Windows rubicks cube - BSOD

[topcat unknown]

Background - Friend has a p4 based system which had XP working fine, until he tried to reinstall windows.

Problem - He got a BSOD - unmountable boot volume when trying to reinstall

He gave to me to try and fix and thisd is a list of what I have done

Since blue screen - I am not even able to get windows xp cd to get to the menu screen.
I tried taking the HDD out putting it in another machine - worked - formatted it and reinstalled windows Xp on that machine - then moved hdd back to original machine - still nothing.

tried hdd from my computer ( with XP) and same error occurs when booting.

Most forums (including MS help) suggest recovery console, but cant actually get that far.

I put the hdd in another computer and ran RC from there
I used fixboot and fixmbr ( seperate occasions)
I even tried bootcfg
I deleted bootlog
I swapped DDR as well to check mem was not the problem
tried chksdsk and scan disk no errors

The bios settings are all correct ( as they were working before) - I have checked them , changed them and removed all non essentials.

I am completely lost as to what can be done besides getting a new motherboard. Any help is greatly appreciated as i have spent 40 hours in the last week swapping drives up and down, formatting, etc

[chanto!]

Background - Friend has a p4 based system which had XP working fine, until he tried to reinstall windows.

Problem - He got a BSOD - unmountable boot volume when trying to reinstall

He gave to me to try and fix and thisd is a list of what I have done

Since blue screen - I am not even able to get windows xp cd to get to the menu screen.
I tried taking the HDD out putting it in another machine - worked - formatted it and reinstalled windows Xp on that machine - then moved hdd back to original machine - still nothing.

tried hdd from my computer ( with XP) and same error occurs when booting.

Most forums (including MS help) suggest recovery console, but cant actually get that far.

I put the hdd in another computer and ran RC from there
I used fixboot and fixmbr ( seperate occasions)
I even tried bootcfg
I deleted bootlog
I swapped DDR as well to check mem was not the problem
tried chksdsk and scan disk no errors

The bios settings are all correct ( as they were working before) - I have checked them , changed them and removed all non essentials.

I am completely lost as to what can be done besides getting a new motherboard. Any help is greatly appreciated as i have spent 40 hours in the last week swapping drives up and down, formatting, etc

Is that error really "unmountable boot volume" or is it "inaccessible boot volume"? If the later, then XP doesn't have the right mass storage driver, in which case you'll need to create a driver floppy and hit F6 to during the initial text setup screen.

Is this a SATA drive? If so, the motherboard might have SATA RAID mode turned on. If you only have a single drive, turn off RAID mode -- then you won't need additional driver to get XP installed.

[topcat unknown]

Thanks Chanto

the error is correct
I have also received the error
"inaccessible boot device" which comes up on another blue screen when trying to install XP or W2K.

The drive is not RAID ed or SATA

I would like to try what you mentioned but what is/how do i create a driver floppy ( what drivers am I looking for) where do i get them from.

[chanto!]

Thanks Chanto

the error is correct
I have also received the error
"inaccessible boot device" which comes up on another blue screen when trying to install XP or W2K.

The drive is not RAID ed or SATA

I would like to try what you mentioned but what is/how do i create a driver floppy ( what drivers am I looking for) where do i get them from.

So I'm assuming this is a normal IDE hard drive connected to the motherboard's IDE connector? What is the motherboard's brand and model? You can usually find the correct driver from the motherboard manufacturer's website. Normally IDE controllers do not require drivers if it's part of the chipset. Intel chipset only supports ATA-100 devices so if your motherboard claims to support ATA-133 devices then the controller might be from HighPoint, Promise, or another company...in which case you will need a driver for.

[TallCool1]

Background - Friend has a p4 based system which had XP working fine, until he tried to reinstall windows. Problem - He got a BSOD - unmountable boot volume when trying to reinstall. Since blue screen - I am not even able to get windows xp cd to get to the menu screen.

Reset the BIOS--it's probably corrupted. Go into the BIOS setup screen and copy all settings to a sheet of paper. Go to the motherboard and move the CMOS Reset jumper (make sure that the unit is hard powered-off via a back-panel switch, power strip or unplugging). Wait about 10 minutes, then move the jumper back and turn on the unit. you should get an error along the lines of "CMOS error--use default values?" (message may vary).

