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Dell Inspiron Laptop hard drive BS, Unmountable boot volume

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Dell Inspiron 1530 laptop

Alright, I think the hard drive is failing. It keeps blue screening(Unmountable boot device ) during the windows xp loading screen, even last known good config, and safe mode.

So next I tried to access the hard drive directly using a booted xp cd environment. It says this:

C:\ is not accessible.
Error performing inpage operation.

Next I restarted and I tried chkdsk (in the recovery console window from windows xp) it said this:

chkdsk has finished checking the volume.
3142548 kilobytes total disk space.
1530764 kilobytes available

4096 bytes in each allocation unit
785637 total allocation units on disk
382691 allocation units available on disk

Then I did fixmbr at the recovery console

It said this:

"This computer appears to have a non-standard or invalid master boot record.
Fixmbr may damage your partition table if your proceed.
This could cause all the partitions on the current hard disk to become inaccessible.

If you are not having problems accessing your drive, do not continue.

Are you sure you want to write a new MBR?Y

Writing new master boot record on physical drive
\Device\harddisk0\Partition0

The new master boot record has been successfully written.

I exited, it still blue screens. Then I did fixboot

It said the bootsector is corrupt. Then it wrote a new boot sector.

Next I did the chkdsk in the mini XP environment from a cd using a command prompt and this is what it did:

chkdsk is verifying file s(stage 1` of 3)....
deleted corrupt attribute list entry
with type code 128 is file 7292.
File record segment 75560 is unreadable.
File record segment 75561 is unreadable
file record segment 75562 is unreadable
file record segment 75563 is unreadable
file verification completed
deleting orphan file record segment 75895.
deleting orphan file record segment 75917
deleting orphan file record segment 75993.
CHKDSK is verifying indexes (stage 2 of 3)...
An unspecifiied error occurred.



I tried it again and it always does unspecified error.

The only way I come close to accessing the data off this drive is when I do recovery mode console. I can see this folders and files. Only problem is I can't copy them because it will say access denied. Because of the security policies windows xp has. And I can't change them. Because I was originally going to copy all the files using the copy command to my other hard drive.
It seems that I can access the drive through command prompt only through recovery mode console, but in the original command prompt in a xp environment or hooking the hard drive as secondary on a desktop doesn't work. Only recovery window shows files.


I think the hard drive might be malfunctioning, I don't know if the data is still in tact or not. What is the best software I can use to recover this? I'm not sure what to do now. If a windows recovery window can see files and have access on the hard drive. It should be possible another program can. What should I do? I have not run hard drive diagnostic tools yet on it. Fearing that those tool might fix broken sectors erasing some data. But I want to recover data first if possible.

I'm not sure what to do, I'm not a hard drive data recovery expert. I was wondering if anybody has any advice of some great tools to use.

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Notebook hard drives tend to fail when a sector gets scratched due to moving the notebook when its running or dropping it. Most likely your drive was damaged in some way or is just failing. The best solution is to install it on another computer and attempt to recover what you can, if anything. Next buy a new SSD which will not break when the PC is dropped or bumped.

Good Luck.

billj214 said:
Notebook hard drives tend to fail when a sector gets scratched due to moving the notebook when its running or dropping it. Most likely your drive was damaged in some way or is just failing. The best solution is to install it on another computer and attempt to recover what you can, if anything. Next buy a new SSD which will not break when the PC is dropped or bumped.

Good Luck.


Yes, I can do that, install it on other computer. But, If I open "My Computer" that is when the laggyness begins. Windows Explorer can not access it and command prompt cannot access it. So I need a special software that can access it and recover. Do you have any recommendations on what software I can use?

Try mounting the drive in a live Linux distro. Burn/flash a copy of Ubuntu and run the live "cd" version of it and open the drive from within Ubuntu. That should allow you to copy/delete/fix any files on the drive without permission issues or errors.
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Laggyness is what a failing drive acts like, if you are concerned about your data then you may want to research a data recovery company. I honestly don't think any software will help you in this case.

ah hold on that worked! Ubuntu let me copy all of the files without any hassle. Except some files were i/o errors. Only a few. Maybe this drive isn't broken. Now what? Run hard drive diagnostics? How to make it mount?

If Linux gave you issues with any particular files, I would consider them lost and dead. You could try reformatting the drive with a new file system and try to test it for issues. I don't know of any free programs that would do that automatically, anyone?

Well, I ran HDD Regenerator 2011 from a boot CD. Here is what I found:
D- 1 delays detected.
B - 1+ Sectors remain bad
R - 0 Sectors recovered
N - 0 new bad sectors appear
R - 0 bad sectors reappear.

Edit update: well that was a prescan but on a normal scan , where it just scans and doesn't fix anything it does this about 20% in it says this:

"Hard drive not ready, if on ACHPI mode (or ACPI or something like that) please swap to IDE mode in the bios."


Update: I forget to tell you it's a Toshiba MK8037GSX.

Here are some more tests that I ran:
Hitachi Drive Fitness test
Test results: Problem detected on a non Hitachi disk drive.
Please contact your HDD supplier for additional support.
Disposition Code = 0x70


Western Digital Data Life Guard Diagnostics
1. SMART status - PASS

Victoria 4.466 (freeware) -Passes Smart Test
Tests = block 6538752 Error: UNCR


Ran HDD regenerator 2011 again and here are the results:

D-1 delays detected
B-1 sectors remain bad

1. Sector 127 (0 MB) -delay
2. Sector 6538967 (3192 MB) - Connection loss.

That's when it does it's Hard drive not ready, then I go re-run the program and then it completes the scan where it leaves off.

Now, I understand when a sector is bad, it usually still can be read. But when it locks up on a bad sector what does that mean?

Should I try to regenerate and fix this sector?

I mean the sector is marked with a X rather than a B. Must be different from a normal bad sector?

Update, well HDD Regenerator wont fix the sector. When it gets to the sector it will just say hard drive is not ready. And then when you continue it, it will just complete the scan without repairing it.

So now, I want to know will Full Format fix it? Will it mark the sector for not use. So the operating system won't use it? I don't know what to do here, this is my last option. And if that doesn't work, then the drive is truely dead.

I'm thinking it won't work and it will just lock up again during Full Format.

Update: I fixed it, Spinrite fixed the broken sector. It didn't say it recovered the sector completely, but enough where it fixed it. And it didn't blue screen. And then it complete it's check disk successfully. Hooray!
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