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Question about Unmountable boot volume


chimpy

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i quickly reviewed this thread ...

how old is the machine ? what are the specifications of the machine in question (a link to the model would be helpful too) .

this must be known before one can justify "cheaper" ... an old boat anchor that will barely pull a decent antivirus , firewall , anti-malware program(s) will soon become totally outdated .

i had a similar problem a short time back ... running the recovery console from a disk and the "/chkdsk" worked .

not knowing for certain whether it was/is the HHD , motherboard or ram is the issue .

popping in another drive will require you to do a "bit copy" or "clone" the questionable drive or load the manufacturers "flavor" of the OS . i have known of others that have tried to use a "generic" (and legitimate) copy of the OS and it failed .

to check on the state of the HD , it was suggested to use the SMART program to see what errors (if any) were occurring .

there are a couple of utilities that will thoroughly check the ram for errors .

once one eliminates the HD and the ram ... the next best bet is the MB and/or the power supply (dirty power can cause some weird problems) .

another way around this is to use a new or known good HD in place of the questionable one , load ubuntu on it and run it for a while .

this will put everything else through the paces and at least narrow down the possibilities .

---and it is a sort of sneaky way to get him to use ubuntu--- :lol:

ubuntu is not hard to learn (for most people) ... i believe that the majority of people that are willing to apply themselves , do a little thinking and searching are capable of utilizing ubuntu as an alternate to windows .

remember though , a person that is used to just sitting back and being an ignorant button pusher will have problems ... the first real test will be getting a dvd to run .

it took me about 2 hours to figure it out ... after that (and many ubuntu systems later) it is almost a matter of wrote to do what is required .

as i recall , it took me far longer to learn to ride a bicycle ... ;)

there is another issue besides the online gaming ... as far as i know , netflix will not run unless IE is installed (DRM issues) . so , this sort puts netflix off limits on any linux system .

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i quickly reviewed this thread ...

how old is the machine ? what are the specifications of the machine in question (a link to the model would be helpful too) .

this must be known before one can justify "cheaper" ... an old boat anchor that will barely pull a decent antivirus , firewall , anti-malware program(s) will soon become totally outdated .

i had a similar problem a short time back ... running the recovery console from a disk and the "/chkdsk" worked .

not knowing for certain whether it was/is the HHD , motherboard or ram is the issue .

popping in another drive will require you to do a "bit copy" or "clone" the questionable drive or load the manufacturers "flavor" of the OS . i have known of others that have tried to use a "generic" (and legitimate) copy of the OS and it failed .

to check on the state of the HD , it was suggested to use the SMART program to see what errors (if any) were occurring .

there are a couple of utilities that will thoroughly check the ram for errors .

once one eliminates the HD and the ram ... the next best bet is the MB and/or the power supply (dirty power can cause some weird problems) .

another way around this is to use a new or known good HD in place of the questionable one , load ubuntu on it and run it for a while .

this will put everything else through the paces and at least narrow down the possibilities .

---and it is a sort of sneaky way to get him to use ubuntu--- :lol:

ubuntu is not hard to learn (for most people) ... i believe that the majority of people that are willing to apply themselves , do a little thinking and searching are capable of utilizing ubuntu as an alternate to windows .

remember though , a person that is used to just sitting back and being an ignorant button pusher will have problems ... the first real test will be getting a dvd to run .

it took me about 2 hours to figure it out ... after that (and many ubuntu systems later) it is almost a matter of wrote to do what is required .

as i recall , it took me far longer to learn to ride a bicycle ... ;)

there is another issue besides the online gaming ... as far as i know , netflix will not run unless IE is installed (DRM issues) . so , this sort puts netflix off limits on any linux system .

not sure what the model is but its a dell about 6-7 years old, his mate burned a copy of a xp for him in case it happened again but some how this didn't work and the PC reformatted its self, now windows is saying its a illegal copy (makes sense) and as he doesn't have a key as it came pre installed he is pretty screwed.

