Fixing an Unmountable Boot Volume

An Unmountable boot volume is not a nice error, it can mean a number of things, most of the time however these can be resolved without loss of data.

Causes

The most common issue is a damaged file system

If you have just installed a new hard drive and see this error make sure you are using an 80 wire connector if the drive is UDMA and not 40 pin.

Make sure the that the BIOS settings are setup to use the hard drives UDMA mode.

A problem has been detected on your computer and Windows has shut down to prevent damage to your computer.

UNMOUNTABLE BOOT VOLUME

If this is the fist time you’ve see this stop screen error, restart your computer. If this screen appears again, follow these steps:

Check to make sure any new hardware or software is properly installed.
If this is a new installation, ask you hardware or software manufacturer for any windows updates you might need.

If problems continue, disable or remove any newly installed hardware or software. Disable BIOS memory options such as caching or shadowing. If you need to use safe mode to remove or disable components, restart your computer, press F8 to select Advanced startup options, and then select safe mode.

Technical information:

*** STOP: 0x000000ED (0x82f718c8,0xc0000006, 0x0000000, 0x0000000)

Fixes

Chkdsk
Running Chkdsk will check the integrity of Windows and hi-light any issues.

To run the boot time CHKDSK boot your computer from the Windows operating system CD/DVD, this can be done by either hitting the F12 key on the computers boot up; this will give a temporary boot options menu, from which you select the CD drive from the menu, or go in to the computers BIOS settings normally by using the F2 or Del Keys, look for the boot order section and choose the CD drive as the first device in the boot sequence.

Now when you begin to boot from the CD you will see a message similar to press any key to boot from disk this will only be displayed for a few seconds

Once your passed all of this you’ll arrive at the Windows installation screen go to the repair / recovery console options,

type LOGON to access the Windows installation, you will then need to enter the administrator password for your Windows installation, after this type CHKDSK /R to check for disk errors and repair, this could take a while depending on the size of the disk or the amount of errors found. More on CHKDSK

Windows Repair
Boot from the CD, Now you should see the Welcome to Setup Screen Press Enter Press enter to start the Windows setup DO NOT Select To Repair a Windows XP installation Using the Recovery Console Press R
Accept the License Agreement
Select the Installation you wish to repair and press R to begin the xp repair

More on Windows repairing

fixboot
Follow the above procedure to boot from the Windows CD and then go to the repair recovery console again, once you have logged onto your Windows installation type fixboot and return – this will then check and repair any damaged boot files – follow any prompts asking to fix errors, reboot your computer and it should boot up fine.

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