trying to fix unmountable boot volume

[saagar]

I have an acer laptop that i upgraded from vista to 32bit windows 7 that i installed few months ago through USB because my cd drive doesnt work. Now I am getting the unmountable boot volume so i am trying to boot the installation cd from my USB. It gets past the loading files, then starting windows but after that i get a black screen with just the mouse arrow. Last night I kept this up all night thinking it was just slow but no luck. Oh just to see I made a usb with the vista recovery disk and that worked up to the part where I had to select an OS to repair. Any ideas??

 

[saagar]

Is it possible that I am not waiting long enough? Is their anything that I can disable in bios that might interfere.

 

[usasma]

Try these tests:

H/W Diagnostics:
Please start by running these hardware diagnostics:
Memory Diagnostics (read the details at the link)
HD Diagnostic (read the details at the link)

Also, please run one of these free, independent online malware scans to ensure that your current protection hasn't been compromised: Malware (read the details at the link)

And this one:

CHKDSK /R:
Run CHKDSK /R from an elevated (Run as adminstrator) Command Prompt.
When it tells you it can't do it right now - and asks you if you'd like to do it at the next reboot - answer Y (for Yes) and press Enter. Then reboot and let the test run. It may take a while for it to run, but keep an occasional eye on it to see if it generates any errors. See "CHKDSK LogFile" below in order to check the results of the test.

Elevated Command Prompt:
Go to Start and type in "cmd.exe" (without the quotes)
At the top of the Search Box, right click on Cmd.exe and select "Run as administrator"

CHKDSK LogFile:
Go to Start and type in "eventvwr.msc" (without the quotes) and press Enter
Expand the Windows logs heading, then select the Application log file entry.
Double click on the Source column header.
Scroll down the list until you find the Chkdsk entry.
Copy/paste the results into your next post.

What happened when you got to the screen to select an OS? Was anything showing in the screen?

 

[saagar]

I cant run those tests because I cannot start normally or in safe mode. So I have read that the only way to repair is to use the installation disk/cd. Even though I have windows 7, I tried the vista repair cd and it booted to the screen where you select a OS but it says to select a vista OS which I dont have so it was blank. I am wondering why that worked but my windows 7 installation usb/cd wont on my pc. I used this same usb on another computer and it booted to the install windows screen normally so its not the USB.

 

[Pauly]

You could download a 7 recovery disk (not install disk) as they are the same for all versions you just need to select x86 or x64.
Most of the suggestions above do not require you to boot windows, memtest86 is an iso download that creates a bootable disk (bit like win disk) and chkdsk will run from a command prompt

Heres the link for recovery disk might be worth a try, just download and burn
Download Windows 7 System Recovery Discs — The NeoSmart Files

 

[TrippyJim]

Check your SATA operation in your BIOS. If its set to AHCI try setting to ATA and re-run your repair options and that should sort it.

 

[seandaneii]

Heres a very good fix

first goto your bios and switch your ide option to compatible, then run the startup repair. After repair is done then go back into the ide option and change it back to the original option then normal bootup. It worked for me!

 

[kecatom]

Fixed Mine!!

man i had the same problem. black screen with white arrow is as far as i could get,nothing would load. tried to reinstall windows by using the installation disk but it wouldn't boot from there either, just black screen. eventually i read this thread about switching your IDE options, didn't know what that meant at all, but i got to the set-up menu by pressing F12 or F10 or something and went to my boot order list and switched it so that this IDE: SC098709 (just hit random numbers there) thing was first and it ended up working somehow. the Start-up Repair actually loaded and went through... found no errors, but i was able to go to this extra menu afterwards where i could Recover from Disk Image or do a Memory Test (I don't remember the exact names of the options), and i did the Memory one and it went through the tests, restarted, and has worked perfectly ever since. Hope it helps.

(P.S. I may have just been lucky and it happened to load the Start-Up Repair that time, idk... my friend and I were just trying different things and restarting it a lot while watching tv and it eventually worked! keep trying... I hadn't successfully booted it for 8 months according to what some test told me, so there's always hope!)

 

[megabyter]

I kept getting the BSOD on my laptop just after the windows 7 startup logo.
The error was showing unmountable boot volume..
I could not even boot from the windows cd or run a system repair.
I spent days trying to solve this problem until I read in this forum that it could be a faulty hard drive.
I then went into bios settings and changed the hard drive SATA from AHCI to ATA where I received a message saying I may have to reinstall the system, I clicked OK.
I then tried to boot from windows7 CD and lo and behold it worked !!!
I then formatted the HARD DRIVE and deleted all drives to make one drive then cancelled the installation.
Then I went back into the bios settings and set the Hard Drive settings back to AHCI and booted from cd again and it worked with a complete new installation.
This was a DELL INSPIRON N5030 but it may work on other laptops.
WARNING....you will loss everything stored on the hard drive if you try this !!!!!