So you’re using your Dell laptop (in this case a Dell Inspiron 1501 running Windows XP Professional) with no problems, turn it on one day and you get that gorgeous blue screen of death telling you that you’ve an unmountable boot volume. You call Dell support and they take you through diagnostic tests, get you to boot in safe mode (which won’t work by the way) and then they tell you to launch the recovery console or reinstall Windows.
Reinstall? No sirree!
Getting around this problem today (see previous post) here’s what I did (not my laptop as the MacBook Pro doesn’t throw up those kind of errors)…
- With the laptop on the blue screen, grab your Windows XP CD (might be branded as a Dell Reinstallation CD), pop it into the CD drive and reboot the laptop.
- When prompted, press any key to boot from CD, allowing a minute or so for drivers to load in the background.
- From the first menu you see, press ‘R’ to launch the recovery console. This will launch a dos-prompt driven recovery console allowing some basic disk commands.
- Enter your first command: “chkdsk /r” (give about 20-30 minutes to run).
- When completed, follow up with “chkdsk /p” (give about 2 minutes to run).
- Finally, follow up with “fixboot c:”. This will quickly test the boot sector and prompt you to write a new one. It is likely that the boot sector on your drive has become corrupt, once you agree to write a new bootsector, allow a half minute or so for the task to run until prompted with a success message.
- Type ‘EXIT’ to quit the recovery console and restart the laptop.
That… should be that. It helps to have the original Dell XP disc though. A standalone version wouldn’t display the recovery console menu on launch but the Dell OEM version does (purple coloured CD including Service Pack 1a – it’s been a while). Of course, if the disc doesn’t boot when you restart the computer it may be possible that you’re BIOS is looking to the hard drive before the CD. In that case you’ll need to enter the Dell BIOS (pressing F2 for setup on immediate restart). See here (Dell support) for specific details.
About Ken McGuire
Any suggestions on how to repair this if I can’t use the CD-rom. I’m manually telling it to boot from CD but it isn’t recognising it. (i.e. is there anything do to load files onto an external hard drive and use them to repair my dell.)
THANK YOU!!! That screen scares the S**T out of me whenever I see it. YOU GEM!
Dez,
No problem, hope it worked out for you!
Who’d have thought I’d be following my own advice today!
Fix also applies to a Dimension 3100C that refuses to boot (with no obvious error message on the blue screen)
You sooooo ROCK!!! I even got to keep all of my files. How is it that you know this but the 4 Dell Techs I spent weeks with just say… The Hard Drive is fried. WITHOUT EVEN SUGGESTING THIS FIX.
Glad I could be of help
I get the Unmountable_ Boot _volum screen, reboot and gives me options to select Safe mode, safe mode with promts,ect, however when i select one of them, I still get the blue screen.. I tried putting in the purple dell cd and still get the same thing
You’ll have to make sure that your CD is set to boot before your hard drive.
This can be done by going into your BIOS, pressing F2 at the Dell screen when your machine is starting up.
Find your boot options (will list CD drive, hard drive, network drive, USB etc.) and make sure that your CD drive is at the top of the list. If it’s not at the top of the list then put it to the top of the list, save your changes and exit with the CD still in the drive.
Reboot the machine and it should give you the option to boot from CD (the CD will start before your hard drive, thus skipping the hard drive error).
I got it!! you are the bomb!! thank you so much, I was so worried I had to buy another laptop!
Ohhh My Gosh! Ken McGuire, I’m going to kiss you in the mouth! Be sure to open wide! My son and his friend played games on my laptop and corrupted it. I spent 2 hrs, (78 mins on hold), with Dell Support, only to be transferred 4 times, hung up on once and told I would have to restore my computer back to when I received it to fix the error. I was going to give it to Geek Squad tomorrow, but decided to search the internet again for the fix. Your steps above worked PERFECTLY! Open your mouth wide, because I’m going to bend you backwards and kiss you sooooo hard in your mouth!!!!!!!!!!SMOOCHES!
Tonya, delighted I can be of some help!
I usually dont leave comments on web sites. I usually dont see the need and find it pointless. But let me tell you bud, you are a life saver. All the files from me and my wife, the birth of my new born child, everything was on there. That stuff is just priceless and irreplacable. So i now find it necessary to thank you and let everyone know hown great this is. THANK YOU
Steven,
No worries mate, glad I could be of some assistance to you! There’s nothing worse than the fear of losing everything you’ve got on your computer – particularly when it comes to irreplaceable photos and videos!
Might be handy to back them up now too
K
Thank You. I just fixed my Dell unmountable boot volume with your above instructions you are a life saver.
How about on a desktop? It won’t even let me go into safe mode or any mode for that matter. Please help!!!!
Ty, have you tried following the same steps above if you’re getting that same error? They are also applicable to desktop models.
Hey Ken, this would be fantastic if only I could ever get a screen that asks me to boot from disc! I put in the disc, and the same screens come up. Try to start in some kind of safe mode, but it brings up the files, then the blue screen of death…with the unmountable boot volume.
