Holy shamoly please help! Unmountable Boot Volume?!?!?

Hello good people of the forums,

I have a used IBM Thinkpad X41 which has been running flawlessly since I bought it and took it backpacking with me to Southeast Asia. However, last night, as I was watching Scrubs on my 2.5" USB powered external HDD, suddenly everything just stopped. I turned the notebook back on and got the blue screen message beginning with "UNMOUNTABLE_BOOT_VOLUME." I tried running Safe Mode(s) but it didn't work and took me back to the same blue screen message.

I'm freaking out here people! All my Word docs are on there!

Anyhow, I went on the net at a web cafe and discovered that if I had the Windows XP CD, I could possibly fix the problem. But I don't. I also don't have the Ultrabase, which is a double punch to the eye.

Am I screwed?! I need this notebook for work! Please, please help me!!! Anything would be appreciated!

 

You can use any XP CD, doesn't have to be yours.

Try running "chkdsk" and "fix boot" (without quotes).

 

Thank you VERY much, Arkit3kt!

Can I run "chkdsk" and/or "fix boot" without an XP CD though?

 

Yes, as long as you can get to the Run command you should be able to do those.

 

if you dont have a cd, try www.bootdisk.com. you should be able to get what you need there.

 

If I recall correctly, FIXBOOT is a one-word command.

Arkit3kt is correct, though. You'll want to boot off an XP CD to the Recovery Console. Once you have a C: prompt, use the following command:

CHKDSK /R

This will check the disk for problems and fix them if possible, as well as show if you have any bad sectors on the hard disk (if you do, the disk should be replaced, and you'd better back up your data as soon as you can). Note that this process could take 30-40 minutes, since the /R is what tells CHKDSK to repair bad sectors if it finds them; this takes additional time.

FIXBOOT repairs the boot sector of the hard disk. You may also need to run FIXMBR if CHKDSK and FIXBOOT do not take care of your problems; FIXMBR fixes the Master Boot Record if it is damaged. When you run FIXBOOT or FIXMBR, you may get some scary warnings cautioning if you're sure you wish to proceed; you'll need to say yes.

I'd recommend running CHKDSK /R first and then typing EXIT (which reboots the system) to see if just running this alone will fix your problems. Best to only run FIXBOOT or FIXMBR if CHKDSK doesn't solve your problems.

 

Thank you SO much for all the help. I can't describe to you how much I appreciate it.

Running CHKDSK /R off an external CD drive with a Windows XP CD appears to have worked successfully. After it finished (it look about an hour) I typed in EXIT and it booted up without issue.

Also, as far as I could see, there was nothing about 'bad sectors' or anything. After CHKDSK finished there were some numbers shown about the disk size (I'm not exactly sure because that stuff is beyond my knowledge) but nothing about any errors or anything like that, so I'm hoping that's good news.

My concern now is making sure it doesn't happen again. It was not easy (albeit kind of hilarious) playing charades with about 7 different Cambodians in a local PC shoppe until I managed to explain to them what I needed to do.

Is there anything I can do to prevent this from happening again, or does it come down to luck - good or bad - at this point?

I'm nervous about using my external hard drive now (which is a WD Scorpio 160GB 2.5 incher). It's in a standard metallic NexStar SE case and runs off a USB cable that is split into two, so you plug one USB connector into another, and then the two of them combined into one port. I'm wondering... was that what caused the problem?

Sorry for all the added questions, but I'm concerned that if I start using the notebook as I was before, it might experience the same breakdown again.

Either way thank you again for the help!!!

 

glad your back up and running. this happens from time to time with a lot of machines i deal with. sometimes they recover and i dont have any problems with them anymore. most that dont recover have the dreaded read/write head slap with then you know your toast. if it happens again i would definitely pick up a new hard drive. always make sure your vitals are backed up somewhere. email is a good spot with all the storage they offer these days.

 

I will back up ASAP! Good call.

I have some questions I've been meaning to ask too:

1) If I do need to buy a new hard drive, considering my location in SE Asia, what should it roughly cost? Or what would it cost normally, in the US? All I'd need is a 40GB or 60GB, I think.

2) And is it an easy thing to replace?

3) Also, is there a way to make a recovery partition so that I wouldn't need to depend on an external CD/DVD drive + Windows XP CD to run a repair again?

4) And finally, do you think I can safely use my external hard drive without fear that it could have or will cause the same problem?

I figure I'd ask these questions while I have your attention.

(I hope I still do!)

Thanks!!!!!

 

1) If I do need to buy a new hard drive, considering my location in SE Asia, what should it roughly cost? Or what would it cost normally, in the US? All I'd need is a 40GB or 60GB, I think.
60-80GB 7200RPM Sata drive should cost about $45-65 USD

2) And is it an easy thing to replace?
No sweat. Consult the manual if you need help. But you will need to take the image from your hard drive now and put it on the new disk. there are many posts on this forum on how to do that.

3) Also, is there a way to make a recovery partition so that I wouldn't need to depend on an external CD/DVD drive + Windows XP CD to run a repair again?
Not really, if you drive itself fails again then you will have nothing to boot to.
4) And finally, do you think I can safely use my external hard drive without fear that it could have or will cause the same problem?
Yeah, I would run a checkdisk on that too. It will fix any problems you might have on that drive also. Always "safe remove" your usb devices to ensure your data is safe. Even though i never do.

Another note. With Bios's becoming hardware redundant and size increasing, i would not be surprised if in the near future you had a bootable on-board diagnostic ROM chip. There is already something out dealing with Start on demand and Linux but i havent heard about it lately. Hope this helps.

 

Wow! That was awesome. You answered all of my questions and then some. My notebook has been functioning without issue since I last posted, but I feel a little better knowing what my options are.

Thanks a million!!!!!!!