Enter the desired values you noted, then reboot. You should be better. If not, there may be a hardware problem.

[topcat unknown]

Hi Chanto, yes the drive is basic IDE and the MB is Gigabyte GA-8GEM667K. I checked the giga website but there is no driver for hdd controllers ( I found vga etc). It is intel chipset and the drive is ata 100 with 80 wire cable( tried 40 aswell just to see what happened). But i was able to find a bios update.

If what tallcool1 was saying works then i can I am happy to try that as the mother board provides Q Flash which allows me to upgrade the bios without going into the os.

Hi Tallcool1 - thanks for the info - I would like to trey what you suggested but the only jumper i was able to find was a password clear jumper. Do you think a bios update would have the same effect ( remove corruopt bios).

As for hardware the hdd works on another pc - just plugged it straight in - I also tried removing all non essentials to reduce conflict and changed the ram stick ( Kingston 512)

The motherboard is a Gigabyte GA-8GEM667K - can anyone confirm whether it has a cmos reset jumper

[bsm2003]

unplug and remove the cmos battery for atleast 2min and then reinstall the batt. boot up and follow the rest of tallcool1's sugestions.

[topcat unknown]

Thanks BSM,

I pulled the battery out once before but i didn't wait thinking it would be reset straight away. I have pulled it out now and am waiting - another forum suggested 15min to 60 min depending on MB. I couldn't care how long it takes i just want it fixed.

I'll post back and let you know how it goes

[chanto!]

Thanks BSM,

I pulled the battery out once before but i didn't wait thinking it would be reset straight away. I have pulled it out now and am waiting - another forum suggested 15min to 60 min depending on MB. I couldn't care how long it takes i just want it fixed.

I'll post back and let you know how it goes

Check out this KB article, it seems to have a fix for your problem:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;297185

[topcat unknown]

Doh!No Luck - it must be cursed.

Tried the battery thing and the "cmos error" came up - continued with hdd that has XP on it and same stop screen. Rebooted with CD and gets to "Starting windows setup" screen and BSOD.

Also downloaded the bios update from the MB website and updated it and BSOD. Can't f' n beleive it.

Thanks for that chanto - but that is where i got most of my original info from - load of crap wasted a whole week going through those solutions. Still haven't been able to try the mass storage driver thing that you were talking about as there is no HDD driver on the giga website. There is Intel chipset drivers - INF and IIA ( i think ) but i dont know what they are.

I got a option menu at one stage which gave me safe mode options etc. I selected safe mode and it shows the drivers as they are loading - it gets to mup.sys and that is when the bsod comes up - dont know if it is mup.sys or the next driver making it crash.

Any new ideas will save me from throwing this computer into a wall

[chanto!]

Doh!No Luck - it must be cursed.

Tried the battery thing and the "cmos error" came up - continued with hdd that has XP on it and same stop screen. Rebooted with CD and gets to "Starting windows setup" screen and BSOD.

Also downloaded the bios update from the MB website and updated it and BSOD. Can't f' n beleive it.

Thanks for that chanto - but that is where i got most of my original info from - load of crap wasted a whole week going through those solutions. Still haven't been able to try the mass storage driver thing that you were talking about as there is no HDD driver on the giga website. There is Intel chipset drivers - INF and IIA ( i think ) but i dont know what they are.

I got a option menu at one stage which gave me safe mode options etc. I selected safe mode and it shows the drivers as they are loading - it gets to mup.sys and that is when the bsod comes up - dont know if it is mup.sys or the next driver making it crash.

Any new ideas will save me from throwing this computer into a wall

Well, you won't need the mass storage driver since XP has native support for the ATA-100 controller on the ICH4 chipset.

Have you checked the condition of the IDE cable? Any signs of damage? Try another IDE cable...

If all fails, let's try try the installation one more time, except deleting the partition table first...

