UNMOUNTABLE_DRIVE_VOLUME blue screen

Hi

I've started getting on boot up an UNMOUNTABLE_DRIVE_VOLUME blue screen. Booting again and directly choosing safe mode or last known good configuration doesn't make any difference, but if I boot and press F8 and then boot in safe mode and choose to restore from a configuration of a few days ago I can get it to boot.

THis has happened a few times now. There's only a very small number of hits when I google for this error so anybody know anything about this would be appreciated.
If I have to re-install XP to fix the problem am I going to lose all my personal data files on the hard drive in the process?


I've got a 3250 upgraded to 1Mg (done several months ago) but have not messed around with anything else.

 

Have you tried scheduling chkdsk on this drive with the option to check the entire volume? Something is clobbering your boot process. The first two thoughts that come to mind are a failing hard drive or a boot sector virus, but it's too easy to blame every problem on malware.

 

Thanks I'll give that a try

 

chkdsk revealed that several file record segments are unreadable.
I ran it with the /r option but it looks like its going to take several more hours to complete (!). Will it be able to repair an unreadable segment, what could the cause have been, if it can't be repared is there anything that can be done?

 

chkdsk should repair it. im 99% sure it would. if it cant though, you need a new hard drive.