Damaged File System - Help Please!

paint

Hello all - I'm having a complete nightmare at the moment, and would really appreciate some help and guidance from a kind techie out there, who might take pity on my plight!

For some completely unknown reason, my Dell PC (Win XP) has stopped booting up - I get the XP splash screen; then a bright blue screen telling me that I have an 'Unmountable Boot Volume'. I can't get any further.

I've tried booting from the CD drive, with a Windows XP CD in the hope that I'd be able to re-install the operating system - however, it won't let me do this unless I format the C:\ drive (which it seems has become corrupted). I don't want to do this, as it contains some files that I need.

I tried entering the DOS command 'dir' against the C:\ drive just to see if it would list what was on there; but I get an error message - it's become corrupted and can't list any of the files.

Does anybody know if there is any chance of me salvaging any of the files on the C: drive, or is formating the only option?

I'd really appreciate any advice; as I'm at a total loss at the moment.

Thanks guys,
Paint

Chippy_Minton

Try the Recovery Console on XP CD - http://support.microsoft.com/kb/555302

epninety

First of all, there are a few tricks that will hopefully recover from this situation. Putting 'unmountable boot volume' into google will get you lots of instant advice... I'd start with

http://unmountablebootvolume.windowsreinstall.com/

If none of this helps, or if your data is too valuable to risk :-

You could try booting from a 'live' linux cd, or a windows type like 'ultimate boot cd' or 'bartPE'. (Google it). That should allow you to assess the state of the hard drive and back up your most important files. With UBCD you may be able to repair the disk volume as well.

You could pull the hard disk out and load it into another PC (possibly via a USB disk caddy) and do the same thing.

You could beg, borrow or buy a small hard drive to replace your stuffed one, install windows on that, then plug your stuffed one in as a second drive.

If the data on your disk is really important or hard to replace, then try to get the disk readable and back up your data before you try to repair it. 'Winhex' has worked well for me before, identifying and recovering files from a failed disk.

If your data is really important, there are professional companies who can recover data from a disk in almost any state, but expect an eye watering bill if it's really that bad.

And lastly - once you're up and running again, get a backup solution sorted out before the shock wears off I don't know how many times I've lost important work, but even with good backups, it's never entirely stress free!

paint

Thanks guys - I did google it but there was so much instant advice proffering varying solutions that I genuinely didn't know where to start! Then to top it all off the keyboard stopped working so I couldn't do anything at all - grrr.

Anyway, have eventually managed to enter in safe mode (normal mode still won't work) after taking it to bits, checking all the connections, using the recovery console and booting from CD.

All the important files are now safely stored on a USB flash drive so I'm going to format the hard drive and start again from scratch.

Thanks so much guys - what a panic! I definitely take your point epninety about a backup solution .

Phew! And thanks again.