unmountable boot volume

[w00t]

My uncles notebook won't boot due to this code:

I'm familiar with the code and I've always thought it was because of a corrupt boot.ini.

I'd usually just insert the windows cd-rom and repair it ( never that easy ) :|

well my uncles cd-rom is broken so I'm not able to do so.....

I was hoping to pick up a cd-rom for cheap at a local computer repair store, but they don't have any in stock. The guy at the computer place says it's the HD and the symptom is a corrupt boot.ini

this is the second time I've seen this error, I was under the impression it was just improper shut down due to the battery dying or such.

Ideas?

one more note, I thought external cd-rom drives are unable to work properly without a driver so if I was to try to use one, it would not recognize :fail: The guy at the computer repair store said some notebooks can do it others can't. True or False?

Thanks

 

[IlllI]

depends on how old it is. there might be a setting in the bios you need to change for usb devices

 

[w00t]

Originally posted by: IlllI
depends on how old it is. there might be a setting in the bios you need to change for usb devices

It's a Fujitsu Lifebook N6010:
P4 3.2 GHz
1GB
ATI Mobility Radeon 9700
100GB HD

my guess it was bought in 2004 or 2005 ( cd rom says 2004 )

 

[Paperlantern]

That notebook might have USB boot support. If you want to find out, make a bootable usb stick with HP's free utility USB Disk storage format tool. Any size up to i think 2gb will work, so any cheapie you might have lying around will be fine. pop it in, and see. Or, as stated above, the bios should have a place available to configure boot order, if USB is in the list, it supports it.

 

[w00t]

Originally posted by: Paperlantern
That notebook might have USB boot support. If you want to find out, make a bootable usb stick with HP's free utility USB Disk storage format tool. Any size up to i think 2gb will work, so any cheapie you might have lying around will be fine. pop it in, and see. Or, as stated above, the bios should have a place available to configure boot order, if USB is in the list, it supports it.

The advanced USB features have:
Legacy USB support: enable or disable
SCSI SubClass Support: enable or disable

Boot order:
Floppy ( not present )
CD-ROM Drive
Hard Disk Drive

my guess is it doesn't support it, but I'm willing to give it a try...

 

[Paperlantern]

Yeah its not looking good, usually USB Legacy is just so a USB keyboard will work to control BIOS. It wouldnt hurt to try though...

 

[w00t]

I was able to fix the problem

I searched up the optical drives model number and found out it was picky with media. I ended up being able to repair the boot.ini using a Dell Windows CD 😛

Thanks for suggestions guys