- Bad sector on C drive, any other way besides reinstall?
- Posted by Daniel on March 14th, 2006
I can't boot into Windows XP Pro SP2 with "UNMOUNTABLE_BOOT_VOLUME"
error. I have tried using the Recovery Console on the install CD and
ran fixmbr, fixboot, both said unable to write to MBR/boot sector. Then
I tried chkdsk /r, it said there are more than one unrecoverable error
on my C drive. I did a surface scan with Ranish Partition Manager and
found a lot of bad sectors on my C drive.
Is there any another way to solve it?
If not, I guess I have to reinstall winxp. What procedures or
precautions I have to take for the reinstall? My laptop is an IBM
thinkpad A30.
- Posted by Malke on March 14th, 2006
Daniel wrote:
The error messages are telling you there is a hardware problem.
Reinstalling Windows (software) won't solve a hardware problem.
Since you have a Thinkpad, if it is under warranty you should call
Lenovo tech support for replacement of the hard drive.
Malke
--
Elephant Boy Computers
www.elephantboycomputers.com
"Don't Panic!"
MS-MVP Windows - Shell/User
- Posted by Richard Urban on March 14th, 2006
Reinstalling an operating system on a drive with known bad sectors is going
to leave you with a defective operating system. You have a failing hard
drive. Additional bad sectors have a habit of appearing and will destroy
your freshly installed O/S.
Replace the drive.
--
Regards,
Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User
Quote from George Ankner:
If you knew as much as you think you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!
"Daniel" <danfan1981@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:1142355035.609095.242480@v46g2000cwv.googlegr oups.com...
- Posted by Daniel on March 14th, 2006
I have more than 1 partition on my harddrive:
Partition 1: NTFS with Win XP installed
Partition 2: FAT32 to which I map the folder "My Documents"
Partition 3: Home directory of Red Hat Linux Enterprise
Partition 4: Root directory of Red Hat Linux Enterprise
I can't boot into Win XP or RedHat (which stops at checking modules
dependency). Bad sectors appear in Partition 1 and probably Partition
4.
I can boot with Knoppix and see files in all 4 partitions. What
drivers, configuration files, etc for WinXP and Redhat should I back up
before replacing the hard drive and where can I find them?
- Posted by Daniel on March 14th, 2006
It's an old (may be refurbished) thinkpad that my old school gives to
graduate students. I have graduated and can't no longer use the tech
support from the school. I don't think it came with warranty from IBM.
- Posted by Daniel on March 14th, 2006
It's an old (may be refurbished) thinkpad that my old school gives to
graduate students. I have graduated and can't no longer use the tech
support from the school. I don't think it came with warranty from
IBM/lenovo.
- Posted by Richard Urban on March 14th, 2006
Back up your personal files, photos, music, address book, e-mail etc.
Don't worry about settings. Importing settings from a questionable system
may cause you grief if partial information has been lost due to corrupted
information. Configure the operating system on the new hard drive as you
like.
--
Regards,
Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User
Quote from George Ankner:
If you knew as much as you think you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!
"Daniel" <danfan1981@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:1142358046.094315.192540@i39g2000cwa.googlegr oups.com...
- Posted by Yves Leclerc on March 14th, 2006
On 14/03/2006 "Daniel" <danfan1981@yahoo.com> wrote:
Go to a local repair center and ask for a quote on replacing the hard drive.
You current hard drive is "dead" or dyeing and no matter how many time your
re-install the XP, you will always get this error.
--
---
Y.
- Posted by Bruce Chambers on March 15th, 2006
Daniel wrote:
Replace the hard drive.
That won't do any good until you replace the defective hard drive.
--
Bruce Chambers
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- Posted by NoStop on March 15th, 2006
On Tuesday 14 March 2006 09:44 am, Daniel had this to say in
microsoft.public.windowsxp.general:
In the past warranties were time based. Don't know if this still holds true
now that Lenovo has taken over the Thinkpad line? But it's worth contacting
Lenovo, just in case it is still under warranty. They will be able to tell
by the serial number of the machine. Typically Thinkpads came with 3 year
warranties from the date of manufacture.
In this thread, you also mentioned that you are dual booting with XP and
Redhat. You also stated you tried to run XP's recovery console to fix the
MBR - without success. You were lucky you didn't have success as it would
have killed your ability to get back into Redhat. Do some googling on how
to get the problem fixed in terms of Redhat's use of the MBR. I don't know
whether it is using LILO or Grub, but you should know that and try and find
a fix to the problem from that perspective.
Best of luck.
--
From a Wintard helping another Wintard with his Windoze Problem:
"You might also want to try one of the numerous EXCELLENT
registry cleaners, and perhaps a ram washer."
