Jump to content

Unmountable Boot Volume


Recommended Posts

Okay, so I have that blue screen that is helpful to tell me my hdd is f*cked up. UNMOUNTABLE_BOOT_VOLUME - that screen. It started as a plain screen saying hal.dll was missing or corrupted, and then progressed into that. I ran windows repair, used both chkdsk /p and chkdsk /r and then proceeded to use fixboot to create a new boot sector. Nada. The chkdsk commands ended at about 20-30% with a line saying unrecoverable problems have occurred or something. I am one step closer to reformatting, but if you guys know of a solution to avoid reformatting, then I'd be glad not to.

I am running WinXP Pro, and can't get my diag details currently (see above for why :P) so if you have questions on hardware configuration I can reply as needed. Thanks!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Dude, that sounds major bad.

Try a utility for your harddrive model if you can find one. Most manufacturers will have one that will let you try to access/recover or at the least tell you if it is totally stuffed.

Yea, most brand name ones will have the test utility for dload to floppy or wherever you want it.

But that does sound like it's time for a new one if you get that. I had a Maxtor a year ago do that with the same message, and after I used the utility test on it it basically told me to return it due to bad unrecoverable sectors/missing boot sector.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'll check the manufacturer's website (Western Digital) for any sort of utility. The disk itself is about three years old, and sometimes but not usually I'll hear a small clicking sound in the drive but it doesn't last for long. Would reformatting not even help? I was hoping not to have to buy another hdd at least for a while.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'll check the manufacturer's website (Western Digital) for any sort of utility. The disk itself is about three years old, and sometimes but not usually I'll hear a small clicking sound in the drive but it doesn't last for long. Would reformatting not even help? I was hoping not to have to buy another hdd at least for a while.

I had a laptop that started clicking periodically..... turned out the clicking was an indicator it was on its last legs.  Had to get a new HDD.  IF its the same normal sound that it made when you first bought it... then ignore it.  But if this clicking sound is somewhat recent, i would consider a new HDD.  3 Years is a good stretch, the old laptop HDD i had was 6 years old.  But most HDD's are lucky to make it to 5.  Especially if you're a gamer and a frequent web surfer.

Oh and i did reformat the HDD that was dying... and it worked better afterwards but it was only a temp fix.. it died a couple weeks later.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

guys, the darnd hard drive boots ok and the clikckedy-click sound is just it's head moving.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/297185

If chkdsk didn't help try to recover Windows with an installation disk. If that doesn't work just reinstal it. The drive is (besides afilesystem problem) ok.

hall.dll is the driver that allows your Windows installation to "talk" to your harddrive. If Windows can't do that it can't find your boot partition, or any other partition for that matter and dumps an error on your screen without booting into Windows.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well, I tried to setup Windows XP but it couldn't even read what partitions were on the disk so I couldn't even delete the partitions or select them to install. Time to start shopping for a new hard drive and start crying over the lost data... *tear*

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My solution for those situations is a Linux Red Hat 5 installation CD. Deletes everything from the FDISK option. You might want to try a DOS bootdiskette with Fdisk on it or booting into command prompt if your Windows installation CD allows that.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...