Unmountable Boot Volume

[SonOfCrusader76]

Hi there. OK, this is going to be a long post, please bear with me.

Recently, my PC has been running Chkdsk a lot, and finding a lot of bad clusters, mainly on F:\ - which is my bulk storage drive, not my system drive.

However, today I got the UNMOUNTABLE_BOOT VOLUME BSOD. After a couple of attempts, Windows Repair was able to get me back into my PC. Having done that, I'm now in the process of backing up anything important to my external HDD as I'm pretty sure this is pointing to a replacement HDD before too long.

Regarding the bulk storage drive, where the Chkdsk program was finding lots of errors and bad clusters, would I be able to take care of that problem by reformatting the partition? Would I have to re format the whole HDD?

As to the system drive itself (C:\) I'm not sure how old it is, but it's fairly old so I'm thinking that if I have to replace it, I'll do so with an SSD (doesn't have to be anything huge - just enough to hold Win 7 and a few small programs - the majority of stuff including 'My Documents' will be relocated to the bulk storage drive).

My mobo is in my sig - will I have any problems fitting an SSD drive to my machine - does it have the same connectors as SATA? How much should I be looking at spending - I've seen one in PC Gamer, which is cheap but got a good review - 90%, called the Plextor M3. It has 120gb installed capacity and costs £83 - is that a good deal? If it is time to replace the system drive, I really don't want to go with another standard drive - SSDs are coming down a bit now, and it would really speed up my boot times.

If I decide to reformat, how can I mark the bulk storage drive as the system drive - is it simply a case of taking it out of the slot it's in now and swapping it with the system drive? I might simply partition the bulk storage drive so that one partition can be C:\ and the rest can be bulk storage, but I have heard it's best to have your system drive on a separate physical HDD - is that accurate? If I can simply replace the system drive with an SSD and keep hold of the bulk storage drive, then I'd be saving myself quite a bit of money.

Please reply ASAP - I don't know when the HDD might decide to pack up permanently - or will the Windows repair sort it out for a while yet?

Many thanks in advance for any help.

[karamazovmm]

well, given that your storage drive is going the way of the dodo...

What I would is the following, run chkdisk on your boot drive to see if there are no bad sectors or other things, there are other HDD maintenance tools out there as well. So check those out. I like diskeeper btw.

Since that you are thinking getting a SSD, I would either go for the plextor, crucial, samsung, those are the companies that you should look for, either they use marvell or samsung controllers. SSD uses sata, though all the drives from those companies now use sata 3 (which you clearly dont have), they are going to be capped at sata 2 speeds, dont let this fool you, its going to be a much snappier experience even capped like that.

[Bolkonsky]

well, given that your storage drive is going the way of the dodo...

What I would is the following, run chkdisk on your boot drive to see if there are no bad sectors or other things, there are other HDD maintenance tools out there as well. So check those out. I like diskeeper btw.

This is solid advice. Run chkdsk and see what it gives you. It shouldn't take very long and can solve the issue, at least temporarily. If it is a physical problem, then you'll likely notice it repeating, and getting worse each time. I'd back up everything you need and get a new drive.

Since that you are thinking getting a SSD, I would either go for the plextor, crucial, samsung, those are the companies that you should look for, either they use marvell or samsung controllers. SSD uses sata, though all the drives from those companies now use sata 3 (which you clearly dont have), they are going to be capped at sata 2 speeds, dont let this fool you, its going to be a much snappier experience even capped like that.

Samsung's probably the best value for the money, and has been for the last couple of months. The 830 series is excellent. I wouldn't worry about SATA III either. I'd be very surprised if you can close to the SATA II limit, the best SSDs only have a sequential read/write of about 600mb/s. Sata III is what, 6gb/s and SATA II is half that at 3gb/s. Even with multiple operations you shouldn't approach that in a practical situation, to a degree where it slows you down anwyays.

[karamazovmm]

another thing usually the best $/gb are the 256gb models. They are far below the 1/1 ratio, lets see the 830 256gb is at 180 in B&H, thus 0.7, I have seen this at 0.5 for sandforce drives, just dont recommend those

[SonOfCrusader76]

Thanks for your help, guys.

So reformatting the storage drive won't help with the bad clusters. Damn. More bloody expense!

Regarding getting an SSD, will I have any problems with my motherboard - specs in sig? I know that most of them come with adapters designed to let them fit in a standard HDD bay, so I'm not worried about fitting it - just whether my mobo comes with the right connectors.

Ordinarily, I'd let my local PC shop do this for me, but a) they've moved from where they used to be, so getting the PC there is a chore - used to be just down the bloody road and b) I want to get to the stage where I can do most upgrades myself, apart maybe from things like installing new motherboards, but that only happens every few years so doesn't matter as much. Installing HDDs looks like one of the simpler upgrades around.

