UNMOUNTABLE_BOOT_VOLUME error :\

Here's my computer specs...

IBM Thinkpad R51 - Model # 1829
Windows XP w/ SP1
1.5GHz Intel Centrino
40GB Hard Drive - about 400MB left (rest is full)
512MB Ram
Purchased: August 2004 (likely manufactured around then too)

History:

Ever since I've had this computer, it has had ZERO problems at all. However, these past few weeks, it has been a nightmare.

For starters, "explorer" has not been functioning well...for example, if I go to the desktop to click on "My Computer", it takes forever to open up the window. Or if I want to save something on a webpage, right clicking (which brings you to the SAVE AS box) took forever to open. IE was also extremely buggy (I got multiple "virtual memory is low" messages)Everything else, I guess "non-XP" related (i.e. Firefox, MS Word, MSN Messenger, bittorrent etc.) worked fine though.

I tend to leave my computer during the day. Last Thursday, after getting back from classes, I noticed the computer was exceptionally slow...everything was just frozen or taking forever to open/work. So I decided to simply restart my computer. That's when the problems began. I would get the BSOD "Unmountable_boot_volume" error and I would have to restart my computer again...I got the error about 3 times and then finally, after I restarted for the 4th time, XP decided to run chkdsk. While that was running, numerous lines began to scroll...all which said "File Record Segment __#__ is unreadable". But after all that finished, my computer got me to the log-in screen and everything worked fine from that point on.

Last night, once again, the computer was becoming extremely slow/buggy (like last time) so, like last time, I restarted my computer. But, once again, I got the BSOD Unmountable_boot_volume error". The exact error:
------------------------

A problem has been detected and windows has been shut down to prevent damage to your computer.

UNMOUNTABLE_BOOT_VOLUME

If this is the first time you've seen this Stop error screen, restart your computer. If this screen appears again, follow these steps:

Blah Blah Blah

Technical Information:
***STOP: 0x000000ED (0x82308E30, 0xC0000006, Ox00000000, 0x00000000)

----------------------------------

And the computer just freezes at this screen...doesn't restart, can't do CTRL-ALT-DELETE...nothing. I have to pull out the laptop battery to restart (I know that's bad, but the computer just becomes a paperweight at that point). So I restarted about 3-4 more times and, once again, the same thing. I hoped that I would get the chkdsk scan again and everything would be fine, but it didn't come up.

So basically that's where I'm at right now. I've never reformatted this hard drive, never had a virus/spyware infection (I had run those checks after the first time I had this BSOD boot_volume error, and nothing showed up). I've been reading a lot of other posts in the history section, and they all have something to do with having an XP CD, but I unfortunately don't have that either so I'm really at a loss as to what I should do next. Any ideas??

 

Everything you report points at a faulty hard drive. I recommend that you stop using the computer and back up your files immediately before the drive stops working completely. You can do this by connecting the drive to a desktop computer, as described on this page:

http://articles.techrepublic.com.com/5100-1035_11-5160538.html

Then buy a new hard drive, reinstall the OS and your software, and restore your files from the backup. Good luck.

 

Once you've backed up your critical data, try the error checking built into XP: Open Windows Explorer, i.e., My Computer>right click on your main boot drive "X">click tab Tools>click check now in Error-checking section>check the two boxes, "Automatically fix the system errors" and "Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors>click start and wait...it'll take a few minutes to run completely

After, reboot and see if the drive remains unmounted

 

Thanks for the help guys. I've been advised by the IBM rep not to turn on the computer again because, according to the diagnostic tests he did with me, there's a pretty good chance that I can recover everything (thank GOD)...so I'll be taking it into the shop on Tuesday and hopefully everything will be OK (*crosses fingers*)