I'm having problems with a blue screen appearing upon startup with "UNMOUNTABLE_BOOT_VOLUME" appearing which means I am unable to load windows. This is apparently because I need to access the recovery console and fix the probelm there. HOWEVER I tried running the boot disks, and using the recovery console, but the console won't load. When I press the relevent button (r) on the relevent screen to load it, the computer restarts itself instead of loading the console! I desperately need help!

If you have data on the OS drive then I'd recommend a parallel install of Windows to a Win2 folder (or similar name). If there is no data to recover, just do a format and a fresh install.

ive just resolved this problem. you either have to repair the boot sectors using the recovery console (chkdsk /r, fixmbr etc, but if you cant get into the console this wont help) but i did that and still had no joy. i had to change my ide cable from a 40 pin to 80pin cable which booted the system straight off. try and get the '***stop' error written down somewhere and go to microsoft and search for "UNMOUNTABLE_BOOT_VOLUME" this will then tell you 2 or 3 ways to resolve the problem. hope this helps

Yeah, I've tried all that, except the cable. But why would it suddenly start now? It's not a new install, it suddenly started happening after months of use... The Microsoft sollutions are the same as listed here. I have a confession which is that I was fiddling with the virtual memory settings before this happened, trying to get Far Cry to run without crashing to desktop, if that at all helps?

So you were using the wrong cable for your drive. Glad you realized your error. you either have to repair the boot sectors using the recovery console (chkdsk /r, fixmbr etc, but if you cant get into the console this wont help) but i did that and still had no joy. i had to change my ide cable from a 40 pin to 80pin cable which booted the system straight off. Now if recovery console isn't working my guess is your CDROM has had the biscuit. Get another copy of your windows. To prevent this (since I do literally hundreds of installations a year) I copy these to backups. Even Microsoft doesn't mind you doing this, and this way you can keep the original disks in pristine shape. eldergeeks.com also has a great article on creating SLIPSTREAM CD's which I find very handy since you can patch the installation BEFORE you install it. My latest installer is from April and features all patches up to MS04-011. This really saves time. J. j e r u v y a t y a h o o d o t c o m

xp requires a page file for some core functions. i'm not sure about 98. did you disable your page file?. will your system start in safe mode? perhaps you need a new hard drive.

Ooh, I never thought of disabling the pagefile....not a good thing. I'm not certain how recovery console would respond but since it creates a ram disk maybe it relys on the pagefile to do this. J. j e r u v y a t y a h o o d o t c o m