blue screen of death

for about 5 years the computer ran amazing. Then one day I decided to download a free spyware utility and did a scan. It found some offending files and i clicked ok when asked if i wanted them removed.

on the very next bootup, the blue screen of death came accross the land.
safe mode didnt access itself
it became a constant loop
i did follow a couple of screens up to being asked to format the partition or something and i said no.

the error message if i remember said something like 'unmountable boot volume' ( i overheard once this aint a good one)

to lose all the files/data on that machine after 5 years ( and no backup !?!?!) would be a disaster. Please help.
Is there a way i can transfer those files onto a new hard drive at this point?
Is there any way to save any of it?



o and if someone knows why my avatar background only goes down like half way /gets cut off like that , pls let me know. Ive tried numerous images in there and they all just stop short like that and wont go any further down like maybe to the signature level.
Any help would be greatly apreciated friends.

Thank you,
Kind Regards.

*** Your computer may have been set to not recognize your hard drive you will need to check your computer's BIOS and see if your hard drive is indeed listed... The order should be 1) boot from CD/DVD then 2) boot from the main hard drive. Check the numbers and letters on your hard drive, does it match or somewhat match what is listed?

If you do have the ability to hook up two hard drives, set your old Hard drive to number 3 boot order and rank up your new hard drive that you will use to access your old hard drive to number 2 boot order. So, CD/DVD boot is set to number 1 boot order and your new hard drive will be used to reinstall your OS but to be on the safe side disconnect your bad HD until you get your new windows going, shut off the computer and reconnect your old Hard drive as a secondary slave then start up the thing again.

You may be able to bypass this problem and access your old hard drive from the new hard drive Operating System to rescue the files.

reply to post by gypsychology909


If you just need to copy the stuff thats on the drive then you can either do as the above poster suggested, or you can put the drive into an external hard drive caddy that you can hook up to another pc by USB and copy it over

They are pretty cheap.

You shouldn't need to format the drive to install windows you can usually just install one copy over the other and keep all your personal files,

reply to post by gypsychology909


What version of windows are you using? Do you have the original windows disk? Do you have a second PC / Laptop?

I think people are misunderstanding that BSOD is a windows thing not a "Cant find your drive" thing.

Sounds like the free spyware software you used, was too thorough, or you were infected with something that had injected itself into a vital OS dll.

my my .. hard to tell, hard to fix.

the fact you're on here posting means you have access to fix it, but what it is, is a dilemma.

copying files as suggested can be a problem, version mis matches etc from various updates, can be just as bad.. xp sp1/xp sp2/xp sp3/vista/w7 dont use the same dll files, but they share the same names.

use youre OS cd/dvd and do a repair, basically, an install but only if it suggests "REPAIR" or it will wipe youre data. If you have nothing on there you care for, just blitz it and reinstall.

so glad I keep aimages of my OS drive after major updates... :/ good luck!

reply to post by badw0lf


Your right!

I misread the post as the Blue screen and not being able to boot being two separate issues

As far as I know the "unmountable boot volume" message usually means that your file system is corrupt, you need your origional windows disk to be able to fix your file system though as you need to be able to get to the recovery console, then you can use chkdsk to scan the file system

reply to post by davespanners


Hahaha Dave, i just dawned on me you put a santa hat on your kitty.. LMAO

Brilliant

aww how did I miss that. rofl..

Hi,
a few more details.
I am on a new computer (desktop) now, the old one with the problem sits close by.
I have limited computer knowledge and really appreciate the help above by the way.

Can someone pls offer a bit more information on the following: I was actually looking at a product (in a store) some external HD 'housing' thing where you can put your old hard drive and hook it up to a new computer and copy files.

It sounds very simple - almost too simple considering the reaction I got in some circles upon mentioning " unmountable boot volume" If my old computer lost the ability to 'comunicate' with my hard drive, how would this work - my new computer being able to access files via this external dealio?

Also, I did have the original OS discs w/ drivers etc, and did try that route but it would not boot from cd.

By the way, there were places that advised I leave my pc there for a few days and they would fix it for about 300 - $400 but you know, 5 years of private work files, creative writing, pics of ex gf lol, I would rather not have anyone go through my stuff you know..

G.

reply to post by gypsychology909


You should be able to boot from the OS CD.

You have to change the boot order in your BIOS settings to read the CD drive before the hard drive..

Like this

Or do you mean that the CD is damaged?

reply to post by gypsychology909


I do know that one of the reasons that you can get an "unmountable volume" error is if the file system becomes corrupted.

The file system is like the index of a book, it tells the OS what part of the disk to read to find a particular file. If that gets messed up then the disk can no longer be read because it doesn't know where any of the files are although all the data is still actually there.

If you can hook the disk up as an external drive (or get windows to run from an install CD) then you can run an inbuilt windows utility on it called chkdsk which tries to recreate that index.

You may lose data doing this too though, it's hard to say

There is a microsoft page on fixing your error here

Originally posted by gypsychology909
If my old computer lost the ability to 'comunicate' with my hard drive, how would this work - my new computer being able to access files via this external dealio?

Your old computer didn't "lose the ability to communicate" with your harddrive. Your Windows boot files and or other files required to boot the OS got corrupted or deleted. Alot of the time, getting to the boot menu (by continuously pressing F-8), selecting "Last known good configuration" works.

Too bad your cd drive isn't working anymore because Windows Repair would've likely fixed your problem.

To answer your question about the external enclosure, after you connect your old harddrive and power on your new computer, all of the files on the old harddrive should be visible.