Corrupt partitions

[meastaugh1]

Hi,

I'm getting a STOP UNMOUNTABLE_BOOT_VOLUME error on startup. MS support and various forums imply that it's a corruption which can usually be fixed with chkdsk. However, I can't get into the Recovery Console to try it. On trying to launch recovery console I get a STOP 24 error in relation to NTFS.SYS. I assume this relates to the corruption.

Can anyone suggest a free utility which I can use to repair this, or how I can get to run chkdsk without the recovery console?

 

[wcburton]

BartPE bootable windows CD (

http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/

) might be your best option. The pebuilder makes it very easy to make one of these now. Boot from the CD, copy off your data, try chkdsk. If chkdsk works for you, I don't know how well I would trust it after that. Start making backups and be prepared to re-install Windows.

You will need access to another PC with a CD burner to build it on though. If you don't have that, but you do have a bootable windows CD, you can run recovery console from the CD.

If that still does not work and you need to recover data, I can recommend R-Studio (

http://www.r-studio.com

).

 

[wolluf]

meastaugh1 - how are you running recovery console (have you instaled it so it appears as a boot menu option?) I ask, as if you run it the 'traditional' way - booting from XP install CD, it doesn't use any files from your hard drive. Which if that's what you've done would point to a problem with either CD/CD drive or a general hardware problem.

wcburton's suggestion is excellent, and should sort you if its just a filestore corruption - if you get errors from Bart too, it would suggest other hardware issues to me.

 

[linney]

Perhaps the hard drive is failing?

The drive manufacturer will have free diagnostic software, that is self bootable, and will thoroughly check out the condition of this drive for you.

It wouldn't hurt to try a self bootable RAM diagnostic too.

http://www.memtest86.com/

http://oca.microsoft.com/en/windiag.asp

"wcburton" has given you one way to access ChkDsk, another is available via a DOS Startup Disk and this program.

Download NTFSDOS Pro (Read-Only) (1.8MB) by Mark Russinovich and Bryce Cogswell

http://www.sysinternals.com/ntw2k/freeware/ntfsdospro.shtml

NTFSDOS Professional (free, read only version) also comes with NTFSCHK, a tool for running the Windows NT/2000/XP CHKDSK program from within MS-DOS. NTFSCHK allows you to verify and repair the NTFS disk structure in case of accidental corruption.

This can be run after booting from any 9x or XP MS-Dos startup floppy.

NtfsChk will only check and repair NTFS partitions.



Other tools that run from bootable floppies.

How to Use System Files to Create a Boot Disk to Guard Against Being Unable to Start Windows XP (Q314079)

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q314/0/79.asp

Q305595 - HOW TO: Create a Boot Disk for an NTFS or FAT Partition in Windows XP

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q305/5/95.asp

Other products to look at -

http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder

http://www.windowsubcd.com/index.htm

Or the paragraph in this article.

"To install Windows XP to a new folder (to perform a parallel installation):"

How to install or upgrade to Windows XP

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;316941&FR=1&PA=1&SD=HSCH

 

[meastaugh1]

Thanks all for your responses.

I've run the Dell extended diagnostic tools which report no physical problems with the HDD.

I tried BartPE which got as far as the splash screen then froze. Removing the HDD from the laptop allowed it to boot into the the environment successfully. But because I'd removed the HDD, I couldn't repair it. Tried plugging it in whilst BartPE was running, but unsurprisingly, it didn't detect it. This seems to point at the HDD being the cause, but as I said the diagnostic reported no hardware faults.

Yes I was trying to run Recovery Console from the CD. I would assume it will try and access the hard drive after selecting it, to enumerate the Windows installations available to login to.

I've also tried NTFSCHK but this fails to mount the partition (0x80:2 failed!).

Could a corruption of MFT cause these symptoms?

Active@Partition recovery (

http://www.partition-recovery.com/screen.htm)

read only version is able to detect the C partition and that it needs to be repaired, but I obviously can't do anything without purchasing the software.

Any more suggestions fully appreciated. Or should I just delete all the partitions and start over?

Thanks

 

[linney]

If your looking at Data Recovery as an option, these might be worth a try just to see if they can access any partitions?

PC Inspector

http://www.pcinspector.de/file_recovery/UK/welcome.htm

http://www.restorer2000.com

http://www.runtime.org/hints.htm

Plenty of other recovery software listed here.

http://dmoz.org/Computers/Software/Disk_Management/Error_Checking_and_Repair/

Something else to explore in case of partition table corruption is MBRwork.

Go to

http://www.bootitng.com.

look for MBRWORK in the free downloads and download it, put it on a DOS floppy (one made by formatting in XP and taking the MSDOS Startup disk option will do). Read the ReadMe files for details of this handy utility.

 

[bcastner]

Did you by any chance remove the keyboard or any screws from the bottom of this notebook?

The screw for the hard disk drive, marked in green, is smaller than any other case screw. Making a common mistake of using a keyboard, or display, or facia screw in the hard disk drive will crush the drive and lead to the error you are receiving.

Replace the drive, and find the screw with green paint on it for the replacement (the shortest bottom screw).

 

[wolluf]

Or should I just delete all the partitions and start over?

How are you going to do this when you can't boot machine with the drive installed from install CD, bart....

Can you boot from a win98 boot floppy with the drive installed?

http://www.sysinternals.com

have a free ntfs readonly driver which works from a win98 floppy....

And obviously the Dell diagnostics ran (have you tried the drive manufacturer's diagnostic)?

Have you a second machine you can slave it to?

Slightly of topic to Bill Castner - never realised you took laptops apart in your spare time Bill - that tip has to go down im my obscure tip of the week (month?) book!

 

[Simonchtan]

Slave the damaged hdd to a secondary system and copy out the files then attempt to repair or chkdsk from the secondary system on the slaved volume. hope this helps.

Always recover the data before trying tools to repair.

I know no voice, I knew nothing about systems,
i know NUTS on networking, Therefore I dont know anything!
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