R50e -- unmountable_boot_volume error

[emily_in_nc]

Hello,

As of last night, I cannot boot my two-year old R50e into WinXP Pro. I get a blue screen with error:

UNMOUNTABLE_BOOT_VOLUME
STOP: 0x000000ED C0000006 .....

There were no signs of an eminent hard disk failure prior to this. I was trying to wake up my laptop from sleeping and could not (disk activity but black screen), so shut down by pressing the power button for > 5 seconds, and since then, cannot reboot successfully.

I have done a lot of googling today in an attempt to determine how to fix the problem. I have no floppy drive so have attempted to create bootable CDs, but none of them will boot up.

I read about the "fixmbr" command in the IBM Recovery Console, but I can't find anywhere in the IBM Rescue and Recovery area (which I can get into, as well as the BIOS) to enter anything at a prompt.

I do not have a WinXP Pro disk. I read about using 'chkdsk', but without the CD cannot do that.

I have set of 6 IBM "Product Recovery" CDs I created when I first got the unit, as well as another I created that is labeled "IBM Rescue/Recovery with Rapid Restore". This last one sounds promising, but I can't figure out how to use it.

Can anyone offer some additional suggestions? I am stumped and don't know what to do next. Thank goodness I still have this old Win98 Aptiva to post from!

Help!

Thanks in advance,

Emily

[andyP]

Hi emily_in_nc, welcome to the forum,

sorry to hear you're having problems

The first thing I would do is re-seat the hard drive by simply removing it and then replacing it and then see if your TP starts. You can see how to remove the hard drive on page 272 of the Hardwarre Maintainance Manual PDF.

If you have created the bootable cds correctly you need to set the cd drive as first boot device in BIOS, this can be done by pressing F1 at start up then entering the "startup" menu and the "boot" menu. Use the arrow up and down keys to highlight the cd drive and use F6 to move it to pos.1 (if it's not already there). While still in this menu check that the entry "HDD0" either has a number next to it like HTS07******, or a "+". If it has a plus select it and press the enter key and you should see the number. If no HDD number is shown, your BIOS is not recognising the hard drive. Press F10 to exit BIOS saving the changes.

Post the results in order that more advice can be offered if required.

The recovery cds should be your very last resort as using these will recreate the factory image and all your files will be lost.

[Brad]

If you can borrow any version of the Windows XP CD you can run chkdsk. I have seen this error many times and 99% of the time chkdsk fixed the problem.

If you can't find a CD I can mail you one.

Brad

[emily_in_nc]

Thanks for your helpful suggestions. I am going to ask around at work today to see if anyone can lend me an XP Pro CD, as a first step, since chkdsk sounds like the easiest thing to try next.

If I don't have any luck with that, I'll move on to some of your other suggestions.

I'll definitely let you know how it turns out, and I may have more questions later.

Thanks again for the quick replies!

Emily

[emily_in_nc]

I managed to borrow an XP Pro CD from our sysadmin at work and ran chkdsk /r as well as fixboot. It did not totally fix the problem, but I can boot into safe mode now, at least with the disk in place. Also ran a full virus scan with McAfee with nothing found. I can see all my files, so I am going to back up as much as possible this weekend. I'm a little scared of the "fixmbr" command from things I've read about it messing up partitions and such, so haven't done that yet but might try it after backing up more of my files.

Feeling a little more hopeful now....

Emily

[mediasponge]

This software (Spinrite) now has a permanent place in my bag of tricks. I've rescued at least 2 systems from certain death with this. It's expen$ive for a download, but it does what it says. You have to make a bootable CD using another computer, then boot the ailing one from that using the instructions above. Even if the hdd is on it's last legs, this software can often make it healthy enough to clone the whole drive to a new one.

Unfortunately, booting Windows with a partially functioning hard drive can corrupt more files. Windows soils its own nest...

Spinrite Link:

http://www.grc.com/sr/spinrite.htm

[emily_in_nc]

Today I bought a SimpleTech 120GB USB drive at Best Buy, and, in Safe Mode, backed up most of my hard drive. Then I ran chkdsk /r for a second time (did not risk fixmbr), booted the laptop, and up it came! Everything seems fine at the moment, nothing seems missing or different from when it was working fine on Tuesday night before the crash. I won't be 100% confident for a few days, but at least I have good backup media now, and this entire incident reminded me of the importance of doing regular backups!

I am so, so relieved at this point. Thanks again for the help!

Emily