1. hook up the IDE hard drive to your friend's P4 board
2. power up and get into the CMOS setup, set the boot priority to floppy first, cdrom drive next, and then hard drive; save and exit
3. find a DOS boot disk and boot up with this boot disk, run fdisk to delete all partitions on the hard drive; save and exit
4. place the XP installation CD into the CDROM drive, boot up the system with this CD
5. proceed with the installation, you'll be asked to choose the drive to install XP to...hit enter to select the only hard drive and select NTFS filesystem. Don't select quick format option, let it do a slow format
6. hopefully the installation will complete successfully

[TallCool1]

If what tallcool1 was saying works then i can I am happy to try that as the mother board provides Q Flash which allows me to upgrade the bios without going into the os.

Hi Tallcool1 - thanks for the info - I would like to trey what you suggested but the only jumper i was able to find was a password clear jumper. Do you think a bios update would have the same effect ( remove corrupt bios).
The motherboard is a Gigabyte GA-8GEM667K - can anyone confirm whether it has a cmos reset jumper

Do not re-flash the BIOS until we have cleared any other problems! I am about to write a brief article on the safest ways to do this, but it is not yet necessary in this case. BIOS contents and CMOS contents, while related, are separate issues; consider the BIOS as house wiring and the CMOS contents as light switches and you will have it about right. You wouldn't start yanking house wires if you had just a bad switch, would you?

In this case, what Gigabyte calls the Clear Password jumper actually clears (resets) the CMOS. Modern motherboards can hold settings with the battery removed for up to 12 hours, which is why the jumper is provided. Try that first.

[topcat unknown]

Hi, to everyone who has trierd to help me - thankyou, but i am no better off.

I bought a brand new motherboard and am still having the same problem.

I am only using the bare minimum
M/board (Gigabyte - GA-8VD667K)
CPU (P4 2.4 533 FSB)
HDD (Have tried 10G Quantum, 40G Maxtor, 2x80G Seagate)
n.b. all these hdd work on 2 other computer ( amd 1400, celeron 700)
RAM (Kingston 512 DDR 333 x 2 - 1 old and 1 new)

I am able to get win 98 working so I cant understand why XP keeps blue screening. I used a brand new M/B and a cleanly formatted HDD and tried to install XP ( I had the cd-rom connected at the time) and it BSOD before the install options came up. I used HDD with XP already installed and I get the start up options screen ( safe mode, start normal etc) - I went through and selected each option - same thing every time.

Is there anyone who can think of a solution

N.b - I got brand new cables with the m/b

[Catweazle]

Is that Windows XP a legitimate CD?

Did you use Fdisk to create a small partition for Windows 98?

Did you then use the Windows XP CD to create a partition, format it and install Windows XP?

It really sounds like you're using old Windows 98 techniques for Windows XP. That hardware should be fine. If it's not working, boot from the Windows XP CD, remove all partitions and create a new one(s). Install Windows XP formatting to NTFS.

If that works, then you know the harware compatibility issues are fine.

Remember - you don't need fdisk for Windows XP, only for Windows 98. XP has it all contained in the setup routine. ;)

[topcat unknown]

I used 2 versions of XP thinking that might be the prob (one was legit and new version)

2 of the HDD are ntfs format with XP installed

I cant boot from the xp cd ( it doesn't get to the install options) unless I use another machine - and I tried doing that aswell ( removing partitions - create new ones and install in ntfs format ( not using quick format) )

I am trying to eliminate hardware compatibility by replacing items one at a time - the only thing i haven't changed is the cpu - but i cant understand how that could store info which would make it blue screen a XP HDD or setup cd.

Any other ideas - I exhausted my own

[Catweazle]

What Optical drive have you got. I'm betting it's the problem.

[topcat unknown]

Hi Cat weazle,

I thought of that - it is a liteon LD411s ( DVD burner)

but i disconnected it and tried to load xp from a hdd that it was already installed on,

could that be the problem - i have a spare cdrw which i can put in but i didn;t think of it when the hdd did nt work on its own

[Catweazle]

I'd be trying that. In fact, I'd be trying a 'vanilla' CD-ROM if one is available.

Some optical drives simply cause problems. Mitsubishi drives seem troublesome at times, and I've heard of DVD drives having installation problems as well.

But the problems you're having seem to point to a conflict between optical drive and the drive controller, or an incompatibility between motherboard and RAM.

[chanto!]

