[dnaylor]

i upgraded xp to rc1.
all went well and then the next day i booted into xp and got the blue screen with "unmountable_boot_volume" message

whats the best way to fixing this problem?

thanks

[EddiE314]

the best and easiest way is to destroy and rebuild the partitions then format and clean install RC1. Will it boot up in Safe Mode?

[dnaylor]

No it will not boot in safe mode

i have info i would rather not lose on that partition if possible

[rickcfer]

http://www.winoscentral.com/sections.php?op=viewarticle&artid=34

[dnaylor]

i had 2481 on this computer for a month or so with no problems
even with rc1 it rebooted several times with no problems

[maxg]

A general rule (I learned the hard way with Win95 betas) = Never upgrade a beta!

[EddiE314]

i agree, a clean install is more reliable.

[Mr_Q]

I am betting you are getting this because XP does not have a valid driver for your Harddrive controller. Are you running any of these?

Custom IDE card
RAID card
SCSI card

If so, temporarily attach your main harddrive(unless a RAID array) to your motherboard controller and try and boot up. If you already are doing that, then XP doesn't have the right driver for your controller. A bummer. I had this happen to me when I upgraded to Service Pack 2 with my Tyan motherboard. SP2 overwrote VIA's IDE driver and it caused the "INVALID BOOT DEVICE" error. I had to do a Windows repair, re-install SP2, NOT REBOOT, then install the VIA driver again, then let it reboot. Ugh....

[Lord-Data]

this error, "unmountable_boot_volume", is not the same as inaccessible_boot_device .. whcih is caused by raid controllers and the like (less of a problem in xp, seems to have a much larger driver database) .. unmountable boot volume i had at one stage after attending a lan night .. dont ask me what caused it, i never figured that out, but, i do know how to fix it without loosing your hdd data. Simply boot off your winxp cd, and when it starts the setup prog, choose Repair, instead of install (Not the Press f2 thing, go past that) .. go to a recovery console on your winxp system (it might ask you which to repair, if you have multiple) .. this will get you a dos prompt, once there, type CHKDSK /F C: (or whatever letter your boot drive is) .. this will run a "Scandisk" on it .. and fix some errors, with any luck, you can just reboot once its done and windows will load fine.. mine did anyway. Good luck with it