the horrible blue screen Unmountable_boot_volume

[taylorj828]

My computer is loading the blue screen with the "unmountable_boot_volume" error, and I've tried as many things as I can to fix it, but I don't know know what to do now. I could REALLY use your help!

About a month ago I connected my computer to our campus network, so I could get wireless internet, then my computer contracted several viruses, so I loaded about 3 different anti-virus softwares on my computer. Then a friend also instructed me to go to the windowsupdate website and get the latest updates and service packs (though I'm not sure if I successfully got any of them, to be honest...) I don't know how much all this has to do with my problem, but I thought the info might be of help..

So anyways, I started reading up on what was wrong with my computer. It won't boot in Safe Mode, regular mode, command prompt or anything. I went to the official Microsoft windows support page where it tells you how to fix the problem. To do it their way, you need the Windows XP home edition CD-ROM. For some reason my computer didn't come with this, I only have the Restore CDs, which I understand have Windows XP on them. However, if I run the Restore CDS, I cannot do repairs, I can only erase my entire harddrive and start over. I desperately need to keep all the files I had on my computer (yes I've learned my lesson to start doing Back-up files...)

So, I returned to the microsoft site where I discovered I could also download the XP set up onto 6 floppy disks. I did this and finally went to boot from my A:drive only to find this error: "Disk I/O error". I don't know what that means and I don't know what else to do!! I know there has to be an answer because it seems lots of people are having this problem. Is there a way to fix my computer and to keep all my old files on my computer?

Please help me if you can!!!
Grace n Peace,
Jenn
taylorj828@mail.dbu.edu

[liljim]

hi Taylorj828 and welcome to pctechforums.

The method you mentioned is what i would have otherwise suggested.On the bright side,the Disk I/O error usually means you have a bad floppy disk.You might consider downloading the setup disk again to a known working floppy(s).Test your floppy's on a working system to see if you can access them.If you can then there could be a problem with your floppy drive itself.

Another possibility is to create a bootable data cd containing the same setup files.I can try to get you more info on doing that if necessary.