Laptop fecked... need help!

Drugness

Hello all
I've been getting the dreaded blue screen for the last day on my laptop.
It's an Inspiron 1300.
When i turn on the laptop, it tells me that Windows had previously been shut down incorrectly and it waits 30 seconds before going into login. Then the blue screen pops up and it says 'Unmountable_Boot_Volume' and tells me to restart but if the problem persists to follow these steps: Restart, F8, into Safe Mode.
I've tried this but i get the blue screen through safe mode too.
Can anyone help me with this?
I've a lot of stuff on the hard disk which i want to save. Am i fighting a hopeless battle?
Is it a goner?
Thanks everyone
DG

Run_to_da_hills

Check if the ram modules are loose or faulty. Had similar problems until I changed the faulty ram. Some ram will only work in pairs others like the one in my old Dell CPX will work singly.

majiktripp

Unmoutable boot volume is an issue with your hard drive, of this I'm 100% certain.
It could be a file system error fixed by running chkdsk /f on the drive from another computer or running a Drive Fitness test to see if its a physical issue with the hard drive itself.

Overheal

The hard drive data is salvageable if you can boot an OS from another Hard Drive: the Boot Sector (ie. the section of the disk responsible for starting your OS) is fuxxored. That doesnt mean the data is gone.

Go here for a start and burn this CD: http://www.ultimatebootcd.com its full of the utilities you will find useful for figuring out exactly whats wrong and potentially saving all your files.

glomar

try booting off a linux live cd such as knoppix and ubuntu are the popular ones .
if the boot is successfull you should see an icon for the hard drive on the desktop , you should be able to drag and drop the data you need onto a usb key and once you have everything boot from the xp cd and reinstall the operating system .

Hope this helps

jimmycrackcorm

You could try the windows repair when you boot from from the windows cd.

x in the city

solution is easy

go on line to dabs

get a usb > 3.5" sata caddy 20E ish

get a new hdd 160gig is 60e

install o/s on new hdd

hook up bust hdd into caddy purchased and back up data

make coffee

CCCP^

I have a similiar problem to this one. My Laptop's hard-drive crashed and is now making a clicking noise when I start up the laptop. It also displays an error message "operating system not found".

I would imagine a new hard-drive is in order, but before I bring it in for repair from HP (it's under warranty) is there any chance I could salvage some of the data from the drive? I had 30 gb of music =/

Plus about 2 gb of pictures of Hilary Duff.

x in the city

I just told you what you need to do so you can retrieve your stuff

AlmightyCushion

CCCP^ wrote: »

I would imagine a new hard-drive is in order, but before I bring it in for repair from HP (it's under warranty) is there any chance I could salvage some of the data from the drive? I had 30 gb of music =/

Plus about 2 gb of pictures of Hilary Duff.

Put the hard drive into an enclosure then copy it to another computer if it still works. Then email me those Hilary Duff pics.

dogmatix

I too have a busted laptop (A HP). So I got the HDD out of it, put it in an enclosure and connected it to another laptop (Dell Inspiron 1300). Both laptops use XP.

The problem is that while the dell can see the HDD and I can even get into many of the folders, I am unable to access the folder that has all my photos just recently downloaded from my Digital Camera. Espically my West Cork holiday pics.

I.E - (HP HDD) E:/Documents and settings/<user>/Documents.

Says "My documents" is not accessible - access is denied.

The HP HDD was a SATA and I think the Dell HDD is an IDE but that should not matter right?

If it is a case that this external directory is simply password protected then fair enough but how do I get the Dell system to ask me for a password?

Capt'n Midnight

dogmatix wrote: »

I too have a busted laptop (A HP). So I got the HDD out of it, put it in an enclosure and connected it to another laptop (Dell Inspiron 1300). Both laptops use XP.

The problem is that while the dell can see the HDD and I can even get into many of the folders, I am unable to access the folder that has all my photos just recently downloaded from my Digital Camera. Espically my West Cork holiday pics.

I.E - (HP HDD) E:/Documents and settings/<user>/Documents.

Says "My documents" is not accessible - access is denied.

The HP HDD was a SATA and I think the Dell HDD is an IDE but that should not matter right?

If it is a case that this external directory is simply password protected then fair enough but how do I get the Dell system to ask me for a password?

right click the folder and somewhere in properties is an option to take ownership then you can set the security permissions

spannerotoole

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

right click the folder and somewhere in properties is an option to take ownership then you can set the security permissions

Not if he's using home edition, This only works on XP Pro as there is a setting that needs to be changed. Now, knoppix on the other hand cares not for the idiosyncrasies of XP Passwords

dogmatix

And after the above exercise I now know why I hate Windows and like UNIX.

dogmatix

Aye - I was using XP home. So even right clicking and twinking with the security/sharing/properties made no difference.

But i'm sorted now - I did some more googling and came up with this:

1. Restart laptop in windows safe mode.
2. Login as admin user.
3. Go to the external my documents folder.
4. Right click on the username/my documents folder.
5. Select Properties>Security>Advanced and then the Owner Tab.
6. Change owner to the username that you're logged in as and also tick
"Replace owner on suncontainers and objects".

Agent Smith

AlmightyCushion wrote: »

Put the hard drive into an enclosure then copy it to another computer if it still works. Then email me those Hilary Duff pics.

Forward them on will ya?