Unmountabe Boot Volume BSOD

[Bobinovich]

OK I've been struggling a bit with this one and thought I'd set it for my fellow techies to mull over.

Have an AMD Sempron PC with 512Mb RAM & an 80Gb Maxtor HD, running XP Pro SP1, so updated to SP2 as AVG Free won't upgrade to v8 unless I do so.

The update ran fine but, on rebooting, the XP boot screen comes up for a few seconds and then I get a BSOD - UNMOUNTABLE_BOOT_VOLUME with error code: 0x000000ED (0x84F96A68, 0xC0000185, 0x00000000, 0x00000000).

I decided to backup the data on it, wipe and start from scratch which I did. Installed the XP Pro SP1, which runs great with no errors. I then ran the SP2 update without loading anything in the meantime, and the darned thing is still doing the same.

I can boot to Safe Mode and have tried Diagnostic Startup from MSConfig with the same error. I've managed to uninstall SP2 & get the system back up & running on SP1 and have then tried another SP2 install but it still keels over with the same error message.

After Googling the error codes I've tried BIOS reset to Defaults, changed the IDE cable, Chkdsk (reports fine), FIXMBR & FIXBOOT from Recovery Console, moving the optical drive to a separate IDE cable.

Any ideas gratefully received.

[lazytown]

hi bob,
Have you tried disabling Caching in the BIOS?

[Sapphire2803]

Did you just run chkdsk? Or chkdsk /f /r?
I would recommend the latter.
I assume when you say you changed the IDE lead that you changed it for an 80 wire?


Have you tried using nlite to integrate sp2 into the xp disk?
You could try a fresh install with that and see if there was any difference.

[Sapphire2803]

Is there a bios update available?

[Bobinovich]

Wee update.

There's no caching option anywhere in the BIOS - I've downloaded the latest BIOS version from the Asus website and will flash it in the morning .

The hard drive was previously running as the master on an 80-wire cable with the optical drive as the slave, however I've now got both as master on separate 80-wire cables.

It was Chkdsk /r I tried - the only options I have are /p & /r the former of which is implied with the latter. I've tried using both an XP Home and XP Pro CD and both only give me these two options. Dunno where the /f comes from yet I've Googled it - maybe someone more enlightened can tell me where this other version comes from.

I've also been offered the loan of an XP Pro SP2 CD to try out - see if it makes a difference.

Thanks for the ideas - keep them coming 'cos I'm gonna get to the bottom of this!

[Bobinovich]

Aaargh! I can't believe it. After more thoroughly reading this MS article (http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=297185) I thought 'Stuff it - let's try a lower UDMA setting' so I moved it from UDMA6 to UDMA5 and the blooming thing is booting fine in SP2 and running like a bomb!

Thanks to all for their contributions...

[Sapphire2803]

Windows 2000 & XP

From Windows

/F Fixes errors on the disk.
/V On FAT/FAT32: Displays the full path and name of every file on the disk.
/R Locates bad sectors and recovers readable information (implies /F).
/L:size NTFS only: Changes the log file size to the specified number of kilobytes. If size is not specified, displays current size.
/X Forces the volume to dismount first if necessary. All opened handles to the volume would then be invalid (implies /F).
/I NTFS only: Performs a less vigorous check of index entries.
/C NTFS only: Skips checking of cycles within the folder structure.

From Recovery console

/p Check even if the drive is not flagged dirty, bad.
/r Locates bad sectors and recovers readable information (implies /p)

[Bobinovich]

Just thought I'd give a wee update on this, even though it was sorted a while ago.

Although lowering the UDMA setting the PC was still a little tempremental so I flashed the BIOS with the latest update and it's been solid ever since, even working on UDMA6!

Sometimes you should just go with your gut instinct (or at least listen to Saph!) :D

[Sapphire2803]

Listening to Sapph is always a good idea :lol:



Why do I get the feeling that statement might come back and bite me on the bum one day? :confused