UNMOUNTABLE_BOOT_VOLUME IN VISTA!

[John V]

After just loading a normal application I get the blue screen of death. It
just keeps rebooting, I can not get into safe mode, or repair your computer,
last known configuration.. They all either blue screen again or just hang and
do nothing. I pop in the gateway recovery cd to get to the repair
console....it boots off the cd and then gets into a black screen where you
can move the mouse cursor but thats it! Just hangs again.

I need to be able to either reinstall or use recovery console and chkdsk /r
and fixboot it to get it to work. This laptop isnt even 2 months old and
this is happen and the hard drive is clean and vista was working fine before
this. Someone please help.

[Jane C]

Contact Gateway and get the machine repaired or replaced under warranty. It
sounds like hardware failure.

[John V]

Their suggestion was to hit F8 and goto repair your computer, unfortunately I
have already tried that and it just hangs...they wanted to do a clean
install.....

[Pagaldesi]

I have had a similar issue where it hangs on the Blank Black Screen. but believe me, DO NOT RE-INSTALL YET!! It just needs over 3 - 40 mins of this hang time to get booted up. after a Black Screen with a cursor, you will go to a Blank Blue Screen, and THEN you will SLOWLY see stuff loading, but BE PATIENT. It IS loading, just going to take well over 30 mins, maybe even an hour! I promise...

[Bogs]

I have the same problem with my notebook of two weeks too. I let norton
security 60 days trial version scan my notebook and took a nap, when I came
back, it will not wake-up whatever I do. Finally, it cycle to reboot and a
flash of blue again and again that I have to take out the battery. I prompts
me with the mode boot with and windows vista tries to load but could not then
back to reboot cycle again. I was able to display the blue screen that says
"UNMOUNTABLE_BOOT_VOLUME. Is there any solution to this short of sending the
unit to the manufacturer?

[David]

i just got a new hard drive sent to me fedx overnight for my wife's
gateway laptop. it had the same error as yours--its a defective hard
drive. they sent a different brand of drive, so hopefully it will last
longer than the 3 months the first one lasted.

Vista was preinstalled on the replacement HDD...

[Chad Harris]

Perhaps this is a hardware problem, but there are software causes as well.

Check your IDE or other cable configuration.

Also, if your BIOS settings are configured to force the faster UDMA modes,
this error may occur. In this situation, restart your computer and enter the
BIOS and load the "fail-safe" default settings and reboot.

If neither of these issues are the cause for the Unmountable Boot Volume,
then the issue most likely is caused by a damaged BOOT.INI file in the root
directory of the boot drive or file system corruption.

I'd try the following (directions are below) and if you have a Vista DVD I'd
try that first:

***Startup Repair from the Vista DVD***

How to Use The Vista DVD to Repair Vista (Startup Repair is misnamed by the
Win RE team and it can be used to fix many Vista components even when you
***can boot to Vista)

If you elect to run Startup repair from the Vista DVD (it can fix major
components in Vista--I've verified this many many times; it's good for more
than startup problems, and the Win RE team simply screwed up when they named
it not understanding its full functionality):

Startup Repair will look like this when you put in the Vista DVD

You run the startup repair tool this way (and system restore from here is
also sometimes effective):

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/925810/en-us

How To Run Startup Repair In Vista Ultimate (Multiple Screenshots)

It will automatically take you to this on your screen

That will allow you to go to the Vista setup that has a Repair link on
thelower left corner>click it and then you'll see a gray backgrounded list
and I want you to click Startup Repair from it and follow the directions.

The gray screen after you click the first link in the above pic will look
like this

Click Startup Repair, the link at the top and after it scans>click OK and
let it try to repair Vista. It will tell you if it does, and if it
doesn't, try System Restore from the Recovery Link on the DVD. If these
don't work booting into Safe Mode by tapping the F8 key and using System
Restore from one of the safe modes besides VGA may work. That means you
have the option to try 4 different safe modes to get to system restore, (one
from the Recovery link on the DVD) and sometimes one will work when the
others won't.

You could also try a Repair Install with Vista which is done exactly the
same way as in XP:

***Repair Install Steps*** (can be used for Vista) MVP Doug Knox
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/u...ps/doug92.mspx


***Using the F8 Environment***

***Taking Full Advantage of the F8 Options (Windows Advanced Options Menu)
by starting the PC and tapping F8 once per second when the firmware screen
with the pc manufacturer's name shows a few seconds after restarting***:

The F8 options in Vista are the same as XP, and the link for Safe Mode Boot
options is labled XP by MSFT but they are the same for Vista (they haven't
updated to add Vista to the title as they have with several MSKBs that apply
to both).

Again, pressing F8 repeatedly when you seem the firmware screen may be is a
generic way to launch Windows RE on some OEM Vista computers.

You could also:

Think: I have 4 different ways to get back my XP at F8 and try 'em in order.
1) Safe Mode 2) Safe Mode with Cmd to Sys Restore which is simply a cmd
prompt in safe mode 3) Safe Mode with Neworking 4) LKG or Last Known Good
Configuration

Try to F8 to the Windows Adv Options Menu>try 3 safe modes there (I don't
use WGA) and Last Known Good>then I go to Win RE in Vista. That gives you a
choice of Safe Mode, Safe Mode with Networking,and Safe Mode with Command
Prompt.

These methods are outlined in

A description of the Safe Mode Boot options in Windows XP/and Vista
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/315222/

Frequently Asked Questions Regarding System Restore from MSFT:

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/pro.../faqsrwxp.mspx

System Restore can be run from the Win RE recovery environment from the same
link as Startup Repair, and sometimes it will work from one F8 safe mode
location or from the Win Recovery Environment when it won't work from other
locations.

How to start the System Restore tool at a command prompt in Windows XP

http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;304449

[mkbutch]

Dear all, ive seen this thread and i faced the same problem on vista, after an ungraceful shutdown, during windows update..

i tried almost everything.. vista repair disk, fixboot, fix mbr, scanning for bad sectors, none of which fixed the problem..

but as a desperate attempt i did one last thing, i used acronis true image which detected all my drives n files without a problem... took a full image of the system 187Gig took approx 7-8 hours..

then i resized the partition... !!!!!!!!!!

and believe it or not it worked... try it out.. but before u fiddle around i suggest u back up ur data.. screwing around with the partition table could waste all ur data.. oh.. and dont forget to keep the charger on if ur using a laptop.. lols i forgot to plug it in during half the backup process, so had to do it all over again...

neway.. best of luck