I think he said it said he had 30 days to reg it? so we are now trying to get the PC to see the router to get on the net to get a copy of a linux distro rather than him going out to get a new windows OS but this is proving difficult as his isp said that the router was fine (we knew this) and the reason he cannot get on the net is probably a missing driver (news to me!)so they were less than helpful :(

I think he is just going to call someone out to "fix" it so once he at least then has the net he can rid himself of windows.

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6-7 year old dell ... pretty "iffy" .

"burned a copy of XP for him" ... your friend may be screwed .

to the best of my knowledge , going back to dell and explaining what is happening/has happened and getting a copy of the flavored OS for that machine is your best bet .

you will need the serial number of the machine and proof of purchase ... good luck on that though .

remember ... they would prefer to sell you a new machine , there is more profit in that .

you can dl ubuntu on your machine , burn an iso of it and install it on your friends machine .

i would drop another drive in the box ... pull the old one .

after you get ubuntu up and running , you can hook up the old drive to a spare sata slot or on the pata cable and grab the files/data off of it that are needed .

i would get the model number of the machine and run some recon on it before doing anything further .

some of those machines have a bad track record ... the swmps , MB , and hard drives are the usual culprits .

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6-7 year old dell ... pretty "iffy" .

"burned a copy of XP for him" ... your friend may be screwed .

to the best of my knowledge , going back to dell and explaining what is happening/has happened and getting a copy of the flavored OS for that machine is your best bet .

you will need the serial number of the machine and proof of purchase ... good luck on that though .

remember ... they would prefer to sell you a new machine , there is more profit in that .

you can dl ubuntu on your machine , burn an iso of it and install it on your friends machine .

i would drop another drive in the box ... pull the old one .

after you get ubuntu up and running , you can hook up the old drive to a spare sata slot or on the pata cable and grab the files/data off of it that are needed .

i would get the model number of the machine and run some recon on it before doing anything further .

some of those machines have a bad track record ... the swmps , MB , and hard drives are the usual culprits .

we tried last time to get a copy from dell but like you said they didn't seem able to help they said it would cost 30-50 I think for a copy of xp :(

i've looked on the dell site and there is a whole page of drivers, so im going to DL all those and burn to cd (if it lets me, i dont know how so if anyone could help? as we have two different machines and I do not want to "update" my drivers with the wrong ones and break my pc also)

if that works then we can get him to DL linux, if not I will DL linux and we might as well just wipe the PC and use linux so if anyone has good links to any easy newbie friendly distros that would be great :)

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heh ... you might just grab the ethernet drivers for that particular board/model . that might get you online .

as long as you look up the drivers for the model that your friend has and manually download them , you should be ok .

do not use any "here , let us fix that for you" type stuff .

however ...

if your going for a linux distro , i would suggest ubuntu as it is just about the best supported/documented/used distro .

start here :

http://www.ubuntu.com/

there are step-by-step instructions for downloading and burning an iso , and installation .

you might want to start a topic over in the "honorary members" section .

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Have him check the computer for a sticker with a XP license on it. OEMs are supposed to place license stickers within view on any computer they sell. If he finds one it may not work as OEM and Retail keys are not interchangeable. At this point with a computer being that old, I would recommend replacing it. Typically after 3-4 years the cost of maintaining a computer will cost you more than buying a new one.

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Getting drivers for your dell, you cant go wrong and download the wrong ones.

All you do it go to www.support.dell.com and there you click on Start Here under Support for

Home Users, then enter your service tag, and it will take you to the right downloads for your computer.

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Thanks, I think the ethernet one might be what is stopping the connection.

thing is as we will be DL the drivers from my PC and burning them onto a disc im just worried that I might accidentally install then on mine instead of burning to disc, im not even sure dell will have the option to burn the drivers to disc tbh.

i wont be doing this till tuesday when I get back in town, i just hope i dont mess it up :D

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you should be able to enter the code from your friend's machine in order to look up the drivers .

as far as burning them ... that is your job . you will be asked "do you want to run or save ..." . save the drivers to a folder on the desk top labeled appropriately (ie : POS-1 dell drivers) .

from there use a burning program to transfer them to a cd .

this is where knowing how to tell your machine what to do versus letting the blind "gee ... idunno , just do it for me" is beneficial .

let the learning curve begin .

