WinXP - Sudden Unmountable_boot_volume / unable to run recovery console.

[Cyborg3D]

Hi,
I'm running WinXP PRO
WD 40 gig ATA-100 HDD
Gigabyte GA-7DX (Bios F5)
My computer wasn't turned off for a long time now, just restarts.
Yesterday, i turned it off for the night and in the morning i was faced w/ unable to read windows/system32/config/system which i fixed by booting w/ cd and running chkdsk in recovery console.
Today my new soundcard came and I had to turn it off again, when i put soundcard in, and tried loading windows i got a UNMOUNTABLE_BOOT_VOLUME bsod on winxp loading screen (i saw mskb article on it, and it wasn't really helpful). My first reaction was to run recovery console of the cd but after installer loads all the files and u press R and it tells you examining hdd 0 on id 0 partition 1 (something like that) it just freezes there w/ floppy light on (?).

I tried using WD lifeguard tools, quicktest detected some error, fixed it, passed (no help) i double checked the IDE cables, no help. WD Extended test is running now (almost finished) w/o any interruption so it doesn't seem to be a problem either.
What can be the problem (bios / lifeguard sees hdd just fine)

btw, partition is NTFS.

UPDATE: Extended test did not find any errors.
UPDATE2: Tried safe mode couple times again, same error.

 

[Cyborg3D]

umm... anyone?

p.s i found PM7, made bootdisks on other computer, booted, it can see partition fine, ran a check, found some cluster errors but still no luck. Still can't get past examining thing in windows setup nor windows boot.

 

[Athlon4all]

Those are wierd. Have you run a virus scan and seen if there's a virus? That's the main thing I could think of for it all of a sudden kicking out like that. Good luck

 

[Skot]

If you can somehow get to the recovery console, chkdsk /r will be your best chance of fixing it.

 

[Cyborg3D]

hehehe, w00t! just got it

i found my w2k cd and ran recovery console thru there, it worked! (maybe my winxp disk is f*cked up or something)
i ran chkdsk and now i'm back in windows installin audigy drivers

 

[TP]

I have had this unmountable problem twice now over the last couple of days since switching to NTFS. I didnt know about a recovery console though. I couldnt get it booted into anything, except I did get into safe mode once. I did the same thing with Partition Magic too, and the same thing happened. Somehow I get the feeling that NTFS isnt as stable as it's touted to be. I mean it's stable running and everything, but I never had this problem with FAT32 (I was running XP Pro/FAT32 for 4 months with no probs). It was fine on NTFS for a week or so. Then I made the mistake of trying some tweaking, like I tried setting my RAM settings to turbo in the bios. I also set XP to run with no pagefile. (512MB DDR)...From there my experience was just the same as cyborg's.

so how do I get into this recovery console??? (I have a win2k Cd too)...I sure hope this doesnt happen again. I just reformatted again and I'm scrambling to make a clone image before I crash again.

 

[bacillus]

if you boot with the cd, you'll find the repair option!