error when startup. anyhelp?

[freakonaleash13]

when my dad starts up his gateway, it comes up with an error unmountable_boot_volume and it is in a blue screen.. its kinda weird, his computer never goes bad, but anyone who has an idea, were pretty sure its with the harddrive, but not positive. anyhelp?

 

[jonisginger]

Hmm...

Is it running overclocked at all?

Have you just put a new hard drive in? At all?

Lets go from here.

 

[mike99]

Put your data backups in a safe place and use the Gateway recovery CD to restore, If this fails, you have a hardware problem! If under warranty, call gateway, otherwise buy a new HD and use restore CD with that.

Mike.

 

[freakonaleash13]

ok, my dads computer isnt overclocking bc its like 6 years old, and dont really need to overclock it. uhm, we havent bought anything new since we got it, same hard drive, and i think my brother gave us the Windows XP professional disc, and took it back to georgia with him. so we might end up buying a new window xp professional. do u think there will be like a cd key type thing , to match it with the regular one, because my brother in georgia works on comps and he said that it sounds like theres files missing from an improper shutdown when it was uploading and saving files. so do u think buying a new 1 would work, if we try the cd from that?

 

[mike99]

If you do not have CD or key, you may not have legal copy of WinXP :!:
If you buy legal copy you can do repair install of present system OR new install. If that fails, you likely have a faulty drive.


Mike.

 

[freakonaleash13]

well will probably end up doing that, if it doesnt work, then my dad said he might just buy a new comp, if he buys that xp pro, and it doesnt work, mine as well keep it for myself since i have home hahaha

 

[dg6464]

Hello, that is a common problem that I used to deal with on a day-to-day basis, especially with systems that have not updated to SP2 for Windows XP. What I would do first is test your hard-drive with the manufacturers tool for that drive (Maxtor = Powermax, Western Digital = DLG Diagnostics, Seagate = Seatools (now does Maxtor as well, but I prefer powermax), and Hitachi/IBM = Drive Fitness Test (DFT), run a full test on the drive to verify if it has a physical failure or bad sectors. If the drive is not failing, test the RAM using Memtest86 or Memtest86+; if RAM passes then the issue is the issue I previously described. To fix the issue do this:
Boot off of your Windows XP CD that came with your computer (or any Windows XP CD), and select R for recovery console. It will ask you for your administrator password; if you have none just press enter. Type the commands;
fixmbr
fixboot c:
chkdsk /R (will take a while)

Once the chkdsk /R has finished and tells you it has fixed errors and issue type exit to restart, the machine SHOULD boot into Windows XP. Once into the desktop, immediatelly go to the Microsoft download section and download SP2, and install it, and run all of your updates. Any further problems just post again, and I will do my best to resolve them. Unfortunately there can be so many factors in a problem like this (ie: hdd failing, RAM failing, possbility of leaking capacitors on the motherboard, corrupted partition, etc... etc...) that they can be difficult to diagnose without seeing the PC, otherwise i'd do it in under an hour .

Good luck, and godspeed!

 

[freakonaleash13]

my dads pc is running on xp professional, and his cd is at my bros house in geogria. can i use mine that is home edition to recover files?

 

[jonisginger]

That guys solution seems good, wp . BACK UP FIRST THOUGH

 

[freakonaleash13]

okay this isnt working, when i put the windows xp cd in, it didnt read it. and i tried alt + d, and r on the keyboard, but it seems it is shutoff, same with the mouse. my brother in georgia recommended putting the harddrive in my other brothers pc

 

[dg6464]

Hello again;
Sorry for the confusion. What you must do is boot from the Windows XP CD (yes, you may use the Home CD to repair the Pro installation with CHKDSK /R, but not to run a full repair installation... I'd try to use or find a pro CD if possible to ensure compatibility if the CD copies files to replace corrupted files during the CHKDSK). To do this you must set your boot order to have your CD-ROM drives be the first devices booted (Generally keep tapping the: Delete Key, F1, F10, or F11 when you first power on the PC, it should have a note as to what to do for your PC / Motherboard brand in the bottom right corner of the screen). Once into the BIOS, generally the option is either under Standard Options, and Boot Order, or sometimes in other proprietary cases, you will have a Boot Order option right at the main screen. Set the CD-ROM device to be the first bootable device by using whatever the modify keys are (Generally +/-, F5/F6, Left/Right Arrows).

Once the CD-ROM is set as the first boot device, have the Windows XP CD in the drive when you turn on the machine; when the system attempts to boot it will read the CD-Drive before your hard-drive, and will say "Press Any Key To Boot From CD....", with continuing dots, press enter/spacebar or whatever at this time to boot from the Windows CD. You will watch a blue screen copy files into RAM ect.. for about two minutes, and once finished be prompted as to:

Continue by pressing enter (Do not do this)
Repair using Recovery Console by pressing "R" (do this)
Quit by pressing F3 (Do not do this)

Once you press R, follow the instructions from the previous post. As JonIsGinger says; it's always wise to back up the files you need before performing any of these tasks (normally not due to files being erased by chkdsk /r or repairs, but due to the user making an error, and formatting their drive...) Mind you all of these steps are only if you absolutely need the data on that drive; if you need no data off that drive you can just format and reload using the Gateway Recovery CD's (test your hard-drive first please, because this may be the source of the problem, and if it is it will seem to work for a while, then do this same thing over again).

If you cannot figure this all out, and I am getting to technical (ie: you have no idea what a "BIOS" is), I would recommend just taking the PC into the local shop (unfortunately for you, this is a Best Buy... ughh), ask them NOT TO TOUCH THE OLD HARD-DRIVE, and to install a new hard-drive, perform the Gateway Recovery / Reinstall on the new drive, and to hook up the old drive as a slave drive so you can access all your old data on drive D: when you get the PC back. The approximate breakdown of the costs should be as follows (by my standards anyways):

Format / Reload + Install HDD, XP, Drivers, Updates (or run recovery disks): $95-125 (Canadian Dollars)
New Hard-drive (If Needed): $40-100 (Depends on size)

The reason I said to put a new hard-drive in opposed to troubleshooting the issue with your drive, and backing up the data is that the new drive is normally less expensive then diagnosing a problem with your hard-drive, and backing up your data...
If you have any other questions, post back.

Good luck, and God Speed!