatically.

Lokolo

unmountable boot volume really means the disk is f***ed. You can get recover programs to get files off, but sometimes the files cannot be read.

Basically it means it can't read the boot settings from the drive, it could be windows files becoming corrupt and causing drive not to be read, or it could just be the drive thats gone caput.

shadowdragon

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/555302

its a boot sector problem, you can create a new boot partition and it should work cos Ive done it before.

Note what it says about step number 5 at the bottome of the page.

angelbreeze

if it is on windows xp go on ebay and buy a windows boot cd and wen you load press a button that opens your menu and install it again.

culpepper

try F11 to see if you get a boot sequence menu.
Mine does and it has 4 options I think.
If you choose disc drive and put your bootable CD/DVD disc in,it should try to boot to it

chunter

If you can, take the suspect hard drive out of the computer it's in and stick it in as a secondary drive on a second pc. (you might need some help with that)
If you're still able to read the files in the suspect drive you should be okay.
If the drive isn't being picked up or can't be accessed, your hard drive may be physically broke.

gaming_guy

Lokolo wrote: »

unmountable boot volume really means the disk is f***ed. You can get recover programs to get files off, but sometimes the files cannot be read.

Basically it means it can't read the boot settings from the drive, it could be windows files becoming corrupt and causing drive not to be read, or it could just be the drive thats gone caput.

ive had this problem once, but the disk is still working 3 or 4 years later so it isnt always drive failure.

and in my case it was that the ide cable wasnt plugged in properly

liz_uk

OMG - I have come to this board for the EXACT same reason with the EXACT laptop - an advent which is 3 years old !! LoL

Have you had any lucK??

angellotz

liz_uk wrote: »

OMG - I have come to this board for the EXACT same reason with the EXACT laptop - an advent which is 3 years old !! LoL

Have you had any lucK??

lol! sorry, no luck...just bought her a new laptop for her birthday! haven't been able to get any of her files off, actually still trying as they're quite important!