"Unmountable Boot Error"

[LIZS]

Have just had to run a repair to Windows XP for 2nd time in 2 weeks. Is this a coincidence or does it mean pc (5 years old) is on its last legs ? Dell suggesting we may need to reinstall the operating system.

Is XP fully updated with Service pack 3 or at least Service pack 2? I gather before Service pack 2 there was an issue with "Unmountable Boot volume" happening a lot on certain machines.

I've not had this error, but I'd be inclined to think it was a hard drive problem. The first thing I would do is back important stuff up before trying anything drastic.

support.microsoft.com/kb/555302 has some suggestions for repairing the drive if a sector has become corrupted. This does happen sometimes and can be put right.

The first two things it suggests involve cables and the bios but the third and more likely uses the recovery disk to do chkdsk /r.

If you do reinstall some versions of the Reinstallation CD may expect to clear all files off first and some may just overwrite windows files. Another good reason to get all your stuff safely copied off the computer.

have run chkdsk /r twice now , on both recent occasions. When we rebooted afterwards last time it showed itunes registration as a problem and seemed to take off 2 parts. When I tried to open it since it started bringing up processes to restore so I cancelled and haven't tried again as didnlt want anything untoward to happen ! Also can't seem to log individual users off using Start Menu so there is still something not quite right. What is the service pack ? afaik we just have the original XP (2004)

Well the drive does seem to be in serious trouble so if it were me I'd be wanting to replace it. If this is a laptop that's a bit harder, but easy enough in a full size PC.

The service pack is what you get from Windows Updates. As well as the constant small updates there have been two huge ones SP2 and SP3 containing all the changes up until then. If you have always had Windows Update on automatic then I guess you got them as they appeared without having to do anything.

Click Start, and then click Run.
In the box, type winver, and then click OK

It should tell you which servicepack you have

Ah

Version 5.1 service pack 3
1,046,528 kb available

Do you run sweeps often, spybot etc?

support.microsoft.com/?kbid=297185

This may help

You may need to boot xp to disk (insert the windows cd rom and follow prompts) then reformat your hard drive.

If you haven't already I'd suggest backing up and files/ photos/ programmes you don't want to lose.

A new hard drive may be neccesary if none of this works, but I doubt there's need for a whole new pc.

tdwp , I think that is what I have run . We run Spyware Doctor

Well it proved terminal when a power cut crashed our pc again. Have now reinstalled Windows, drivers etc and updates but IE is very touch and go. I wonder if a setting isn't correct as getting "page cannot be displayed" etc messages but having (short) periods of being able to surf normally. Any ideas please before we splash out £££ in frustration ?

Could the 'page cannot be displayed' issue be a seperate one? You may want to look at how you connect to the internet. For example do you have a router/modem that the PC connects to? Also is it connected with a cable or by wireless?.

A typical router looks something like this and could be called a router or a BT home hub or other names.

Could be , seems to have resolved itself for now though - how odd.