Blue Screen Unmountable Disk

Cork Skate

Hi there,

I need a bit of help. I have a laptop where i am getting a blue screen when i pick any option (i.e. Safe Mode, Last Known Config, etc.) saying Unmountable Disk

I have taken out the hard drive and stuck it in a caddy and i can see it in Device Manager as a USB drive but it doesn't show up as a drive and i cant see it in Disk Management. Its listed as HTS54106 0G9SA00 USB Device in Device Manager

Is there anything i can do to see it and copy data off it.

jme2010

My mate had the same problem.

The only thing I could do for him was a fresh install but that fixed it up.

ART6

Have you tried checking the BIOS settings (pressing and holding --usually -- F8) when you turn on the computer? If you can get into the BIOS settings, look for the disk there and see if it's listed as the primary boot disk. If it is, and you still can't boot from it, then the other option if you have the original OS or recovery disk is to boot from that and then try reinstalling Windows. It should reinstall over the original if it's XP onwards without losing any data.

Cork Skate

ART6 wrote: »

Have you tried checking the BIOS settings (pressing and holding --usually -- F8) when you turn on the computer? If you can get into the BIOS settings, look for the disk there and see if it's listed as the primary boot disk. If it is, and you still can't boot from it, then the other option if you have the original OS or recovery disk is to boot from that and then try reinstalling Windows. It should reinstall over the original if it's XP onwards without losing any data.

I'm fairly sure that its listed as the primary boot disk because i was working fine for ages including that day as well.

Is there anyway to recover it without the original disk? I have an OS disk alright but i'm 98% sure its not the original one.

ART6

Cork Skate wrote: »

I'm fairly sure that its listed as the primary boot disk because i was working fine for ages including that day as well.

Is there anyway to recover it without the original disk? I have an OS disk alright but i'm 98% sure its not the original one.

The main point of checking the BIOS settings is to see if the drive is listed at all. If it isn't then it might be faulty.

Many computer manufacturers use versions of Windows that are tailored to their machines. If you load a non-OME version of the OS then you might lose some facilities, but may well gain some that you didn't have before. I have never personally found that of any importance. I have loaded non-OME OS many times without issues, and got everything back working that way.

The only other issue is that when you have booted from the CD and re-loaded the OS you will no longer have the updates and patches that were issued after the date of the CD. If you have Windows update turned on then, if everything works, the machine will start to download all of the vast number of security fixes etc that Microsoft continually issue, and that could tie up your machine for quite a time!

If you can get the machine to boot from the CD then you might be able to remount the drive using Control Panel --see http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-vista/Mount-or-dismount-a-drive That may avoid having to reload an OS, but I don't know if it works as I have never tried it.

Cork Skate

ART6 wrote: »

The main point of checking the BIOS settings is to see if the drive is listed at all. If it isn't then it might be faulty.

I'll check the BIOS first anyway, just to make sure.

Art6, thanks for your help. If i can sort this it will be a life saver. Nothing is backed up so if i can restore any data it will be great.

ART6

What version of Windows do you have?

Duggy747

I assume the Blue Screen is Unmountable_Boot_Volume?

If it is and you have the CD then 90% of the time it can be fixed without much hassle.

Pop in the CD
Restart the Machine
Boot from CD
Let it load to the menu
Press R to enter Recovery Console
Type fixboot

5 seconds later it should fix the problem for you by writing a new boot sector, though it wouldn't hurt (but optional) to run chkdsk /r afterwards.

Cork Skate

ART6 wrote: »

What version of Windows do you have?

Win XP

Duggy747 wrote: »

I assume the Blue Screen is Unmountable_Boot_Volume?

Yeah, thats the one

If it is and you have the CD then 90% of the time it can be fixed without much hassle.

Pop in the CD
Restart the Machine
Boot from CD
Let it load to the menu
Press R to enter Recovery Console
Type fixboot

5 seconds later it should fix the problem for you by writing a new boot sector, though it wouldn't hurt (but optional) to run chkdsk /r afterwards.

Dont think i have the original CD

I have checked the BIOS, and i can see the drive. There is a Hard Disk Drive diagnostics program which i am running. In the result section it reads 'Error code 0000: Read verification failed' but it is still continuing with the test. I'll leave it finish and try it again to see how it goes.

Cork Skate

Cork Skate wrote: »

I have checked the BIOS, and i can see the drive. There is a Hard Disk Drive diagnostics program which i am running. In the result section it reads 'Error code 0000: Read verification failed' but it is still continuing with the test. I'll leave it finish and try it again to see how it goes.

That has finished and it reads <<< An error was found. Call for service >>> so i'm going to try it again just to see.

ricman

you could try using a linux livecd ,eg mint ,boot from cd,it,ll detect any usb drive,or try ubcd ,the ultimate boot disk .Google it, it has many hard disk utilitys.
or active boot disk, ten day trial version, http://www.ntfs.com/boot-disk.htm.
it has to be installed on a pc ,to make the cd boot disk.
http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windows/xp/all/proddocs/en-us/bootcons_fixmbr.mspx?mfr=true
fixmbr command is used from the recovery console ,to fix the drives mbr, master boot record, thats the basic file that boots up a hard disk .If its drive c. 1st drive in a pc.
if you do a fresh install,into c / windows the data will be still there ,if you use the same os, and use do not format, keep the existing disk format option ,in the install process.
theres files missing,damaged , on the drive,most likely caused by 1 or more,virus,s on the drive.

