Options recovering XP machine from a blue screen

**Beatz** · September 2nd, 2007, 11:52 AM

Hi,

Hopefully someone can offer some advice.

My sister's PC is display a blue screen of death regardless of which option they pick at the screen to select safe mode, safe mode with networking etc - they all lead to this blue screen when chosen.

So what options does she have since it doesn't boot from the cd when I changed the boot sequence?

Can I make some sort of recovery cd on my xp machine and use it on theirs? is that possible?

Any advice or help would be appreciated.

Thanks

**NooNoo** · September 3rd, 2007, 06:27 AM

Welcome to Windrivers Beatz

First of all, please post what the BSoD says exactly.
2nd, what is the problem when you change to the boot to cd? Are you booting from a proper XP cd or from a recovery disk?
What is the make and model of computer?

**Beatz** · September 18th, 2007, 12:53 PM

Thanks NooNoo.

I finally have the details:

The problem with booting from the cd is it just doesn't boot basically something like "cannot boot from this device" and it's a cd that came with the pc with what I presume to be the build on.

The BSoD says:

A problem has been detected and windows has been shut down to prevent damage to your computer.

UNMOUNTABLE_BOOT_VOLUME

If this is the first time you've seen this stop error screen restart your computer. If this screen appears again, follow these steps:

Check to make sure any new hardware or software is properly installed.
If this is a new installation, a**** your hardware or software for any windows updates you might need.

If problems continue, disable or remove any newly installed hardware or software, Disable BIOS memory options such as caching or shadowing (I have tried this but it didn't work).
If you need to use safe mode to remove or disable components, restart your computer, press F8 to select Advanced startup options, and then select safe mode (Again I have done this and again it didn't work, it takes me to the same screen)

Thanks

**markduren2458** · September 18th, 2007, 04:22 PM

The bad news...hard drive is complaining...what is happening is (someone correct me if I am wrong) the computer is trying to boot the hard drive and the drive is not responding so the computer can not 'mount' or start the hard drive. We need to test the drive. Questions
(1) who makes the computer?
(2) Does the bios see the drive
(3) is s.m.a.r.t enabled?
(4) who makes the drive?
Go to the drive manufactor's site and see if you can download a diag tool to test the drive. If the drive fails ( which I think it will) you need a new drive. but you may ( I stress the word 'may') be able to save information off the old drive using a data recovery software. If the drive does not fail you may need to reformat and reinstall windows

**geoscomp** · September 18th, 2007, 04:38 PM

Or the drive has a corrupt boot sector or boot.ini file (maybe from malware or a long period without defragmenting) that may be able to be repaired by chkdsk /r, but you need to be able to boot from an xp cd to accomplish that at this point

**NooNoo** · September 19th, 2007, 09:57 AM

Is the computer still in warranty?

**Darth_Venom** · September 19th, 2007, 08:36 PM

All of the above including make/model of computer. With this type of problem it's definately a hardware issue.

**Beatz** · September 26th, 2007, 02:34 PM

No it's not, from all of the above I think they should get a new PC as the cd drive is still not booting. thanks for all your replies and help.

**Gabriel** · October 2nd, 2007, 02:25 AM

Originally Posted by Beatz

No it's not, from all of the above I think they should get a new PC as the cd drive is still not booting. thanks for all your replies and help.

By following this path you can still "salvage" the old computer.
After installing the old computer, connect the HDD to the new computer as secondary. if drive is accessible from this level copy you DATA files to a "safe" location.
SYSPREP the new installation and clone it to the old HDD.
Remove the OLD HDD from the new computer and connect it to the old computer.
Boot - and you have something like 70% of this trick working.

I will be "luriking" here if you need assistance

Good luck,
Gabriel

**Kodiak** · October 7th, 2007, 09:29 AM

Originally Posted by geoscomp

Or the drive has a corrupt boot sector or boot.ini file (maybe from malware or a long period without defragmenting) that may be able to be repaired by chkdsk /r, but you need to be able to boot from an xp cd to accomplish that at this point

I would have to side with GEO on this one since I have seen many of these issues. Boot to the recovery console with an oem of xp of the same "home or professional" and run chkdsk /r then once done type in fixboot and repair that and it should reboot after that. If the cd drive isn't working try another drive.