Unmountable Boot volume error FIXED!

[PizzaDude]

Here's the specs first of all:

ECS K7S5A
256 Crucial 256mb pc2100
Athlon 1500+ XP
Seagate 40gb HD
GeForce4 Ti4200
Soundblaster Live Gamer
Windows XP

OK. So if I startup the computer from being off, it will show the BIOS screen and then show the loading screen and then I get the BSOD with the unmopuntable boot volume error. All I can do from there is turn the computer off.

However, if I turn the computer on from being off and go into the bios and then start it up, it will load windows like it should. The REALLY WEIRD thing is that I don't even have to change anything in the BIOS for it to work. What gives?

From there, I can get into windows and the PC will function like it should. And if I RESTART the computer from there it will restart and load up again just fine.

What's going on and how can I fix this?

I've already tried the chkdsk command using the XP CD in windows recovery.


EDIT - PROBLEM FIXED! I switched IDE cables and put the cd rom as slave and the hard drive as master. Everything works fine now!

 

[MichaelD]

Try a new IDE cable and/or make sure it's properly seated on both ends. (drive and mobo)

Also, in your BIOS, the IDE channel settings should be "auto." Have you tried clearing the CMOS and starting from scratch?

 

[oneshot47]

What did you do to it before this started, or did it just start on its own? Check jumpers, cables and such and try the other controller too.

 

[PizzaDude]

Originally posted by: oneshot47
What did you do to it before this started, or did it just start on its own? Check jumpers, cables and such and try the other controller too.

Well, I did switch the IDE cable. I'm going to try that first!

I changed a few things at one time before this happened. I switched the sound card from a santa cruz to a sb live, I took out 256mb of RAM, I switched the IDE cables, and I had a different video card in there for a while, and I changed the cd-rom drives too. I passed this computer on to my parents and I kept some of the old hardware so I had to change a lot in this box. I'll let you know on how the IDE cable switch goes.

Also thought I'd mention that I tried reformating and that idn't get rid of it.

 

[gimp0]

I had this same problem that would pop up randomly. It was a little annoying but nothing major, however I wanted to clean up my wiring in my case and I changed IDE cables to a new one and the problem has gone away all together. I was going to try and format but now I dont need to.

the easiest thing was the answer to my problem (new IDE cable)

 

[PizzaDude]

I think that worked! I just put a new IDE cable on the hard drive and it booted up the first time with no problems. I'll continue testing but I think this did it. Thank you so much guys. This is great, and my dad will be happy too!(it's actually his computer)