Following no software/hardware changes for months, my PC failed to boot and went into the Safe Boot option screen. Regardless of option that I choose, it will eventually loop back to the original screen. I used the F8 Function to get to Safe Mode reboot with the same Loop happening. I used the "Disable automatic restart on system failure" option and during an attempt to Safe-Mode reboot, the sequence stopped with a error message indicating "Unmountable_Boot_Volume" I tend to believe that perhaps my HD has crashed but am not sure if I can prove/disprove. It sounds normal and the Fan is running fine. I'm NOT very strong technically with PC's and would really like to be able to save a couple of data files on the HD if it is bad....and just to make it more interesting, my CD/DVD has not worked for awhile, so I can't reboot using a Disk (unless I change the CD/DVD?) Any suggestions ... I cannot enter Safe Mode in any configuration (no Command Prompt etc)

You are kind of stuck. You need a bootable media of some kind. Most people use a CD/DVD. Might borrow a usb cd/dvd drive from a friend if the system supports usb booting in bios.Then see the microsoft site on how to use "repair" to fix you xp installation. It will most likely mess up programs but the personal data ought to be there. Other than that you could see if any friend has a usb bootable OS to be used to recover data. Lastly is network booting. Get a floppy from netboot.me and see if you can get tinycore loaded over the network to try to access the hard drive. Might have to use hard drive diagnostic tools like seatools or others. Playing to the angels Les Paul (1915-2009)

Windows XP defaults to Safe Mode at every startup http://windowsxp.mvps.org/safeboot.htm

Hi Ricky, you have a few options. Take out the hard drive and put it in a working computer to get your documents and media files ect.. off of it. Re-install xp WITHOUT a format or re-partition in hopes that your disk isn't bad so you can get back into a working environment. Then backup your files onto a USB flash drive, re-partition / re-install Windows and start over with a clean slate. The other options you have are listed above.

CD-ROMs are fairly easy to install even my girlfriend could do it.

Thanks for all the replies so quick...awesome. I'll try to install a spare CD/DVD that I have 1st and see if I can boot from it? (apparently it's so easy, girlfriends can do it LOL) If that doesn't work, then I'll try to remove the hard-drive and open the files on another PC (if it's not the hard-drive that's corrupt I guess) The Web-site Link response doesn't really help as it assumes you can actually boot and get to a Sys Config

"Unmountable Boot Volume" Win XP http://www.techtips4u.com/kb/sw/SW0... http://support.microsoft.com/defaul... http://www.cyberwalker.net/faqs/rei... http://support.microsoft.com/defaul... http://www.experts-exchange.com/Ope... http://www.windowsnetworking.com/wx... http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/tut... http://www.digitalwebcast.com/2002/... http://support.microsoft.com/defaul... http://support.microsoft.com/defaul...