Unmountable boot volume error

**jay hooks** · August 23rd, 2004, 08:03 AM

ok any body want to try a riddle???

ok heres my problem, i recently upgraded my pc. i brought a new mother board, hard drive and cpu. when i tried to install windows xp in the new hard drive i get the unmountable boot volume error...

this is what i tried to do to fix it...
i brought a new mother board, i tried 3 seperate hard drives, and i tried to set the defaults in the bios setup. i also changed the jumpers in the two of the hard drive, the third is a sata drive. note that in each drive i had the correct cables. also each mother board is capatable with ata and sata drives... i called microsoft 3 times and they could not help. im thinking it might have to do with the ultra memory direct access but i have no clue how that works... one last thing, the hard drives came with the formating software...

so if anyone is kind enough to help please do so... one last thing the windows xp home edition complete disk i used is working correctly, because i tried it on my old system. i didint install it but i poped it in to the cd tray and loaded it up to were the product key has to be entered, just to see if the disc was messed up...

**gazzak** · August 23rd, 2004, 08:14 AM

This is the official Microsoft answer!

**InTheWayBoy** · August 23rd, 2004, 09:29 AM

Well give us some a little more specs...what is the new mobo, HD, and CPU. You said you have a total of three HD's...two ATA and one SATA right? Which one is Windows being installed on? If you are installing Windows on one of the ATA HD's, you could try un-plugging the SATA drive until you get into Windows, then installing drivers for it and that should work. I've been trying to find something I saw a while ago about installing WinXP on a SATA drive giving that same kind of error, but I'm coming up with nothing. I'm assuming you've done the F6 to load drivers also since you called Microsoft. Oh...and is it the original or SP1? I've heard SATA only really works with SP1. Get back to us with more info and we'll get it licked I'm sure.

**jay hooks** · August 23rd, 2004, 10:28 AM

ok the cpu is p4 2.8 ghz. the the drive is maxtor sata drive ( im only using one drive right now to boot) the mother board is a mach speed, and the windows version is xp home with sp1 included. i tried the f6 command to install the drives off the floppy but nothing happens, same error...

**InTheWayBoy** · August 23rd, 2004, 11:29 AM

Which drive are you using to install Windows on...

**jay hooks** · August 23rd, 2004, 01:19 PM

im using the maxtor sata 120gb drive as of recently i tried to buy new memory and still no go.... one other thing that really puzzles me, is i installed linspire(a new linux operating system) and it work fine.... hummmm

**3fingersalute** · August 23rd, 2004, 01:51 PM

Have you tried chkdsk /r from the recovery console yet?

**jay hooks** · August 23rd, 2004, 02:08 PM

windows xp doesnt get that far. it never gives me the option to press r.
so... im out of ideas

**3fingersalute** · August 23rd, 2004, 02:54 PM

Originally Posted by jay hooks

windows xp doesnt get that far. it never gives me the option to press r.
so... im out of ideas

You can't get to the recovery console by booting to the xp cd?

**jay hooks** · August 23rd, 2004, 04:27 PM

no it never gets to that point. it loads the setup files then it errors out.

**NooNoo** · August 23rd, 2004, 05:40 PM

what exact error?
have you changed the ide cable to the cdrom?
where is the cdrom attached?

**jay hooks** · August 23rd, 2004, 05:59 PM

Originally Posted by NooNoo

what exact error?
have you changed the ide cable to the cdrom?
where is the cdrom attached?

IM GETTING A UNMOUNTABLE BOOT ERROR. OF COURSE I AGREE WITH YOU WITH TAKING YOUR TIME WITH COMPUTERS(BEEN DEALING WITH PC'S FOR A GOOD AMOUNT OF YEARS), BUT IM REALLY FRUSTRATED BECAUSE NO TECH I CALLED CAN HELP... I CHANGED THE CDROM IDE CABLE AND ATTACHED IT TO PRIMARY AND SECONDARY IDE AND NOTHING MAN.... YOU ACTUALLY GAVE ME A IDEA... IM USING A LITE ON DVD RW DRIVE WHICH IS READ BY THE BIOS, BUT CAN THAT AFFECT THE WINDOWS XP INSTALLMENT?????? HUMMMMM "IM DESPREATE AT THIS POINT" LOL ANYWAY PLEASE HELP! MY INTERNET FRIENDSSSS.....

**rgharper** · August 23rd, 2004, 06:34 PM

Originally Posted by jay hooks

IM GETTING A UNMOUNTABLE BOOT ERROR. OF COURSE I AGREE WITH YOU WITH TAKING YOUR TIME WITH COMPUTERS(BEEN DEALING WITH PC'S FOR A GOOD AMOUNT OF YEARS), BUT IM REALLY FRUSTRATED BECAUSE NO TECH I CALLED CAN HELP... I CHANGED THE CDROM IDE CABLE AND ATTACHED IT TO PRIMARY AND SECONDARY IDE AND NOTHING MAN.... YOU ACTUALLY GAVE ME A IDEA... IM USING A LITE ON DVD RW DRIVE WHICH IS READ BY THE BIOS, BUT CAN THAT AFFECT THE WINDOWS XP INSTALLMENT?????? HUMMMMM "IM DESPREATE AT THIS POINT" LOL ANYWAY PLEASE HELP! MY INTERNET FRIENDSSSS.....

If you don't see a text message that says "Press any key to boot from CD" your system isn't seeing the bootable CD before Windows starts and that's why you can't get any further than you have gotten to date. If you DO see this message, press a key, then you should be able to get to the repair console. If you DON'T see the message you need to check your BIOS (hardware configuration) settings and set the CD to boot before the hard drive does.

**jay hooks** · August 23rd, 2004, 07:30 PM

[QUOTE=rgharper]If you don't see a text message that says "Press any key to boot from CD" your system isn't seeing the bootable CD before Windows starts and that's why you can't get any further than you have gotten to date. If you DO see this message, press a key, then you should be able to get to the repair console. If you DON'T see the message you need to check your BIOS (hardware configuration) settings and set the CD to boot before the hard drive does.[/QUO

I DO HAVE THE CD BOOTING FIRST, AND DO SEE THE TEXT MASSAGE TO BOOT FROM CD, BUT WHAT I WAS SAYING IS THAT. WINDOWS ONLY GETS TO LOADING THE FILES FOR INSTALLATION PROCESS. AND THEN WHEN IT GOES TO INSTALL IS GIVES THE UNMOUNTABLE BOOT VOLUME ERROR.

**3fingersalute** · August 23rd, 2004, 10:22 PM

Originally Posted by jay hooks

I DO HAVE THE CD BOOTING FIRST, AND DO SEE THE TEXT MASSAGE TO BOOT FROM CD, BUT WHAT I WAS SAYING IS THAT. WINDOWS ONLY GETS TO LOADING THE FILES FOR INSTALLATION PROCESS. AND THEN WHEN IT GOES TO INSTALL IS GIVES THE UNMOUNTABLE BOOT VOLUME ERROR.

So you get this error even booting to a CD? That seems a little odd. What if you try either another drive and/or another XP CD? Seems kind of odd to receive an unmountable boot volume error when booting to removable media.

What if you chuck another drive on the primary ide, move your drive to the slave, and then boot to the cd, running the chkdsk/r on the d: (or whatever drive letter is appropriate for your slave drive), then switch it all back?