Reinstalling XP on M6400- Unmountable boot volume?

Hi,

I'm trying to use the Dell XP reinstallation CD and press f12 to boot from CD and let XP do its thing. However, I got a BSoD with the error message "Unmountable boot volume" or suchlike.

Anyone else had this? It happened again on the 2nd attempt, except it didn't give the error message. I just get
STOP: 0x0000008e (0xc0000006,0x9080e6fb,0xf6dcea10, 0x00000000)

EDIT:
It seems to be working now in safe mode. Since I couldn't find the reg codes with the packaging, I used magical Jellybean to find it.

EDIT x 2:
For goodness sakes, now the install says it can't find nvrd32.sys. Anyone able to suggest what I'm doing wrong?


Cheers!

 

you need to embed your sata drivers

 

Hmmm. How do I do that? I'm just using the Dell reinstallation CD

 

http://www.digitgeek.com/how-to-slipstream-sata-drivers-into-xp-cd/

 

Thanks, I'll take a look later.

 

wrong post... edited sorry!

 

To do it the "advanced" way, the term to search for is "slipstream".

But during the XP setup there SHOULD be a time when it asks you if you would like to insert a floppy disk for storage drivers. If you put your SATA drivers with their INF on a disk, in a USB floppy drive, then you press whatever key it says and it will find the drivers and embed them for you.

The floppy drive requirement is one of those big hassles still left in XP... Slipstreaming is how you get around it. (Basically you make a new XP install disk that already has the drivers in it. Dell probably did that to some extent for their OEM install disk.)

EDIT: Doh, I just noticed the link posted above is for a slipstreaming tutorial... Browser chopped off the word "slipstream"

 

Thanks Mister. Yeah, I followed the above tutorial and managed to reinstall XP.

However, I still get stutters when playing Left4Dead (although smaller now). The digital mic still doesn't work in the game. I haven't checked the standby issue yet.

However, I've really come to realise that either I have a dodgy soundcard, or this machine has the worst sound card/audio circuitry I've ever had. The sound is pretty poor generally, and Left4Dead seems to have fewer audio channels than when I play on my M1730. Anyone able to suggest a soundcard that will fit the expresscard slot of this machine? (I'm assuming that is the right slot)

Oh, and incidentally, does your HD light blink about once a second approximately once a second even when the machine is idle? Not a problem in itself, but never seen that before on my lappys.(I'm obviously just looking for problems now! ) They usually don't access the HD when idle except once in a while, but this seems to be regualr as clockwork.

Cheers!