UNMOUNTABLE_BOOT_VOLUME woes

DaveTheWave

I know how to fix this particular error, ie by running FIXBOOT from the windows disc recovery console. HOWEVER! I try to boot from CD, when it comes to pressing any key to boot from CD dot dot dot (...) it skips straight to the screen which tells me the last bootup was butched and I need to either:

start up in safe mode
safe mode with networking
last bootup config which worked
boot up normally

Anyway, you all know this screen. The problem is, I can't get it to boot from CD to run FIXBOOT. I've tried changing every bootup device in the BIOS to CD ROM, but the same thing happened. I tried taking the BIOS battery and putting it back after a short while hoping that it would forget its last bad bootup. I've tried mashing every damn button as fast as I can when it says "boot from CD" to no avail. I've tried ctrl+alt+del restarting from various points hoping that would make it think it was a clean restart.

It's a viscious cycle. How the hell can I force it to boot from CD so I can fix this horrible problem. I am typing this from a crappy PC next to my sadly dead one. Please help, PA. I love you.

embrik

Are you using a USB keyboard? Sometimes, the earlier BIOS versions don't work great with USB keyboards. Try a PS/2 one if you can to kick off the Windows disc.

DaveTheWave

I have both plugged in. The keyboard works because I could get into the bios.

redimpulse

Does the CD-ROM drive even spin up and act like it's accessing? Since you have two machines, consider trying this: Take the XP CD and see if you can boot to it in your working machine. Then swap CD drives, and see if that helps any. Maybe grab an external USB CD-ROM drive and try that. If it works, you're golden. If not, read below.

With having unmountable boot volume errors, and it refusing to read the CD can be a sign that your IDE controllers are starting to fail.