I pressed F2 and got the dell dimension 4400 setup screen—which gave me no options!
Can you help me?
The Dell Dimension screen should give you some options by letting you into the BIOS? or Do you have a different keyboard button for the BIOS? You’ll see a note when you first boot up your computer.
In the BIOS screen you’lll need to find the option to set your boot configuration, a list of drives / devices that are checked in order when your computer boots up (starts up). In your case I’m guessing your hard drive is at the top of the list as it’s skipping the CD. If this is so, find your CD ROM drive in the list and place it at the top (usually by highlighting it and pressing the + key to move it up the list). If the CD is at the top of the list, your computer will check for bootable CDs first before starting Windows.
As your Windows XP CD is a bootable CD you’ll be able to follow the steps above as normal.
Hope that helps!
You deserve an award! Thank you so much…I never would have figured out that bios thing, if not for you. It was set to boot from the floppy first, then the C drive, and the CD was disabled! Darn kids! I can only think that they messed with it, and that is how it happened.
Thank you so much. I was doing my taxes and praise the Lord I was getting a refund, when this thing went out! So, bless your heart for helping fools like me! I pray that God will bless you, truly.
Right now, I am waiting for the recovery disc to do it’s job. Even if I still have problems, I think you are the best!!
Any ideas on what to do if you only have a regular Win XP Cd? Can’t find my Dell recovery cd, but I do have a regular admin Win XP disc. I tried your steps but it doesnt seem to work because of the diff cd. Either that or my cd drive is bad now too. I could burn something to a USB thumb drive if that helps. I dont even care at this point if I have to reformat, at the moment all I have is a paperweight.
My info: Dell inspirion B130, got the blue screen out of the blue, and it isnt budging (my guess…my teenager did it somehow, she tried to install the SIMs and that was the last I saw this laptop work)
Any help would be appreciated, I am about giving up on it.
Melissa
Melissa,
How far along the steps did you get? Can you bring up the recovery console as outlined above?
Couldn’t get the recovery console up, but I did reboot holding down Fn key when powering up to get to the diagnostics, it passed through all the immediate quick tests, I went to the tree to choose to test just ‘windows blue screen’ options, and I am 98% through that with everything passing. I guess thats good but doesnt help much, and I see no options to repair or restore, just diagnose and test.
Melissa, that is all I had, was the recovery CD. Do what Ken suggested I do, and make sure your bios are set to run from the cd first.
Ken, I have another problem. Everything works fantastic! But, now I have a “freeze” problem. When the screensaver comes on, it freezes. And when I right click on the desk top to get the properties to come up, it freezes and I can not do anything. It will not shut down, won’t move. Like the keyboard and mouse are disconnected. I have to shut the computer off, and sometimes it won’t even let me do that! I have to turn off the power to the computer. But, it boots up and works just beautiful!
Computers are so much fun, eh?
Hi Ken,
Thanks for the advice but I would like to ask for some further assistance. I’ve run the steps you outlined (console, chkdsk /r, chkdsk /p, fixboot c:, exit). My machine now starts up and goes to a black screen with the mouse pointer in the middle (mouse is operational) and the “safe mode” text in the corners as well as the os with build number at the top.
Have you had any experience with anything like this? I also ran the dell diagnostics and got an error, but I don’t recall the code. I can rerun and provide that if needed.
_ramy
If you can re run the test, or flag which diagnostic run it actually fails in?
Anything of note from the chkdsk tests and fixing the boot record?
Hi Ken, trying to redo…but, when I get to the recovery console, I can not type the command, “chkdsk”…anything. Because it only lets me type one letter. IN the dos promt, it asks “which windows installation would you like to log onto”
above the prompt, there is:
1: C:\WINDOWS
I pressed the #1 and hit enter, and it asked for an administrator password. I do not have one.
Now what?
Hi Ken, trying to redo…but, when I get to the recovery console, I can not type the command, “chkdsk”…anything. Because it only lets me type one letter. IN the dos promt, it asks “which windows installation would you like to log onto”
above the prompt, there is:
1: C:\WINDOWS
I pressed the #1 and hit enter, and it asked for an administrator password. I do not have one.
Now what?
Woohoo! Ok thanks very much Ken, you’d be rich if you were Dell’s Tech Support Center I am sure
It passed ALL tests for hard drive, blue screen…who knows? I swear it was the SIMs that killed it. Anyway, end result, I went back & tried to get into that recovery things again and it worked, it was very picky about me first holding down CTRL, then adding in the F11, then letting them both go at exactly the same time, but it worked, I just reformatted the darn thing, so now I am back to having my laptop back, all squeaky clean too. All is well, thanks to you some tech guy over here didn’t get half my paycheck
So Ken, should you ever find yourself in Virginia, US, I owe you a pint or three
Thanks again! Cool blog by the way.
i also got the blue screen i tried everything but it goes back to the blue screen i heard of the chkdsk thing but it wont work for me because my cd-rom drive does not read any disk and my laptop does not support floppy disk…………any help please…..is there a way to do it without the disk or floppy if not then i guess will have to send it in to get repaired but i dnt want to loose my files please help………………
@Melissa If I ever find myself in Virginia I’ll give you a shout about the pints!
