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Gents;

I have a fiend who received the Blue Screen of Death on his PC after the power was interrupted to the computer. I've tried everything to get it up and running again, but to no avail. The error messages:

unmountable_BOOT_volume

and:

Technical Info:

xxxstop: 0x000000ED (0x80EFC030, 0xc0000032, 0x00000000, 0x00000000)

Any suggestions?

Looks like his boot drive got corrupted. Try using the boot CD to see if he can at least use the recovery console to peek around his hard drive. If so, he may only need to do a system recovery (or more drastic) a reinstall. If not, well, his data is toast.

phongn wrote:Looks like his boot drive got corrupted. Try using the boot CD to see if he can at least use the recovery console to peek around his hard drive. If so, he may only need to do a system recovery (or more drastic) a reinstall. If not, well, his data is toast.

Thanks, Phong. What would cause this?

Use the recovery console & run 'chkdsk'.

If your running NTFS there is a good chance you can recover the drive if the physcial hhd isnt totally trashed.

Then run a utility from the hhd manufactor to check the drive for any errors. If it has errors, replace the hhd.

Lord Poe wrote:

phongn wrote:Looks like his boot drive got corrupted. Try using the boot CD to see if he can at least use the recovery console to peek around his hard drive. If so, he may only need to do a system recovery (or more drastic) a reinstall. If not, well, his data is toast.

Thanks, Phong. What would cause this?

Could be the HD read/write heads crashed into the disc when the power went off. Either that or something got fried when the power came back on, there tends to be power spikes and other nasty things when the power comes back on after a blackout. I'm assuming it was a blackout since you said "the power was interrupted".

Usually, chkdsk /r will get you out of this.

It can happen if you lose power whilst there are NT boot files partway through a read or write op.

Windows XP, pre-SP1, had a horrible tendency to do it on random occasions on a normal powerdown. OEM PCs are plagued with it (I had two calls with this fault today at work).

The chances of actual drive damage are pretty miniscule.

If chkdsk doesn't get you out of it, choosing to 'repair' an existing windows installation instead of installing a new one (not on the first screen, second time it gives the option) will do an in-place overinstall which will allow you to retrieve files.

ggs wrote:Use the recovery console & run 'chkdsk'.

If your running NTFS there is a good chance you can recover the drive if the physcial hhd isnt totally trashed.

Then run a utility from the hhd manufactor to check the drive for any errors. If it has errors, replace the hhd.

If you're going to use that funky acronym, use it properly. It's HDD, Hard Disk Drive.