can someone tell me what "unmountable boot volume " means?

Question

Every once in a while my pc pops up with a blue screen with this error message and has to be restarted. What causes this?

Answer 1

I know this is long but you need all of this to understand.
SUMMARY
When booting up to Win XP you may get a error that reads "Unmountable Boot Volume".
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SYMPTOMS
When booting up to Win XP you may get a error that reads "Unmountable Boot Volume".
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CAUSE
1.The file system is damaged and cannot be mounted.
2.You use a standard 40-wire connector cable to connect the UDMA drive to the controller instead of the required 80-wire, 40-pin cable.
3.The basic input/output system (BIOS) settings are configured to force the faster UDMA modes.

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RESOLUTION
If it be the connector cable problem then replace the 40-wire cable with an 80-wire UDMA cable.
If it's a BIOS settings problem then load the 'Fail-Safe' default settings, and then reactivate the most frequently used options such as USB Support.

If it's a damaged file system case then:-
1.Insert the Windows XP CD-ROM into the CD-ROM drive, and then restart the computer.

Click to select any options that are required to start the computer from the CD-ROM drive if you are prompted.

2.When the "Welcome to Setup" screen appears, press R to start the Recovery Console.

3.If you have a dual-boot or multiple-boot computer, select the installation that you must access from the Recovery Console.

4.When you are prompted, type the Administrator password. If the administrator password is blank, just press ENTER.

5.At the command prompt, type chkdsk /r , and then press ENTER.

6.At the command prompt, type exit , and then press ENTER to restart your computer.

This takes a bit longer, but the system should boot back into Windows.

Answer 2

At times when booting up to Win XP you may get a error that reads "Unmountable Boot Volume".

Either the file system is damaged and cannot be mounted, or
you're using a standard 40-wire connector cable to connect the UDMA drive to the controller instead of the required 80-wire, 40-pin cable, or the basic input/output system (BIOS) settings are configured to force the faster UDMA modes.

First try replacing the connector cable problem then replace the 40-wire cable with an 80-wire UDMA cable.
If it's a BIOS settings problem then load the 'Fail-Safe' default settings, and then reactivate the most frequently used options such as USB Support.
If it's a damaged file system case then:-

1.Insert the Windows XP CD-ROM into the CD-ROM drive, and then restart the computer.

Click to select any options that are required to start the computer from the CD-ROM drive if you are prompted.

2.When the "Welcome to Setup" screen appears, press R to start the Recovery Console.

3.If you have a dual-boot or multiple-boot computer, select the installation that you must access from the Recovery Console.

4.When you are prompted, type the Administrator password. If the administrator password is blank, just press ENTER.

5.At the command prompt, type chkdsk /r , and then press ENTER.

6.At the command prompt, type exit , and then press ENTER to restart your computer.

This takes a bit longer, but the system should boot back into Windows.

Else

1.Insert the Windows XP CD-ROM into the CD-ROM drive, and
click 'Upgrade'

Your entire system should then be working well with new system files.

Good luck

Answer 3

In short, it means it can't load the operating system from the drive. Chances are that the hard drive is corrupted.

Things you can "boot" (start up) from are called volumes, and a "boot volume" is the one it's trying to start up from. An "unmountable" one means it can't load it, therefore can't start up from it.

Long story short, you probably need to get your drive reformatted or just buy a new drive. Have a professional help you. Or just live with it. It won't get better, but it might get worse. One day it just might not work at all. Save the stuff you really want to some other device or disk.