UNMOUNTABLE_DRIVE_VOLUME - What?

[sjaguar13]

My computer won't start up again. I get this blue screen that says UNMOUNTABLE_DRIVE_VOLUME. It said to restart my computer, but it happens everytime. I can't start in safe mode or anything. I didn't add any new hard drive. It just all of a sudden wouldn't start up. What should I do and how do I keep that from happening again?

[mike breck]

Is this the PC with the PCChips motherboard or a different one?

Could you list the specs of this PC - particularly the motherboard and HD make and model (WD?).

Are you using an 80 wire ATA66/100 cable (black to HD, gray to Slave, and blue to mobo) with the HD jumpered to Cable Select?

Your not using a standard ATA 40 wire cable? If in any doubt, count the bumps across the width of the cable. 80 wire should have 80 bumps (wires).

If this is the same system with the PCChips mobo that you've had trouble with in the past posts, then I begin to suspect that the mobo is the culprit.

Will the HD not work on Primary Master when jumpered to Cable Select and connected to the black connector on the 80 wire cable?

[morriswindgate]

Do you happen to have AOL? I have seen a couple of computers that have had this and a missing config.sys after AOL tried to update to the latest version. (This is whythey are getting sued and why anybody with AOL should get rid of them)

[sjaguar13]

Yeah, it's the same one.

AMD Athlon 1600
PC Chips M848XP Motherboard
512 DDR 2100 Ram
Some cheap video card
On board Sound
On board LAN
WD 10 gig 7200RPM hard drive
Some generic CD-Rom


I yanked the RAM out of my audio computer to put in there. It kept it up and running for a while until this happened. Should I take the mobo and CPU from that computer (it's just sitting around because I don't have RAM for it) and stick it in and see what happens? The hard drive won't be primary master no matter what I try. I tried the hard drive in the audio computer and it worked as primary master, then I move it over and nothing.

[Big Tone]

HHMMMMM. I have a friend that this happened to after installing AOL broadband onto his desktop and his laptop under Windows XP. Anyone have any more details about this AOL thing?

[REdDragon]

I get the same screen sometimes, but it sayz UNMOUNTABLE_BOOT_VOLUME. What does this mean? I had to reformat my PC 3 times in the past few months cuz of this.

[sjaguar13]

That's what I get, too. Boot, not Drive. I messed up.

[andyms18a]

try this http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;297185

and this http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;315403

[sjaguar13]

It took me a while, but I am still trying to fix the computer. Thanks for the links AndyMS. It was the second one. The only problem is that there was one or more unrecoverable problems with my drive. If I re-install Windows, would the SP1 fix future problems? Here's what it says from the link:

CAUSE

Because of the write-pattern optimization in IDE disk drives, the caching routines sometimes write data out of order to keep drive write speeds at the fastest possible level depending on where data is located on the disk. This opens a timing window where the NTFS disk system could have critical tables damaged if a write is not finished. Microsoft has recommended in the past that caching on IDE drives be turned off on programs with somewhat critical data that is stored on the disk or for situations that allow the slight drop in overall speed. Programs with critical data may need to use SCSI drives, which have better control of data transactions.

RESOLUTION

To resolve this problem, obtain the latest service pack for Windows XP.

To resolve this problem, obtain the following update from the Microsoft Windows Update Web site


If I get the SP1 and the update, would that help it from happening again?

[andyms18a]

yes sp1 will help all so when you have finished doing any work on the computer give it 30 seconds or so untill you shut down this gives the cach time to right the data to the hard drive

[MSIuser]

OK, I have come across this problem with another problem, anyone get it fixed due to the AOL causing problem? Does the chkdsk /r fix it?

[Big Tone]

I've come across this problem before with 2 PC's that had Windows XP and AOL broadband installed. I fixed them both by booting from the XP cd and using the chkdsk/r command. If this doesn't work you could also try the fixboot/r command.
Hope this helps