Question

Retrieve data off hard drive "unmountable boot volume"

Asked by: cavalierlan

I have a computer that blue screens with "unmountable boot volume".  I have taken the drive and put it in another computer attempting to retrieve data from it, but it says it isn't formatted.

I've tried this in a Vista machine and a XP machine.

I've run the DPS self-test in the BIOS of a HP computer and it returns a code 7 and says to replace the drive.

Any ideas on how to get data off this disk?

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Asked On
2009-10-19 at 09:10:18ID24824017
Tags

Windows Vista

Topics

Computer Hard Drives

,

Hard Drives & Storage

,

Disaster Recovery

Participating Experts
5
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Comments
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Answers

 

by: apache19Posted on 2009-10-19 at 09:28:00ID: 25606638

Since the unmountable boot volume means a damaged hard drive you will have to use data recovery tools to recover the data.....Another thing you can try (but not sure whether it will work ) is if you installed windows on C drive and had all your data in the D drive then you can try formatting the hard drive and when it gives you the option to format the drive select only the C drive and install a fresh copy of windows on the C drive ....If thats successful you can then go into windows and then try to access the D drive and retireve all your data but since by default all programs install in the C Drive chances are none of your programs will work.........
http://www.debianadmin.com/recover-data-from-a-damaged-hard-disk-using-dd_rhelp.html (Recover Data from a Damaged hard disk using dd_rhelp)
http://www.driverecovery.in/ (Data Recovery)
http://www.recoverdatatools.com/hard-drive-recovery.html(Hard Drive Recovery - Recover Data from Crashed Hard Disks)
http://www.easeus.com/data-recovery/retrieve-formatted-data.htm (Retrieve Formatted Data from Hard Disk or Partition)

 

by: edgarsabolinsPosted on 2009-10-19 at 09:28:05ID: 25606639

Try to boot your computer from Windows XP disc, and on first screen press 'R'. Then run 'chkdsk', 'fixboot' and 'fixmbr' functions. This should do the trick.

 

by: edgarsabolinsPosted on 2009-10-19 at 09:30:20ID: 25606665

If my recommendations don't work, you can try instructions what said apache19. The problem, probably is that your disc's partition is damaged. Sometimes "Chkdisk" function with all these i named, can recover it in 5-10 minutes.

 

by: SJComputersPosted on 2009-10-19 at 09:39:26ID: 25606732

R-Studio has always saved me when in similar situations. http://www.r-studio.com/

 

by: cavalierlanPosted on 2009-10-19 at 10:20:00ID: 25607081

I booted from an XP disk, ran chkdsk (found atleast one bad sector), ran fixboot and it finished in seconds and said it fixed it.  I didn't run fixmbr it said it might damage the partition, so I then rebooted to see if that fixed it.  

Now it wont boot to hd gives a ntldr is missing error. When I try to go back in a run the fixmbr I'm now asked which drive I want to do it to and I'm only given c:\windows.  When I pick this one it asks for the admin password, I tried the local builtin password and the bios password, both no good.  What password is it looking for?

 

by: deepdrawPosted on 2009-10-19 at 10:25:28ID: 25607132

its asking for the administrator password for windows.

If you have windows xp pro you can install over the top of the old install if you choose the second recovery option when you boot from cd.

Greg

 

by: noxchoPosted on 2009-10-19 at 10:34:22ID: 25607211

NTLDR is missing normally refers to incorrect records in Boot.ini file.

 

by: edgarsabolinsPosted on 2009-10-19 at 10:36:36ID: 25607236

So, as you see. Partition is now back, and you need just repair windows ;)

 

by: cavalierlanPosted on 2009-10-19 at 10:47:14ID: 25607327

if i'm booting from the CD so what would the admin password be in that case?  My HD's built in admin password doesn't work.

 

by: cavalierlanPosted on 2009-10-19 at 11:16:34ID: 25607620

Just to let you know the bad HD is Vista.

 

by: cavalierlanPosted on 2009-10-19 at 13:40:32ID: 25608806

After I finally found a vista disk ( Dell OS disk) I used it to repair Vista.  I wasn't sure it would work since this was a HP machine, but Dell didn't screw me out of repairing Vista atleast.  I hate that they don't give an original Microsoft Vista disk, thats BS.

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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