Hi guys,

I'm brand new to this forum (first time dealing with what looks like a serious problem, I guess), so my apologies if the subject has already been discussed in the past. Here goes:

I left my T42 on Friday in good working order in my house, going out for a weekend to Brussels. Upon my return on Sunday, it wouldn't start up anymore.

Starting up, it would give me a black screen in which I can select safe mode options, recent config or normal windows start up. I am using XP Pro. Whatever option I select, it gives me a blue screen which says 'Unmountable_boot_volume' and then automatically reboots, going through the same process again. If I don't touch my machine, it can keep itself busy all day like this. The problem is, I have no clue whether this is a software or hard disk problem. I have not -to my knowledge- installed any software recently and the machine has not been moved from where it worked fine last week.

I am not a technically advanced user (as you may have thought after reading the above) and my last file back-up is 2 months old I would very much appreciate some suggestions.

Thanks in advance.
Enrico

Try running some hard drive diagnostics and system diagnostics. Most likely your hard drive has failed. Fortunately these are easily replaced and should not be that expensive if you buy from an internet store. The T42 will work with any PATA notebook hard drive.

Hitachi Drive Fitness Test

Fujitsu Diagnostic Tool and Erase Utility

Samsung HUTIL

PC Doctor for DOS bootable CD - ThinkPad

Hardware Maintenance Manual - ThinkPad T40, T40p, T41, T41p, T42, T42p

If your hard drive has failed (looks likely to me), follow Gom's suggestions.

In addition, if it has failed, do NOT muck about with it. Find someone who has or who can make a Knoppix boot CD with network drivers, or preferably a Bart's PE boot CD (easy to add network drivers to).

Boot with the CD and connect to your network. Then attempt to access the defective hard drive. It may be accessible and you may be able to read data from it.

If it is inaccessible, either (1) write it off and take the data loss; or (2) get a copy of SpinRite (some $) and see if you can repair part of it. If SpinRite can't do it, the hard drive is well and truly gone.
... JDH

This can be fixed...... all you need is a Windows CD.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/555302

If it's a damaged file system case then:-
1.Insert the Windows XP CD-ROM into the CD-ROM drive, and then restart the computer.

Click to select any options that are required to start the computer from the CD-ROM drive if you are prompted.

2.When the "Welcome to Setup" screen appears, press R to start the Recovery Console.

3.If you have a dual-boot or multiple-boot computer, select the installation that you must access from the Recovery Console.

4.When you are prompted, type the Administrator password. If the administrator password is blank, just press ENTER.

5.At the command prompt, type chkdsk /r , and then press ENTER.

6.At the command prompt, type exit , and then press ENTER to restart your computer.

This takes a bit longer, but the system should boot back into Windows.

Hope this helps.
Chris

Chris's suggestion works if the file system has corrupted, but is unlikely to work if the hard drive has failed (as I have experienced such situations). In any event, work carefully using any or all of the above suggestions so that you don't damage data you want in the event of a disk crash. ... JDH

It is always best to be sure that any file corruption is not being caused by a failing hard disk before attempting to repair the file system. When a disk is failing, the more you run it the more chance there is to lose data. Doing a hard drive test first allows you to either save as much data as possible or perform file system repairs knowing that the disk is not failing. It is just a wise procedure to test before repairing.
Test the disk and if it is good proceed with the repair as outlined by Chris001, if it is bad back up your data and replace the disk.

You can also try booting with a linux live cd (ubuntu or knoppix) and see if the drive is recognized.

Thanks guys. I appreciate the help. I guess there's quite a time difference, hence my late reply.

I will give it a go...

Enrico

I just ran the Hitachi Drive Fitness Test and got Disposition Code 0x72... not looking good, right?


Enrico

0x72 is Device S.M.A.R.T. Error.
The Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology (S.M.A.R.T.) has detected a drive problem. The
drive may fail soon and should be replaced as soon as possible.

I guess at this point try the recovery I mentioned in the post above and once you can boot correctly, off load any info that you need to save.

Chris

Gentlemen,

I received a new disc from IBM (who now seem to chase me every other day for the faulty disc). Reinstalled all software etc.

I have bought a 2.5¨ storage case (ICIDU), put the faulty disc in and connect through USB 2.0. Result: computer slowing down, recognizes that I am trying to attach a ¨mass storage¨ device, but will not show it anywhere. The blue light on the case keeps blinking irregularly, but I can not see the data on it anywhere.

I feel pretty stupid writing this down, but believe me, I need to get this data off the faulty disc.

Thanks for any suggestions you may have.

Rgds,
Enrico

At this point, SpinRite is well worth the cost,and is refundable if you are not happy with it!

I've had this problem many times with my old laptop and I always managed to fix it with "fixmbr" command from Recovery console. It writes a new master boot record. The problem usually occurred if I managed to shut the computer without properly shutting down Windows (power failures, system hang). It seemed too that the HDD was broken but I never found any problems with chkdsk or other tools. After fixmbr Windows would start normally.