Unmountable Boot Volume on Dell mini 10

FloFlo

Have a problem with netbook, switched it on and it has blue screen with error UNMOUNTABLE_BOOT_VOLUME and at the bottom
Technical information:
*** STOP: 0x000000ED (0x86D78030, 0xC0000006, 0x00000000, 0x000000000)

I am not that computer savvy, if you can help please do but I need step by step help.

If this is a bad problen can a computer shop fix it or is it dead?

The power flicked on and off earlier and despite power surge protector the computer flickered could this be the cause.

FloFlo

I have the recovery CD for Dell XP and am trying to follow instructions I found when searching but the netbook won't boot from the cd drive!

FloFlo

I am trying to follow these instructions but the netbook won't boot from the drive with the recovery disk in.
http://kenmc.com/2007/10/08/unmountable-boot-volume-dell-fix/

FloFlo

I can get into f12 boot options: hard drive; newtwor; cd/dvd/cd-rw; removable devices; diagnostics;

Which do I choose for external drive boot connected by usb? Should it then immediately boot from selection or do I turn off and on again?

Jnelhams

It does not sound like a hardware fault, unfortunately XP can be a bit flakey if it does close down properly. It sounds like the MBR master boot record is damaged, try this link.

http://helpdeskgeek.com/how-to/fix-mbr-xp-vista/

If that doesn't work, then download a partion manager on to a usb stick and run that, you need to fixmbr, if that does not work you will need try chkdsk and failing that format as fat-32 and re-install windows.

http://www.partitionwizard.com/bootable-flash-drive.html

spannerzone

OK, just a quick thing to check, the error message might be due to a loose fitted hard drive, although unlikely it's worth checking and refitting to make sure the hard drive is correctly connecting. There's a guide on removing / upgrading here if you're feeling adventourus.

You're using an external USB CD/DVD drive I'm guessing?

It's possible that the netbook is not set to 'look' at the CD/DVD drive in the BIOS, instead it could be set to look at a USB memory stick followed by hard drive and/or CD drive.

First thing is to boot up, go into the BIOS (I think you press the F2 key several times after pressing power to go into the BIOS) and then you carefully navigate the BIOS to the boot order section where you should be able to set the cd/dvd drive as the first item it boots too (and if there's no bootable disc in the drive it goes and boots from the hard drive)

The error message you mention could be loose or faulty hard drive, damaged windows or something else.... hopefully there's nothing on the PC you'll need to recover should you have to reinstall windows fully?

Browntoa

was a nightmare getting one of these to boot from the cd drive , cannot for the life of me remember what the trick was now

FloFlo

Cannot get it to boot from cd drive with recovery disk in, even if I go into f2 and select boot, cd/dvd drive it just boots from hard drive displays blue error screen.

spakkker

Sounds like you need to boot from removable devices????

edit make sure you save and exit , usually f10 and enter.

FloFlo

spakkker wrote: »

Sounds like you need to boot from removable devices????

Tried that no sign of booting from drive.

Jnelhams

Final solution would be to remove the hard drive, pop it into an external drive caddy and format it from another pc.