Unmountable Boot Volume

[gh0sth@cker]

My two hard drives were not being recognised when booting up. "Primary hard drive failure" "Secondary hard drive failure" - very sickening.
Fiddled about inside, IDE cables, jumpers and have managed to get them operating again.

But when I start up I receive a blue Stop screen saying Unmountable Boot Volume - I have formatted and reinstalled XP (on my primary HD, Western Dig 20Gb), my programs and files are on an IBM 120Gb.
To get around this problem I have to boot from XP cd and go into the repair console and type 'fixboot' to fix the boot record. When I restart I can boot into XP normally.
But the next day it happens again - I can restart the computer during the course of the day without getting it, but I get it without fail first thing everyday.
Windows Update has fully updated my computer

I have found this on the M$ site http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;en-us;q297185

The thing is that the IDE cables have been working fine before - the link says "If your computer uses a UDMA hard disk controller, use the following procedures:
Replace the 40-wire cable with an 80-wire UDMA cable.
"
I'm not sure what IDE cables I am using and whether I need to use UDMA ones

So I'm stuck - have to boot from cd everyday, and I can't figure it out - my last saviour "a format will fix it" is sadly not applicable here

<EDIT>
I should point out that I was receiving the stop screen before the problems with the hard drives. (Although they both cropped up on the same day).
Also, there was a botched attempt at installing Win XP MCE on a separate partition beforehand - but I'm not sure this should be a problem due to the formatting.

 

[rettahc]

Well the last time I saw this error on my computer it signaled the death of my hard drive. The first thing that I suggest you do if you havent already is download and run the WD data lifeguard tools and test your C: drive.

Another thing you may want to try is instead of fixboot or along with it you may also want to do a chkdsk /r.

As to the IDE cable that you are using the way to tell is by looking at the ribbon cable and counting the wires

 

[gh0sth@cker]

I had tried the chkdsk /p and chkdsk /r when trying the bootfix. I found that the fixboot fixed it temporarily, but chkdsk didn't help at all.

Downloaded WD Data Lifeguard but it found no problems with both a quick and extensive test.
Will have a look at the IDE cables when I open it up, but I guess that they are standard cables.

Thanks for the help.

 

[Hipster Doofus]

Go back over everything again & make sure all the hardware is installed & seated correctly.

 

[gh0sth@cker]

Update

Well the problem just got worse before it got better.
Switched the computer on today and received:

Searching for Boot Record from IDE-0
OK

and then nothing - just sat there. So booted from XP cd and went into the repair console. Instead of saying C:\Windows as the default folder, it was C:\ so I changed that in the repair console and tried booting again, but......

I got another Stop messge (they really do just make them up for fun).
"Unknown Hard Error"
\Systemroot\System32\ntdll.dll
So I replaced that file by copying it from the XP cd using the repair console dos prompt. So thinking that might be that......

Another Stop messege
"Session3_Initialization_Failed"
So I used the Automated System Recovery tool which got me back to Windows without having to reinstall all my programs again

I had a look inside the computer and found that the secondary HD had an 80wire cable whereas the primary had a 40wire cable, so I switched them around and I think that the Unmountable Boot Volume error is sorted. Thanks for the help, hope this helps other people with the same problems.

 

[Hipster Doofus]

Good feedback gh0sth@cker. Hope you got it all sorted.