[Taylor123]

I looked this up in the blue screen of death thread but I don't think it helps my problem...

I have XP service pack 3 but my recovery disks i believe are 2.1a or something...SP2 something. Can i still use that to repair XP?

I'm getting this unmountable_boot_volume trying to boot in normal mode AND safe mode. It's acting as if i have no hard drives, its telling me they're not installed but the bios screen is still recognizing the types of drives they are (sorry if confusing)

it seems my comp has frozen regularly since the latest windows update. Prior to that update i NEVER had any problems, i haven't downloaded or installed anything since that windows update.

Will i be able to fix this while keeping all my data? I have no backup disks for anything. I routinely run malwarebytes and have like kaspersky internet security and my comp has been clean of everything so I believe that windows update must be the issue and it wasn't installed properly.

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Hello Taylor

If you have a Windows XP CD you can try a run chkdsk from the recovery console.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/555302

If it is successful you should be able to boot into Windows and then you can make the proper backups as the HDD may be failing.

[makinu1der2]

Hello Taylor

If you have a Windows XP CD you can try a run chkdsk from the recovery console.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/555302

If it is successful you should be able to boot into Windows and then you can make the proper backups as the HDD may be failing.

[Taylor123]

i have a service pack disc, i dont believe i have an xp disk as i got a pre-built dell computer...i'll ahve to double check.

When i put cd in cd-rom its not loading, am i doing something wrong should i try to put directly to cd-rom...how would i do so?

[Broni]

What CD are you putting in? Windows CD?

[Taylor123]

yay, i fixed it!

I did have a xp disk that dell gave me it just has an earlier service pack disk...

i set the bios up to boot to cd-rom instead of to the hard drive

once the cd booted i used the repair or "recovery console", on that next screen i typed in
chkdsk /r and that fixed it....it took maybe an hour for it to repair the comp but as of now it looks to be running great

[makinu1der2]

Glad you sorted it out...Still might be a good idea to make a recent backup of your data files just in case.

[Taylor123]

ok well, it got better but i think i still need to reformat

my dvd burner is not working great...nero is not finishing the disk and is getting an error with "burn disc at once"...which never happened. DVD santa is having problems as well. My computer froze again tonight. The blue screen of death is away but i think i'm still having problems and i'm 99.9% sure its a result of the most recent windows update, it must have screwed me up somehow.

My question now is....vista or xp? Most of the reviews i've read about vista haven't been incredibly positive and i heard rumbles of lots of bugs. I haven't reformated since i've had this computer for 5 or 6 years. A dell dimension 2400

[makinu1der2]

In all honesty Win Xp probably would be best with that system. Vista doesn't run that good on older systems if it would run at all.

What are your current specs on the system?

Also may want to run diagnostics on the HDD as it may be failing from the years of use.

You can download the diagnostics from the site below just choose the one for your HDD manufacturer.

http://www.tacktech....ay.cfm?ttid=287

[Taylor123]

i have pc wizard, and that says both my slave drive and master drive are healthy 100%

i looked up maxtor on that site and it asks me to insert a floppy disk once i dl the prog, i have no floppy's

[Broni]

Those diagnostic programs create bootable CDs, not floppies only.

[Taylor123]

i will try when i get home from work...

after fixing the blue screen of death i ran a disk defrag and my comp still has already frozen twice today.

[Taylor123]

i burned one as image and when i open up i get a

bootcat.bin and a bootimg.bin, is this what is supposed to happen?

i'm gonna set my comp to boot str8 to disk...maybe thats what im supposed to do..the additional info on that website is a dead link

[Taylor123]

i did that and the program worked but once it got to the point where it would scan drives nothing happened. Said it would take up to a minute and i let it sit there for about 10+

[Broni]

You did fine. You're supposed to boot from that CD. Which tool did you use?

[Taylor123]

i burned to cd

my drive is a maxtor


im thinking my dvd's may be crap...they're tdk. When i'm burning dvds its working fine till the end and fails to burn "disc at once"...i may try a diff brand of dvds. I just bought a 50 pack of tdk's