Question

Unmountable Boot Volume, Console Repair fails, Hard Disk fails on 4 message blocks on IDE diagnostics

Asked by: KPMcCord

I have a customer with a Dell Inspiron 5100 laptop with XP Home that won't boot. It gives the blue screen with this message on boot:    
Unmountable Boot Volume    
Stop 0x000000ED (UNMOUNTABLE_BOOT_VOLUME)

The one time I was able to, Running the diagnostics gave the following IDE errors:

IDE Disk - Read Test
Error - 0F00:0244
Block 6581645
Uncorrectable data error or media is write protected

IDE Disk - Read Test
0F00:0244
Block 54605071
Uncorrectable data error or media is write protected

IDE Disk - Verify Test
Error - 0F00:1A44
Block 6581645
Uncorrectable data error or media is write protected

IDE Disk - Verify Test
Error - 0F00:1A44
Block 54605071
Uncorrectable data error or media is write protected

Hard Drive installed in laptop, 30G, I, 9.5MM, 4.2K Toshiba-Neptune

Originally the problem was that the wireless said it was connecting to the internet but you couldn't get explorer to display the page.  I ran antivirus clean-up and got access to internet going again.  Shut computer off overnight and came back next day to make sure it was ready to go back to the customer and then the blue screen error came up.  I have tried "last known good config",  "safe mode",  "normal mode",  and repair console.....without success.    

I took the hard drive out and attached it as a USB drive to another computer to try to chkdsk or access data & you can see the drive but you can't access anything.  When you try to go to properties of the hard drive, it freezes up.

The customer never got the recovery CDs and at this point I am not sure that would help. Does anyone know of any way I could possibly recover the data with out sending it off or what I might do to restore this drive to get in and back up her data.  The back up she thought she had made is non-existant..

Now I can't get into the Recovery Console.  I was going to try to do one of the 2 suggestions from Dell website but without Recovery Disks or Recovery Console, I am not sure what to try to do next.

Thanks.

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Asked On
2009-07-28 at 18:34:23ID24608243
Tags

Dell Inspiron 5100

,

XP Home

,

Unmountable Boot Volume

Topics

Windows XP Operating System

,

Hard Drives & Storage

,

PC Laptops

Participating Experts
3
Points
500
Comments
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Answers

 

by: cerrmjPosted on 2009-07-28 at 20:50:10ID: 24967036

Looks like the hard drive is having trouble for some reason.  I've had luck getting some HDs back by using the program HDD regenerator which scans for and attempts repair of sectors.  The Hiren boot CD has a version of this program on it.

You could also try the diagnostics program from the manufacturer of the drive - sometimes they come with repair options.

If the drive has errors - then it should be replaced.  Sometimes the HDD regenerator fixes it well enough to allow you to clone the drive onto a new drive keeping the OS and data files intact.

If you can't get the drive back and If you can round up any DELL OEM Home XP disk - you can do a XP reinstall - after first getting a new hard drive in place.

Good luck.

 

by: xctechxcPosted on 2009-07-28 at 21:14:39ID: 24967136

Which anti-virus tools did you run to do the cleanup and what exactly did it find?  Most likely you are actually dealing with a rootkit that messed with your boot sector (MBR) and not necessarily a bad drive.

I would try to scan the drive for bad sectors when hooked up as a USB drive as long as you use the manufacturer's drive program and make sure you are doing a non-destructive READ test only.  Some of the tests will actually test reading and writing to the drive which almost always cause data loss.

Assuming the read tests come back ok, try booting into recovery console if you have not already.  The default password is blank to login to the Windows install.  If you can get that far, try using the tools to fix the mbr.

If Recovery Console does not work, getting a copy of a drive sector restoration program would be your next bet.  These programs can sometimes rebuild the partitions based on what bits of data they see on the drive.

Either way you're in a sticky situation because if the drive is actually failing, the more you do to it, the harder it could potentially be to recover its data.  Hopefully, your customer realizes that total loss is a possibility.

 

by: IainNIXPosted on 2009-07-29 at 01:09:49ID: 24967952

if everything else fails, you could use an XP CD preferably with the same SP number, and enter the recovery console, once in, you can start with CHKDSK /r (which you might be able to do via your caddy), to allow the system to try and repair the drive enough to boot into windows.  If that still doesn;t work, you need to use the FIXBOOT command to re-write the boot record.

I have had to do this recently on a failed Vaio, unfortunately the damage done by a faulty motherboard/drive controller left me with a working system, and very little user data remaining, so be careful and listen out for any clunking/physical noise, as that could be the mechanics on the way out also.

in any case, i would replace the drive, if it does not pass any stringent HDD diags after you have recovered the data off it.

 

by: KPMcCordPosted on 2009-08-05 at 11:31:24ID: 31609048

After taking the drive out again and trying to read it as a USB drive, I re-assembled the laptop, inserted the Dell XP Home CD and went to the Recovery Console.  I selected CHKDSK and let it run.  It found the error causing the problem and fixed it.  I rebooted the system and was able to get Windows to boot and correct the other errors caused by the virus that screwed up the boot of the drive.  I was able to recover all the data on an external drive in the event that the customer has a hardware issue that hasn't resolved.  I did tell her she needed to either get a new hard drive or possibly a newer computer since it is incredibly slow and she doesn't want to spend more money on upgrading this one.

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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