Hi, My laptop has a major problem. I can't boot into normal XP or safe mode. As it's starting up, at the XP logo stage... all looks normal. The small bar is moving left and right and then... a brief flash of a blue screen and it restarts completely. With the help of a video camera, I can see some of the text in the blue screen and it says that there is an Unmountable Boot Device What can I do, please?!
Hi The "Unmountable Boot Device" message usually shows up when there is a corrupt BOOT.INI file. If you have the Windows XP CD that may of came with your laptop, (not all do) then isnsert it and change the BIOS so it boots from the CD. From there you will then need to access the windows recovery console, and let it work its magic. If for what ever reason your version of the CD does not have the recovery console on it, then you will have to download the files manually - Download them here Now another problem may arise. Ive only ever tried this and put those files onto floppy discs (6 to be procise) and then booted from there. Im gonna guess that your lappy hasn't got a FDD, as most generally don't. If this is the case then im sort of out of ideas, you could try and put the files onto a memory stick and boot from it that way, although I don't know if this will work, because as ive said ive only ever used floppy discs to do it. If it won't work from a memory stick then you could try a USB FDD - here Hope this helps, and let us know how you get on Gaz
thanks for the advice. I was able to get a boot CD and now I'm in the recovery console.... but it's just a command line so I'm going to have a look around on the web and see what commands I might need to restore boot.ini .... all tips welcome! thx EDIT: Think I've found how - http://pcsupport.about.com/od/fixtheproblem/ht/repairbootini.htm Enter Windows XP Recovery Console. The Recovery Console is an advanced diagnostic mode of Windows XP with special tools that will allow you to restore the boot.ini file. When you reach the command prompt (detailed in Step 6 in the link above), type the following command and then press Enter. bootcfg /rebuild The bootcfg utility will scan your hard drives for any Windows XP installations and then display the results. Follow the remaining steps to add your Windows XP installation to the boot.ini file. The first prompt asks Add installation to boot list? (Yes/No/All). Type Y in response to this question and press Enter. Can anyone confirm that this is the right thing to do, please?
Well I gave it a shot. Ran chkdsk first and while 'CHKDSK found one or more errors on this drive', it didn't report that it did anything about them. bootcfg /rebuild scanned for windows installations, but then disappointingly, it reported that "Failed to successfully scan disks for Windows installations. This error may be caused by a corrupt file system, which would prevent Bootcfg from successfully scanning." hmmmm do I have other options?
hmmmm chkdsk /r has been holding at 63% for the past hour, I'll leave it for the day and see how it gets on. thanks
