Mia Jackson said:
When I turn on my laptop, it comes up with a blue screen that says
'UNMOUNTABLE BOOT VOLUME' and won't start up, even in safe mode. My laptop
came with Windows XP already installed on it and I don't have a CD to
re-install it. Is there anything I can do? This laptop has lots of my
university work and precious photos.
Would it work with any windows XP cd? Or do I need to have one with a
unique
code? My edition is genuine and registered, but I don't have the details.
If
I were to give my name and contact details to microsoft, would they be
able
to issue me with a new cd? (I am using my old laptop)
Many thanks,
Mia
You can get into the recovery console from any bootable XP CD. However,
you will not be able to perform any installs of any type.
Unfortunately, you may be basically - I think the technical term is
"screwed" on this (but all is not lost). You must have install media of
some type to fix the disk and reinstall if you need to. The problem you
describe is why relying on a restore partition for system maintenance is a
fatally flawed concept.
At the moment, what you should do is find someone who can back up your data
for you. This is normally easy to do. Get a USB2.0 external drive case.
Remove the hard disk from your laptop (remove the battery first!) and attach
it to the case, keeping in mind that some use a secondary adapter on the
hard disk's 40-pin connector. Now, simply plug that into another working
XP system with sufficient space. You can then back up the entire disk's
contents, but there are one or two files in the root you'll want to delete
first. These are the hibernation and swap files, and they are the two
largest files in the root.
If at this point the drive contents aren't accessible, you may need to use a
data recovery utility. There are a number of these and googling "data
recovery software" will show you many.
To back up the drive, you can use a straight copy utility, which can take a
long time (hours), or, a much better idea, you can image the drive with
something like the free-trial version of Acronis True Image. This will
work for 14 days, more than enough time for what you need to do.
www.acronis.com
You'll be done the image inside of an hour. Verify that you can access the
files you need before proceeding. You may need to mount the image in
read-write mode, and then take ownership of the My Documents\<account name>
folder where your data resides. Here's how to do that:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/308421
Once you have the data backed up, disconnect your hard disk and put it back
in the laptop. Try booting the system - sometimes that's enough to get
past the error. As your data is backed up now, you can safely experiment a
bit. Use any XP CD and go to the recovery console. Follow the directions
here:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/555302
The backup is necessary first because the repair process can potentially
damage your data. The time for backup is *before* you start playing with
the drive.
If the repairs don't work and you cant' get install media from the laptop
manufacturer, you will have to buy a new license and reinstall. You may
not be able to do a repair install because the install type is different,
and you may be best off by getting a retail copy (as opposed to a perhaps
cheaper OEM version) and trying an upgrade install. If you have a Win98SE
or WinME or WIndows 2000 install CD to hand, you can buy the less expensive
Upgrade version of XP, and do a clean install.
While you're at this, consider the age of your laptop. If it's more than a
year and a half or so, consider replacing the hard disk and installing clean
to it. You can then restore the data from your old drive at your leisure.
HTH
-pk