;):lol:

ps ... what is the full model number of the machine ?

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Do what Firefox said ( download drivers from http://support.dell.com/ ), I work with Dell comps all the time at work experience, you can barely miss the right files if you enter the correct service tag or model number. If you plan on getting online just to download Linux, then the Ethernet driver will be enough.

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Thanks, I dont have the code yet but he does have it and will bring it down tomorrow, dell I see has a helpful list of which drivers to install first so thats good :D, normally tbh I just run things I DL so I am not even sure if my FF has the option to save, im pretty sure it doesnt from past DLs, not sure how to get that to work, i can DL and then it scans the DL and then i normally just click it to run, i dont know how else to do it.

I do not even know if i have a burning prog, i've never done it before, I have ROXIO but ive not used that, does windows not have one already installed?

Hes bringing a few dvds so hopefully all the drivers will fit on them and the linux distro.

Or is it better to just install linux and forget all about windows? does linux come with all the drivers needed to get online and such? and what AV is compatible for it?

sorry I am a newbe :P

edit

i dont seem to have ROXIO anymore, do I need a "burner" prog and if so can anyone recommend a free one for me?

Edited by chimpy
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Something that I have made work before is by using a tool on Hiren's Boot CD that regenerates hard drive sectors. That has saved a couple of machines from the Unmmountable Boot Volume if the hard drive is just starting to fail.

Here is the download link if you would like to try the bootable CD before you would do anything else.

http://www.hirensbootcd.org/download/

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Something that I have made work before is by using a tool on Hiren's Boot CD that regenerates hard drive sectors. That has saved a couple of machines from the Unmmountable Boot Volume if the hard drive is just starting to fail.

Here is the download link if you would like to try the bootable CD before you would do anything else.

Thanks, he's left so I wont see him for a few days but I will DL it and keep it just incase :)

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Or is it better to just install linux and forget all about windows? does linux come with all the drivers needed to get online and such?

Depends. Ethernet will work out of the box on any distro, but you'll need to install extra drivers to get wireless working. A distro like Ubuntu should be able to automatically pull them from the net via Ethernet (you just have to go to System → Administration → Additional Drivers to install them).

what AV is compatible for it?

You don't need one on Linux. Antiviruses for Linux mostly scan for Windows viruses anyway. If you want to feel secure, revoke all unnecessary permissions from your account and disable sudo. That way, nothing will be able to write outside your home directory.

i dont seem to have ROXIO anymore, do I need a "burner" prog and if so can anyone recommend a free one for me?

For creating data discs, try CDBurnerXP. For simply burning images, you might want ImgBurn.

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ubuntu does have many of the drivers needed to get the ethernet port running ... from there , it will find better drivers (if available) when doing the install/update .

you may have some confusion with "ethernet" and "wireless" ...

ethernet is typically lay defined as "that funny blue cable with an rj45 on it" (looks like a big phone plug) .

;)

something about virus and linux .

while your linux machine may not show signs of infection you can still pass it on .

sort of like a typhoid mary or a ... i shall digress .

i use an av on my ubuntu machines .

wasn't there a recent thread about "cross platform" virus ... or maybe it was a link in the thread ?

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ubuntu does have many of the drivers needed to get the ethernet port running ... from there , it will find better drivers (if available) when doing the install/update .

you may have some confusion with "ethernet" and "wireless" ...

ethernet is typically lay defined as "that funny blue cable with an rj45 on it" (looks like a big phone plug) .

;)

something about virus and linux .

while your linux machine may not show signs of infection you can still pass it on .

sort of like a typhoid mary or a ... i shall digress .

i use an av on my ubuntu machines .

wasn't there a recent thread about "cross platform" virus ... or maybe it was a link in the thread ?

Ah right, I am hoping and presuming that ubuntu will have everything installed so it can connect online, as that is the only issue he has, I thought it best to get him to have a AV, just in case. :)

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He has connected online so all is good, a few things like thunderbird not accepting his pw is a bit annoying but im sure a few goes at it will sort it all out, so in a few days he will be installing ubuntu :)

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