I used 2 versions of XP thinking that might be the prob (one was legit and new version)

2 of the HDD are ntfs format with XP installed

I cant boot from the xp cd ( it doesn't get to the install options) unless I use another machine - and I tried doing that aswell ( removing partitions - create new ones and install in ntfs format ( not using quick format) )

I am trying to eliminate hardware compatibility by replacing items one at a time - the only thing i haven't changed is the cpu - but i cant understand how that could store info which would make it blue screen a XP HDD or setup cd.

Any other ideas - I exhausted my own

legit cd or not, it's not up to us to judge...we're here to help...

anyway, don't do what you're currently doing...that is, install xp on another system and take that hd to your system... it will blue screen.

have you checked out your memory? if not, get memtest86 either on cd or floppy and test them out...

if your xp cd does not boot, what you can do is...

1) boot up with a floppy with cdrom support (the 98 floppy/cd will do)
2) fdisk, format your hard drive
3) make a temp folder on the hard drive and copy all the files in the i386 folder from your xp into this temp folder
4) run smartdrv.exe if you can find it on your 98 cd/floppy
5) start the xp installation from your hard drive by running winnt.exe

remember not to install xp on another machine and swap hd...

[topcat unknown]

Hi Chanto,

I tried what you said above - I created a folder called temp and copied all the files from i386 to that folder ( i did not copy the folder aswell just the files) and when i run winnt.exe it starts the install and asks where it can find the files. It defaults to the temp folder that it is in and when i hit enter it says it cant find the first file, choose ignore then cant find the second etc etc for all the files. At this point it doesn't give you an option to locate the file manually.

Am i doing this correctly or should i call the temp folder i386 or something.

It seems to be hardware incompatibility - the only thing i haven't been able to change is the cpu - is that capable of storing information in its cache which could be causing the problem.

Another idea i had was to use the mother board cd to install the drivers using win 98 then try upgrading to XP - does anyone know if this is a step forward or back.

[chanto!]

Sorry dude, assuming you copied everything from the CDROM's i386 folder to C:\i386 (copy the folders inside i386 also.. so that \i386\SYSTEM32 on the CDROM also exists in C:\i386\SYSTEM32...don't need these folders: WIN9XMIG, WIN9XUPG, and WINNTUPG... )

you'll want to run winnt.exe with these switches:

C:
cd \i386

winnt.exe /s:\i386 /t:c:

Hi Chanto,

I tried what you said above - I created a folder called temp and copied all the files from i386 to that folder ( i did not copy the folder aswell just the files) and when i run winnt.exe it starts the install and asks where it can find the files. It defaults to the temp folder that it is in and when i hit enter it says it cant find the first file, choose ignore then cant find the second etc etc for all the files. At this point it doesn't give you an option to locate the file manually.

Am i doing this correctly or should i call the temp folder i386 or something.

It seems to be hardware incompatibility - the only thing i haven't been able to change is the cpu - is that capable of storing information in its cache which could be causing the problem.

Another idea i had was to use the mother board cd to install the drivers using win 98 then try upgrading to XP - does anyone know if this is a step forward or back.

[topcat unknown]

Hey chanto,

Iam trying what you said now - just wondering what those switches are

winnt.exe /s \i386 /t:c:

[topcat unknown]

Hey Chanto,

thankyou very much you are a legend - I tried what you said and it worked.

If you could post what those switches do to help me better understand what it was that i did.

I'd also like to thank everyone else who tried to help

thanks again.

[chanto!]

Hey Chanto,

thankyou very much you are a legend - I tried what you said and it worked.

If you could post what those switches do to help me better understand what it was that i did.

I'd also like to thank everyone else who tried to help

thanks again.

thanks!

/s:\dir_name specify source installation files' path (the i386 folder), ie. if it's on D:\i386, you'd use /s:d:\i386

/t:drive: temp drive used during windows installation

there's a few more switches, like /u for unattended mode, etc. run winnt.exe /? from your c:\i386 folder to find a list of switches.

The nice thing with having the \i386 content on your hard drive is that if you reset some registry keys you'll never get prompted for the Win XP CD again... if you happen to add/remove any windows component, service packs, etc.

To do this, run regedit and change the values these registry keys to C:\\

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Setup]
"SourcePath"="C:\\"
"ServicePackSourcePath"="C:\\"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion]
"SourcePath"="C:\\"