@rah It may be possible to remove your hard drive from your laptop and access it from a PC, possibly with a 2.5″ IDE laptop drive to pc mounting kit, a tricky process but any repair shop should be able to do it for you, using the PC to access and repair your laptop’s HD.
Is the CD Rom drive broken or is it set to boot AFTER your HD? If you look in the BIOS setup menu for your laptop, make sure your CD Rom drive is set to boot up first and try again with the CD.
You shouldn’t have to lose your files at all.
Hey Ken,
A little more information about my earlier comment. The test that fails is labeled :
“–Start DST Short Test–”
and the output is as follows:
“Test Results : Fail
Error Code : 1000-0146
MSG : Unit 0: DST Log contains previous error(s).”
I’m not sure how to get to the “DST log”. I continue with the test after this one fails (after being prompted) and come to this prompt:
“No Diagnostic Utility Partition found. To run diagnostics, insert your Dell “Drivers and Utilities” CD, then select OK to restart the system and boot off the CD.”
Unfortunately, I don’t have the Drivers and Utilities CD.
Nothing of note after running the chkdsk /r aside from one “error found, now recovering” type of message (i don’t remember the exact terms). The console works till completion though.
Thanks a lot Ken. You’ve been a big help man! Now i got all of my pics from all my deployments thanks to you!!!
@Ryan Glad to be of assistance
Hi,
My wife has a dell dimension 8400 and received this same error. We’ve been trying to boot from the cd, but the cd can’t be read in either the cd or dvd drive. We hear it trying to read/the light goes on, but then it stops and no boot. It says boot device is not available. Any suggestions?
Thanks
Hi Ken,
I wish I read your fix on this website earlier. I had the Unmountable Boot Volume erro. I called DELL support. They are nice. But I finally was instruced to reinstall every thing on my labtop. I have XP home editon and MediaDirect reinstallation CDs. The machine has just out of warranty. I am afraid, I may not be able to reinstall every thing on my laptop. I am wondering, do you have any tip for that?
Thank you.
Heather
Hi Ken,
I had been having problems with the blue screen error and used your fix – worked to perfection.
Couple days later during reboot i have a message telling me C:WINDOWS missing or corrupted file
It advises me to access Windows Setup and press R.
I have done this and gone through the steps again of chkdsk etc.
At each stage of the chkdsk it stops at 50% and gives the message that I have unrecoverable errors.
Doesn’t sound good – any ideas where to from now?
hi ken, found this site and have the same problem with the blue screen. When I do try to do a repair it asks me for what installation I want to repair and it only gives me f:\minint does that mean I wont be able to save any of my files because my hard drive is dead?
Ok , so what if you dont have the Windows XP CD anymore and not only that but your CD ROM DRIVE wasnt working in the first place. One day my laptop fell off the coffee table and the CD ROM DRIVE came out. Ever since then it hasnt worked. It runs at least i think it does it makes the normal noise but it doesnt run the cd. Do you know how to fix that and also where to get the Windows XP CD? Please help!
Ken,
ok, Ken I am already in the command prompt screen but when I type “chkdsk/r” it tells me “The command is not recognized”. What do I do?
Hey Krish,
you gotta make sure you have a space before /r. should be ‘chkdsk /r’
Hey man.. any suggestions if what you suggested DOESN’T work?
Cuz it didn’t work … I’m using (or trying to use) a Dell Inspiron E1505…. I’m about to R.I.P. this laptop…. please help!
Ken, I have an Inspiron E1405. This is not working for me. This is the SECOND time I have faced this. The first time ended with me starting completely over. I don’t want to do that again. If you can offer anymore of your sage advice, I would appreciate it very much.
Hey! I got the error msg unmountable boot volume. I have followed your directions but it never goes into the repair mode. It just brings up the partitions and ask if I want to delete reinstall. When I try reinstalling it goes through the steps but does not work…it keeps rebooting. Please help!
I just tried this fix on my Dell Inspiron E1505 and it went through all of the procedures fine and succesfully written the new bootsector but when I restart it just goes back to the blue screen with the unmountable boot volume error.
Any suggestions on what else to try?
Thanks
Hey!
I also have this issue.
But when i use the chkdsk /r it takes a few seconds,,,and then the computer reboots.
any ideas/.
hi i alos have the error on my computer. i jave a dell insipiron 1150 but i bought it second hand and has no discs with it? is there anyway to sort it with out the disk or to get another disk?
Ken, you are the macdaddy! I thought i’d have to buy a new computer before I read your solution page. You have been added to my favourites.
Many thanks
wat blue screen and how do i get to it?
Well, I followed your steps, and it worked!
Just wanted to say thanks