Unmountable_boot_volume + missing partition

[Qris]

I've encountered a weird problem. My friend's computer hung up, restarted and a blue screen came up, saying "Unmountable boot volume". We've checked the connections, tried to run Windows in safe mode, recovery mode, tried the fixmbr and fixboot commands. chkdsk /r resulted in something like "There is at least one irreversibly damaged file" (translation from a Polish version). What's more, BIOS now sees it as a 37 GB disk (this is the size of partition C only), while it has 80GB.

Thanks in advance

Q

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Ok, we managed to read the other, 43GB partition D and copy the data, but after installing it back in my friends computer it is still detected as a 37 GB. Is it possible to bring this Hard Drive to its full capacity?

 

[Captain-M]

In the BIOS, is it set for Auto-detect? If the mobo is a few years old, it should match with the label on the HDD. If they boot up, what is the BIOS date (upon cold power on, hit the Pause/Break key). On the bottom left of monitor, you have a bunch of numbers and a date. Record this.

It is possible that the BIOS is out of date, and can easily be Flashed. NOTE: Unless you know how to do this, do not attempt. (in Windows, or via floppy disk). Contact mobo for details about flash the BIOS.

 

[Qris]

Yes, it is set for Auto-detect. Before this problem, it worked perfectly fine with this motherboard, so I don't think an update of BIOS is the solution.

 

[Pat57]

Did you try the drive on another PC?
If it shows up correctly then it might be a bios corruption and flashing it again could fix it.
If the other PC sees the same kind of problem you are better of installing a new drive.

 

[PCcashCow]

Yes, it is set for Auto-detect. Before this problem, it worked perfectly fine with this motherboard, so I don't think an update of BIOS is the solution.

What worked perfectly fine? Seeing that your have few options, flashing the BIOS will notch out a varible that is needed to troubleshoot you disk coruption.

When you put the drive into another system can you boot from that drive? Or are you only slaving the disk?