[interbionics]

I am in possession of my kid cousin’s computer – he’s 13, I’m old.

The cops came and took his computer away along with his parent’s computer last month.

This was due to a trumpt up charge by a rival neighbor in the hood against his father and his father’s computer.

Anyway, the police had the kid’s computer for weeks, and when it finally was returned, the bios password had changed, and it continuously rebooted at boot.

I reset the Bios.

Then tested all hardware components are 100% operational.
Windows XP boot-up is corrupted.

Then I applied “chkdsk /r” from the recovery console. An hour later, it finished, but said some things could not be fixed.

However, the boot immediately after that chkdsk /r was different. Now scandisk started. If I let it run the scandisk, it would take forever, then fail and reboot.
If I skipped the scandisk, the computer loaded to windows!!! Yeee Haw !!!

But it didn’t last. Because when I attempted to do a “repair install/upgrade” through the XP CD, it failed.
And now I just get this BlueScreen message at boot: “Unmountable_Boot_Volume”, and no more scandisk…

This time, the “chkdsk /r” trick will not give me back that temp fix to get me back into windows.

,and I need that fix!!! Bad!!!

This computer is jam-packed with many games that are not around anymore, and the joypad has been custom configured for hundreds of the games.

I can’t loose this computer.
And the kid loves it, he’s already been through enough, he is just an innocent victim of adult bickering.

What can be done to get this computer to accept a full “repair install/upgrade” install without errors?
This means getting back into windows without errors, so….. .. ….. …….. ………..

Do you suggest I breakdown, and buy this “bootmaster” program? Would it work?
Are there ANY Other programs out there that do this?

I’m surprised that I can’t find much out there on “fixing windows bootup”.
Isn’t this a common problem?
It’s already happened a countless number of times to me in the past ten years. How about you?

Anyway, any input would be appreciated before I “wipe it” and start from scratch.

Good Day.

Sincerely,

Jaime

PS Shaun will thank you too.

[Advertisements]

Hi interbionics...

Boot to Recovery Console using the XP installation CD. At the prompt, type bootcfg and press "Enter". This will rebuild the boot sector on the root drive...though I'm not entirely sure this is the problem.

wannabe1

[wannabe1]

Hi interbionics...

Boot to Recovery Console using the XP installation CD. At the prompt, type bootcfg and press "Enter". This will rebuild the boot sector on the root drive...though I'm not entirely sure this is the problem.

wannabe1

[Neil Jones]

The unmountable boot volume error is normally fixed by running CHKDSK from the recovery console, but if this doesn't work it usually either means that installation has got something very seriously wrong with it or the hard drive is beginning to die.

[interbionics]

Hello Wannabe1,

Thank you for the suggestion.

I tried it, but got this message:

Error: Failed to successfully scan disks for Windows installations.
This error may be caused by a corrupt file system, which would
prevent Bootcfg from successfully scanning. Use chkdsk to
detect any disk errors.
Note: This operation must complete successfully in order for the
/add or /rebuild commands to be utilized


So it's a "catch 22" - they tell me to use chkdsk - which fails for me.

But again, thank you for your help. Another doorway I don't have to follow now.

jaime

[wannabe1]

Try chkdsk /f rather than using the /r switch.

[interbionics]

The unmountable boot volume error is normally fixed by running CHKDSK from the recovery console, but if this doesn't work it usually either means that installation has got something very seriously wrong with it or the hard drive is beginning to die.

Hello Neil,

My gut feeling is the Hard Drive is fine. I really think the cops broke their way into the bios, and this messed up windows.

There must to be a way to fix this. I know the rest of the windows works, and the data is all there.
I was able to log on to the windows one time, last night, by skipping the "scandisk".

So if this is just in the boot, why is is so difficult to fix?

Still learning, I guess.

Have you any experience with programs that are supposed to help with this problem? (e.g.bootmaster)
Or can you suggest another course of action for me?

jaime

[interbionics]

Try chkdsk /f rather than using the /r switch.

Hello,

the "/f" option is not available, I tried three different XP disks

Says "the parameter is not valid". "Try /? for Help"

"/?" Only offers "/P" and "/R" switches.

tried both.

(Maby because this computer has a NTFS file system?)

[wannabe1]

Do you think there is a viable restore point on the machine? We may be able to get around all this by replacing the registry hive.

[interbionics]

Do you think there is a viable restore point on the machine? We may be able to get around all this by replacing the registry hive.

I doubt system restore was turned on, but is there any way to check this by looking at the files through Knoppix?

I have the ability to read and move files through knoppix 5.0.1

j

[wannabe1]

See if you can boot to Safe Mode with a Command Prompt. If you can, type %systemroot%\system32\restore\rstrui.exe at the prompt, and press "Enter"

Does System Restore open?

[interbionics]

See if you can boot to Safe Mode with a Command Prompt. If you can, type %systemroot%\system32\restore\rstrui.exe at the prompt, and press "Enter"

Does System Restore open?

None of the F8 options work - Any attempt to go into Any kind of safe mode, or any other mode, just reboots the computer.

j

[wannabe1]

The trick here is going to be getting the registry back in order without damaging the data on the drive.

Can you boot back into Recovery Console and at the prompt, type systemroot and press "Enter". Do you get the C:\ prompt?

[interbionics]

Yes, when I type "systemroot" at the c:\ prompt, I get another c:\ prompt.

[wannabe1]

Just wanted to be sure we have the actual root directory...

Type %systemroot%\system32\restore\rstrui.exe at the command prompt, and then press "Enter". Does System Restore open? Are there any restore points?

[interbionics]

Says:

"The command is not recognized"