"Unmountable Boot Volume" Error

[mtnagel]

So apparently this is a common/known problem (MS Support about it) and it's happening to my sister-in-law's computer. I tried getting into the BIOS when I was at her house and I couldn't so I came home and found the MS solution and I made boot floppies since I couldn't get into the BIOS. When I took them over to her house, the computer would say searching for boot record from floppy, but then it would go right on past and come to the Blue Screen Unmountable Boot Volume error screen again. But I did notice that the machine was set to boot from the CD first then the floppy, and she couldn't find her XP cd, so I came home and made a copy of my XP cd. She took it home and tried it and she said that it wasn't reading the cd and would then go to the error screen again.

First, her machine is a Compaq, so I'm sure it came with an OEM Win XP cd and the one I copied was a full XP Home retail cd. Should her machine still boot from it?

Second, is there any other reason than that why it wouldn't read it? Why wouldn't it read the floppies? Any other thoughts for fixing this error?

Thanks
Matt

 

[ScrapSilicon]

First, her machine is a Compaq, so I'm sure it came with an OEM Win XP cd and the one I copied was a full XP Home retail cd. Should her machine still boot from it?

yes..unless her CDRom is flakey,media flakey,mobo flakey

Second, is there any other reason than that why it wouldn't read it? Why wouldn't it read the floppies?

should have read any and or all..read up on chkdsk /r and /p

Any other thoughts for fixing this error?

 

[bendixG15]

the machine was set to boot from the CD first then the floppy

If I read correctly, you want to boot from floppy,
Just go into the BIOS and change the boot sequence.
(Make floppy the first to boot from)

 

[mtnagel]

Originally posted by: bendixG15

the machine was set to boot from the CD first then the floppy

If I read correctly, you want to boot from floppy,
Just go into the BIOS and change the boot sequence.
(Make floppy the first to boot from)

I could not get into the bios. It was set to read from CD and then floppies, but I tried both and it looked like it was trying to read from them, but then went on even though they were windows bootable media.

 

[mtnagel]

Originally posted by: ScrapSilicon

First, her machine is a Compaq, so I'm sure it came with an OEM Win XP cd and the one I copied was a full XP Home retail cd. Should her machine still boot from it?

yes..unless her CDRom is flakey,media flakey,mobo flakey

Second, is there any other reason than that why it wouldn't read it? Why wouldn't it read the floppies?

should have read any and or all..read up on chkdsk /r and /p

Any other thoughts for fixing this error?

I don't think I was clear. It never got through the booting off the CD or floppy, so I never got to the prompt where you could enter in the chkdsk commands.

 

[ScrapSilicon]

so I never got to the prompt where you could enter in the chkdsk commands

takes place when first starting up ..pressing F8 ..repeatedly

 

[eydolic]

Why can't you get into the BIOS? On a lot of older Compaqs, it was shift+F2, If none of the keys or key combinations work, either clear the CMOS so it comes up with an error that tells you, or take out a stick of RAM to make it do the same thing if it has multiple pieces. (IE: CMOS defaults loaded. Press F1 to enter setup., Memory size mismatch. Press DEL to enter setup.)

You normally want the default boot order to be FDD, CD-ROM, HDD0.

Some of the newer Compaq's had the restore disks actually saved to a second partition instead of being physical media, for some reason I have yet to grasp. Compaq is one of the many whores of the industry.

If you can somehow get it to access a command prompt, like by booting to the recovery console off of a CD, you can check the boot.ini file to make sure that the correct drive and partition is selected. The common cause of the error that you are having is a missing partition or a boot.ini file that contains invalid information.

 

[mtnagel]

Originally posted by: eydolic

If you can somehow get it to access a command prompt, like by booting to the recovery console off of a CD, you can check the boot.ini file to make sure that the correct drive and partition is selected. The common cause of the error that you are having is a missing partition or a boot.ini file that contains invalid information.

This is the problem, I can't get the recovery console to load. The only thing I can think is that both the CD drive and floppy drive are bad, but that seems unlikely to happen at the same time. I may throw in some spares I have to see if I can get it to read the xp cd to load the recovery console.

Any other thoughts?

