Unrecovervable Boot Volume after Windows Update?

Question

I have recently returned from vacation and turned on my Dell Inspiron XP laptop to check email. It started fine and warned me of Windows updates required. As this sometimes requires a reboot, I did that first and pressed restart now. However, it got stuck restarting and I had to power off to restart. Now all I get is the blue screen of death with "unrecoverable boot volume" etc etc.

I find it hard to believe that my hard drive just happened to fail at this time and it had nothing to do with the update.

Anybody had similar problems or can recommend a course of action.

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

"I find it hard to believe that my hard drive just happened to fail at this time and it had nothing to do with the update."



As a computer fixer for many years I am not surprised you say this. However, don't get bogged down by it in your search for a fix. If a hard disk is going to fail then it has to fail at a particular point in time. Inevitably there will be something that is the last thing that happened before that.



I think it is human nature to make a link between the last thing that happened and the failure. However it is often not the case.



I always imagine someone getting up from bed, having some french toast for breakfast and then setting off for the office. On the way to the office they have a minor car crash and break their arm. When they get home from hospital they find a note from their wife "I'm leaving you for the guy next door". Finally they throw their arms to heaven and shout "That's the last time I have French Toast for breakfast!"

Answer 2

Well, your Dell XP laptop is what... 4 years old? 5 years old? 6? When did you last replace the hard drive? You NEVER replaced the hard drive? Ok, that was an assumption. However, hard drives typically have a usable life of 3 to 5 years. That is if you purchase a good one, like a Western Digital or a Seagate. Toshiba hard drives last 2 to 4 years... same with Hitachi and Fujitsu. Maxtor Drives... you are lucky if you get a year out of one.



In that Dell, there is most likely a Toshiba drive. Toshiba makes dependable enough drives that cost far less than the better made Western Digital. This is why Fujitsu uses Toshiba hard drives in the laptops they make, even though Fujitsu also makes hard drives. Go figure, eh?



At any rate, if you never replaced the hard drive in your XP based Inspiron, you are WAYYYY overdue. In fact, your computer is NOW telling you that the hard drive isn't functioning properly, and needs to be replaced.



You can attempt to perform a factory recovery, but you are better off replacing the drive first.



end of line

Answer 3

If you want to make sure the hard drive is bad or not down load a program from maxtor its a hard drive tester its free will let you know if its bad or not then boot it runs in dos so you wont need windows it will boot from the cd good luck!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!