Blue Screen of Death
 

My laptop flashed the BSOD this morning, and refuses to do anything. It wil not start in safe mode or any other. I am beginning to think, from what I have read, that it is a memory or hardware issue. I have not installed any new hardware so, unless something has broken, I would tend to think it is a memory issue. I don't think I have the money to pay someone to fix it, so any advice as to how to try on my own would be greatly appreciated.

the error screen says "unmountable_boot_volume"

stop: 0x000000ED (0x87196900, 0xC0000006, 0x00000000, 0x00000000)

this means nothing to me, but hopefully it means something to somebody!
Its a dell inspiron 6000 laptop running windows xp.

Put your XP disc in the drive and see if you can boot the computer from the disc, otherwise you're probably going to just have to buy a new hard drive.... I currernt don't have a comp because of something similar... Only mines says drive read error or something like that.... So I'm just waiting on a new one.... Man it does suck to lose everything. I've been using my iPhone for Internet! lol

Microsoft has a support page http://support.microsoft.com/kb/297185 discussing this error. Below is an excerpt.

Technical information about the error

This section provides some technical background about the cause of this error message and why it might be generated.

This behavior can occur if either of the following conditions is true:

• Your computer uses an Ultra Direct Memory Access (UDMA) hard disk controller, and the following conditions are true:
  • You use a standard 40-wire connector cable to connect the UDMA drive to the controller instead of the required 80-wire, 40-pin cable.
  • The basic input/output system (BIOS) settings are configured to force the faster UDMA modes.
• The file system is damaged and cannot be mounted.

The purpose of this error message is to prevent the following two things:

• Potential data loss caused by using an incorrect IDE cable for the faster UDMA modes. An IDE cable is a kind of cable used to connect storage devices, such as hard disks, inside a computer.
• Continued access to a drive on which the file system is damaged

Method 1: Repair the volume

Note the second parameter (0xbbbbbbbb) in the error message. You might have to regenerate the error in order to write it down.

If the second parameter (0xbbbbbbbb) of the Stop error is 0xC0000032, the cause of the error is that the file system is damaged. You can try to repair the volume to see whether this resolves the error. If the second parameter is not 0xC0000032, see "Method 2: Check the IDE cable and load Fail-Safe settings" for help.

Some things that you should know before you try this solution

• If the file system is damaged, you can use chkdsk /r command to repair the volume. However, if you use the chkdsk /r command, you may lose some data.
• You will need the Windows startup disks or the Windows installation disk. If you do not have them, contact the computer manufacturer for help in obtaining the disks.
• You will need the administrator password to complete the steps.

To repair the volume, follow these steps:

1. Start your computer by inserting the Windows startup disks or the Windows installation disk if your computer can start from the CD drive.
2. When the Welcome to Setup screen appears, press R to select the repair option.
3. If you have a dual-boot or multiple-boot computer, select the Windows installation that you want to access from the Recovery Console.
4. Type the administrator password when you are prompted to do this.
   
   Note If no administrator password exists, press ENTER.
5. At the command prompt, on the drive where Windows is installed, type chkdsk /r, and then press ENTER.
6. At the command prompt, type exit, and then press ENTER to restart your computer.
7. After you repair the volume, check your hardware to isolate the cause of the file system damage.

If this procedure does not work, repeat it, but type fixboot instead of chkdsk /r in step 5.

If you are still unable to resolve the issue, please see the "Next steps" section for help.

Method 2: Check the IDE cable and load Fail-Safe settings

If your computer uses a UDMA hard disk controller, try these steps. If your computer does not use a UDMA hard disk controller, see the "Next steps" section for help.

• If your UDMA hard disk is connected to the controller with a 40-wire UDMA cable, replace the cable with an 80-wire cable.
• In the BIOS settings for your computer, load the 'Fail-Safe' default settings, and then reactivate the most frequently used options, such as USB Support.

If you are not sure how to follow these steps, contact the manufacturer or refer to the user’s guide that was included with your hardware.

Boot sector is bad . . .

Hard drive can probably be reformatted and rebuilt . . . bad news is, you lost everything.

If you can afford to lose the data, try DIY fixes. If your data is irreplaceable, then spend a buck and take it to a pro.

I run a mirror backup on an external hard drive, updated every few days or so. If my comp fails, I fix it and reload everything from the EHD.

Replacing the hard drive, partitioning it and so on is not very difficult, there are numerous sources on the net giving you 'computers for dummies' instructions.

If you're like most, your data is more valuable than the comp, so I'd suggest taking it to a pro. May cost a couple bucks, but worth it in the end.

Good points. I will add to that by saying a pro does not equal best buy. There are companies which specialize in data / hard drive recovery and they are the ones you want working on the data.

Before going down that path I'd at least suggest chkdsk as it can often rebuild a boot sector enough to get the machine running and backup your data. If that does not work, the next trick is to get your Linux-savy friend (you have one of those, right) to use a bootable Linux recovery CD or mount the drive as a path in their machine and copy the data that way. I've done this several times with great success.

Not sure if you've done this before but try this. Buy one of these adapters. If you know how to remove your hard drive you can connect your hard drive to this and connect to another computer. http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/category/category_slc.asp?CatId=3770&SRCCODE=WEBGOONET&cm_m mc_o=mH4CjC7BBTkwCjCECjCE

If another computer is able to read your drive. See if you can see Documents and Settings, look for your user name in this folder since this is where most of your data resides. Taking your hard drive to a Data recovery specialist will be costly.

been there done that

You have basically the following options:

a) get the drive out the laptop and get the external cable and you should be able to get your data off the drive

b) *Maybe* you can re-install the O/S WITHOUT erasing what's already on the disk:

WARNING: These instructions are written from memory so proceed with caution:

Boot your laptop with your XP CD
Do NOT choose the "recovery" option, choose the option to do an install
During the next questions you can either choose between wiping out the hard disk and do a fresh install from start - DO NOT CHOOSE THIS OPTION
- OR -
to repair an existing installation - that's what you want to choose

that's about it

Good luck

I second (third?) removing the hard drive and hooking to another laptop or desktop, whatever is available. I use an Apricorn EZ external drive to back up my laptop. When hooked to my desktop, I can read and copy all/any data I wish. As mentioned, sounds like your boot sector is corrupt.

I've had to "rebuild" my son's hard drive a couple times after he visited some torrents site and downloaded garbage.

Thanks guys.... I will try to get my computer whizz friend to hook it up to his computer, and suggest what you've all said. I guess new tires will have to wait even longer :(

Another vote here for testing the drive externally on another computer.
If it is completely dead, you *can* still retrieve the data, but it will cost more than a few dollars. I've worked with the Ontrack data recovery service a few times, and they can recover data from physically destroyed hard drives... but you will remember writing that check, it aint cheap.