 

[dclive]

Originally posted by: mtnagel

Originally posted by: eydolic

If you can somehow get it to access a command prompt, like by booting to the recovery console off of a CD, you can check the boot.ini file to make sure that the correct drive and partition is selected. The common cause of the error that you are having is a missing partition or a boot.ini file that contains invalid information.

This is the problem, I can't get the recovery console to load. The only thing I can think is that both the CD drive and floppy drive are bad, but that seems unlikely to happen at the same time. I may throw in some spares I have to see if I can get it to read the xp cd to load the recovery console.

Any other thoughts?

Are you certain the copy of XP Home you made is bootable?

 

[mtnagel]

Originally posted by: dclive

Originally posted by: mtnagel

Originally posted by: eydolic

If you can somehow get it to access a command prompt, like by booting to the recovery console off of a CD, you can check the boot.ini file to make sure that the correct drive and partition is selected. The common cause of the error that you are having is a missing partition or a boot.ini file that contains invalid information.

This is the problem, I can't get the recovery console to load. The only thing I can think is that both the CD drive and floppy drive are bad, but that seems unlikely to happen at the same time. I may throw in some spares I have to see if I can get it to read the xp cd to load the recovery console.

Any other thoughts?

Are you certain the copy of XP Home you made is bootable?

Why would it not be? Can't you just make a copy of the XP cd and then won't it be bootable since the original is?

 

[dclive]

Originally posted by: mtnagel

Originally posted by: dclive

Originally posted by: mtnagel

Originally posted by: eydolic

If you can somehow get it to access a command prompt, like by booting to the recovery console off of a CD, you can check the boot.ini file to make sure that the correct drive and partition is selected. The common cause of the error that you are having is a missing partition or a boot.ini file that contains invalid information.

This is the problem, I can't get the recovery console to load. The only thing I can think is that both the CD drive and floppy drive are bad, but that seems unlikely to happen at the same time. I may throw in some spares I have to see if I can get it to read the xp cd to load the recovery console.

Any other thoughts?

Are you certain the copy of XP Home you made is bootable?

Why would it not be? Can't you just make a copy of the XP cd and then won't it be bootable since the original is?

Not if you copied just the files. You need to copy the disk itself, including boot code and such.

 

[DetroitSportsFan]

Qouted by dclive

Not if you copied just the files. You need to copy the disk itself, including boot code and such.

It would have to be burned as an image or a clone using software like alcohol or clone CD. Even then, the results aren't always a 100% exact copy.

 

[mtnagel]

Not if you copied just the files. You need to copy the disk itself, including boot code and such.

I used Nero and just did the Copy CD function.

 

[mtnagel]

Originally posted by: DetroitSportsFan

Qouted by dclive

Not if you copied just the files. You need to copy the disk itself, including boot code and such.

It would have to be burned as an image or a clone using software like alcohol or clone CD. Even then, the results aren't always a 100% exact copy.

So using the Copy CD funtion of Nero doesn't make and exact copy?

 

[mtnagel]

Originally posted by: DetroitSportsFan

Qouted by dclive

Not if you copied just the files. You need to copy the disk itself, including boot code and such.

It would have to be burned as an image or a clone using software like alcohol or clone CD. Even then, the results aren't always a 100% exact copy.

I'd have to say this isn't true. I just booted up my computer with a copy of the Win XP CD which was copied by Nero just like the one I gave her.

What I'm scared is that she's missing the part where you have to press a key to boot from the cd. I actually forgot about that part (I assumed that once the cd was in and you restarted that it would just boot automatically), so I guess she wasn't doing that, but I just called her to try to get her to do it and she still can't get it to boot. I told her I'd take it to my house and take a look at it. Wouldn't it be funny if she was just not pressing the key at the right time. Actually, I'd be glad if it were something that simple.

 

[imported_rhfactor]

I think Compaq's use either F2 or F10 to get into the BIOS. If you have the model number you can search Compaq's website. I hope it's not because it's password protected.

 

[mtnagel]

Originally posted by: rhfactor
I think Compaq's use either F2 or F10 to get into the BIOS. If you have the model number you can search Compaq's website. I hope it's not because it's password protected.

Thanks, but it's already set up to boot from CD and floppy before the hard drive, so it SHOULD be able to boot from the CD, it just won't.