'The volume appears to contain one or more unrecoverable problems'

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ryan01

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After shutting down my computer normally one day...I start it back up and have not been able to boot it up normally since!...I have tried just about everything I can think of but I am still holding out hope that there is a solution, but have not yet found one...

I have the VERY unfortunate problem of not having backed up my data before this happened unexpectedly...So I DESPERATELY do NOT want to have to format my hard drive, because I will lose so many files I do not want to lose (assuming, of course, that I haven't already lost all of them, due to whatever the problem is)...

I have Windows XP Pro, I have one HD with C: and D: partitions, the system files are only on D: After running Recovery Console and doing the chkdsk /r, the process stopped at 25%, and I got a message saying: 'The volume appears to contain one or more unrecoverable problems'.

One of the first errors I remember seeing after booting up the first time, thinking everything was normal, said something about boot.ini...

I found a thread that featured others who had astonishingly similar cases of what I am going through, and you can see it here , maybe someone can give me a better idea of what is going on here, and what I can possibly do here...

Please help if you have any hopeful suggestions or possible solutions, or any idea of what appears to actually be wrong here...
 
Wow! Did you set the hard drive up like that? I don't understand why you didn't put your system on the first partition? Well, unfortunately, I am not sure it can be fixed without getting to the boot.ini file, which may be hidden, provided it can be repaired at all.

Do you have another hard drive that is just laying around and you don't really need? If you do have another hard drive, and your XP disk, you could load XP on that, then slave the other drive to it, and maybe be able to do a repair on it.

If it were my computer, I would just go buy a small (20gig or less) hard drive, put XP on it, slave the bad drive to it, try to repair it, and if you get it working, copy your important files over to the small drive. Reformat the drive you have now, and use it as your D: drive for storing your files, programs, and backup on it.
 
No, I didn't set up the hard drive like that...my dad did, and i don't think he even meant to, but anyway, what will another hard drive do? I could probably get one if it meant that I could access my old files again...
 
I was thinking that maybe we could have you copy my boot.ini file to a floppy, and then try to do a replace file, but I have XPhome and you have PRO. Do you have a boot disk?

Below is what your boot.ini file should look like, if you only had one operating system on it, and your Windows was on the second partition. See if you can copy that and paste it in your notepad, and save it as boot.ini . Then copy that to a floppy disk.

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect
 
C: was about 50Gb, and D: was about 25Gb...

you sound a bit uncertain as to whether getting a new drive and doing what you explained would work, is that because my situation sounds so hopeless? As for what I'd do if I could see my old files again, I would immediately copy them to CD to the point where I wouldn't have to worry so much about my drives...It's my files that I care most about, but I am expecting the worst, just in case nothing works to recover them... :(
 
Actually, I think we can get your files back with very little problem, if you have another hard drive?

I was thinking we might be able to get into the D: drive and replace the boot.ini file, which is a headache, but if you can get another hard drive, then you just put that in as Master (jumper setting), where the drive you have now is at. Fdisk that drive, format it, install XP to it. Then you Slave (jumper setting) the bad drive to it, and see if you can access it that way.

Do you understand what I am saying?
 
yes, I understand what you are saying...I don't have another hard drive laying around though, so I would have to get one...

by the way, I'm not familiar with what fixboot does, but I heard it being suggested in other places...of course, I don't have high hopes for whatever it does, but maybe that would try to replace boot.ini??
 
After running Recovery Console and doing the chkdsk /r, the process stopped at 25%, and I got a message saying: 'The volume appears to contain one or more unrecoverable problems'.

Ryan, lets try the same thing again, only this time use this > chkdsk d: /p I think the problem was, it was looking for windows on C: the first partition, and when it didn't find windows, it gave you that error.
 
by the way, I'm not familiar with what fixboot does, but I heard it being suggested in other places...of course, I don't have high hopes for whatever it does, but maybe that would try to replace boot.ini??

You could try it, just be sure you type in fixboot D:

I am going to bed Ryan, it is 3:21 a.m here. Let me know how you are doing, and I will check back first thing when I wake up.
 
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