Cork Skate

ricman wrote: »

you could try using a linux livecd ,eg mint ,boot from cd,it,ll detect any usb drive,or try ubcd ,the ultimate boot disk .Google it, it has many hard disk utilitys.
or active boot disk, ten day trial version, http://www.ntfs.com/boot-disk.htm.
it has to be installed on a pc ,to make the cd boot disk.
http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windows/xp/all/proddocs/en-us/bootcons_fixmbr.mspx?mfr=true
fixmbr command is used from the recovery console ,to fix the drives mbr, master boot record, thats the basic file that boots up a hard disk .If its drive c. 1st drive in a pc.
if you do a fresh install,into c / windows the data will be still there ,if you use the same os, and use do not format, keep the existing disk format option ,in the install process.
theres files missing,damaged , on the drive,most likely caused by 1 or more,virus,s on the drive.

I have booted to PC Doctor repair CD and completed the quick scan, and it mentions an error listed in the logs and advises to complete the extended scan which then highlights an issue with the surface scan and aborts.

I have booted to Hirens Boot CD v10.4 and tried to run a few of the tools in there like defragger etc. but it just doesn't list the drive.

I think its really pointing to a problem with the boot sector on the actual disk(s) in the drive and just wont read it. If that is the case is there anything i can do to try and retrieve even some of the data from it?

I know data should have been backed up but it wasn't this time and i'm seriously stuck now. I just need to get a bootable Windows CD and see if it will let me repair.

Cork Skate

I have tried "Unstoppable Copier 4.4 - Allows you to copy files from disks with problems such as bad sectors, scratches or that just give errors when reading data." on the Hirens CD and while it allows me to list C: as the source it doesn't let me actually copy from it.

Does anyone know of any other programs like that? I reckon that even though the disk appears to be damaged i need something to read the undamaged sectors.

ricman

Use a linux boot cd linux mint fits on one cdr.theres also utilitys for hardisk
eg seagate depending on what brand hardisk it is.did you try the fixboot and fix mbr commands.see here http://www.ntfs.com/#ntfs rec
partition drive recovery, is the drive formatted in ntfs format.
http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/support/downloads/seatools
when a drive is formatted i think it checks for bad sectors and leaves them blank,ie do not use these sectors for data storage.
see here
http://www.ntfs.com/mbr-damaged.htm
just because a drive fails certain tests or scans,doesnt mean you cant copy data from it.
bad mbr or fat file allocation table, files can stop the disk from booting up as drive c.the last thing you wanna do is defrag the drive, as that moves all data around to save space,try and copy the data thru linux or activebootdisk live cd.

Cork Skate

ricman wrote: »

Use a linux boot cd linux mint fits on one dr. theres also utilitys for hardisk

Would Knoppix be ok do you think?

eg seagate depending on what brand hardisk it is. did you try the fixboot and fix mbr commands. see here http://www.ntfs.com/#ntfs rec partition drive recovery, is the drive formatted in ntfs format.

It is/was formatted as NTFS. I have tried all of the MBR Commands on the Hirens CD (have a look at the contents of it, its fairly comprehensive)

http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/support/downloads/seatools when a drive is formatted i think it checks for bad sectors and leaves them blank, ie do not use these sectors for data storage.

I tried to run bootsect which creates a new boot sector if the old one gets damaged but it has not worked.

see here http://www.ntfs.com/mbr-damaged.htm
just because a drive fails certain tests or scans, doesnt mean you cant copy data from it.

Exactly, thats actually all i need to do. If i can get the data from it then i can format and carry on.

bad mbr or fat file allocation table, files can stop the disk from booting up as drive c. the last thing you wanna do is defrag the drive, as that moves all data around to save space, try and copy the data thru linux or activebootdisk live cd.

That makes sense about the defrag to be fair. I have put the drive in a caddy and looked for it on a laptop with ubuntu and it didn't pick it up.

I'll try Active Boot Disk Live but it looks a bit like the version of Mini Windows on the Hirens CD and the tools seem to be the same as well. I think i need something that can read the data even though it cant be read by anything else that i have tried.

ART6

If you have a Windows XP disk, even if it's not OME, you should be able to boot from it. Then try to access C: drive. If you can't, then load the OS from the XP disk and tryb again. XP and above will load over the existing OS.

ricman

If you can plug the drive into a pc, you should be able to feel the vibration of the platters for about 4 seconds ,as the platters spin up.after you turn on pc, rest a finger on it,try and acess the drive,if mint or linux cant see the drive, active boot disk wont, acd is just a mini version of windows vista.
no vibration =bad drive pcb, or the drive is not working at all.
i used mint linux on 7 pcs, it never failed to detect a drive .is the data on the hd valuable to you.
is the drive sata type interface?
did you try just to install xp ,using no format,use existing format command.