It's really annoying about the storage drive - it's relatively new, I've only had it for a year or two. Can't remember the manufacturer, but when I find out who it is, I'll be RMAing this and getting a replacement as it's well within warranty. Speaking of which - if I do a full format of that drive, will that wipe the data to a satisfactory degree?

This is solid advice. Run chkdsk and see what it gives you. It shouldn't take very long and can solve the issue, at least temporarily. If it is a physical problem, then you'll likely notice it repeating, and getting worse each time. I'd back up everything you need and get a new drive.

Without a shadow of a doubt, it's getting worse - I'm seeing more and more KBs of bad clusters each time.

[karamazovmm]

you can do a 0 write over the HDD that you want to rma, but sincerely, if they want to find out whats in there, they will. And depending on the size of the drive and the speed a 5x times 0 zero write is going to take a day or 2

sata is a standard connector that your mobo has, mine and bolk has, basically everyone uses it now since IDE is just this one:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parallel_ATA

and sata is just this one:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serial_ATA

in your mobo you have both (a lot of ODDs used pata back them), 1x IDE and 6x sata 2

so remember to either go for samsung 830, crucial m4 or plextor

[SonOfCrusader76]

you can do a 0 write over the HDD that you want to rma, but sincerely, if they want to find out whats in there, they will. And depending on the size of the drive and the speed a 5x times 0 zero write is going to take a day or 2

sata is a standard connector that your mobo has, mine and bolk has, basically everyone uses it now since IDE is just this one:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parallel_ATA

and sata is just this one:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serial_ATA

in your mobo you have both (a lot of ODDs used pata back them), 1x IDE and 6x sata 2

so remember to either go for samsung 830, crucial m4 or plextor

Thanks mate. So any SSD from those makers, with Sata 2 then.

[karamazovmm]

sata 3 is backwards compatible, all of the drives that I said are sata 3

[SonOfCrusader76]

sata 3 is backwards compatible, all of the drives that I said are sata 3

Oh - OK.

How are OCZ when it comes to SSDs:

OCZ OCZSSD2-2VTXE120G Vertex 2 120GB SATA II 2.5 inch SSD

They've got them at Amazon, in the size I need, and they're extremely cheap (£56).

Edit: On second thoughts, OCZ have had some very bad reviews for SSDs. I've just found a Crucial M4 that's £78 so that might well be my man, but I'm not sure if it comes with the bracket so it can fit in a standard HDD bay. I'm not sure about just leaving it anywhere in the case - I don't know if that's OK for it or not. One other thing, I've heard that you don't have to defrag SSDs - that it's actually bad for them - is that true?

Good - just found out that it does come with the bracket. So what I'm probably going to do is to buy either the Crucial M4 or the Samsung HDD (the Samsung comes with Norton Ghost) and a 1TB internal HDD: only £10 more than a 500gb drive which is what I have now, so it makes sense.

[karamazovmm]

glad that you sorted all this out, there was a reason that we said crucial, plextor or samsung, everybody out there aside those 3 use sandforce controllers. Which means avoid until they fix the stuff

and it doesnt really matter if you leave the ssd in the case without anything to support it, it doesnt have any movable parts, just make sure that the sata cable wont pop out.

you dont have to defrag SSDs, they do that themselves, when you do you create more of a mess that they will need to sort it out, aside that there is also the thing about write limits that we have with those, not that they are likely to reach that limit in 5 years, try 20-50 years, but its still going to wear the nand out with no reasonable gain.

I do advise to use SSDs with win 7 or win 8, no win xp for those, otherwise you dont get trim

[SonOfCrusader76]

glad that you sorted all this out, there was a reason that we said crucial, plextor or samsung, everybody out there aside those 3 use sandforce controllers. Which means avoid until they fix the stuff

and it doesnt really matter if you leave the ssd in the case without anything to support it, it doesnt have any movable parts, just make sure that the sata cable wont pop out.

you dont have to defrag SSDs, they do that themselves, when you do you create more of a mess that they will need to sort it out, aside that there is also the thing about write limits that we have with those, not that they are likely to reach that limit in 5 years, try 20-50 years, but its still going to wear the nand out with no reasonable gain.

I do advise to use SSDs with win 7 or win 8, no win xp for those, otherwise you dont get trim

Ah yes, I've read about this 'sandforce' business. And I won't be bothering reinstalling Win XP, I just don't see the point (I've been dual booting with Win 7/XP for a while now). Almost every game I've got runs fine under Win 7. I might even stick with just the SSD for now, while my 500gb HDD gets RMA'd. Then again, if it's showing problems when it's relatively new, perhaps I'd be better cutting my losses and going for a new one; I can always sell the RMA replacement on Amazon or something.

I suppose in the next few years, bulk storage SSDs should be available and at a reasonable price as well.

Thanks for your help - but it's not sorted out yet. When I've got it installed, set up and being recognised by Win 7, then I'll be happy.

[SonOfCrusader76]

Going back to CHKDSK for a minute, if I want to run it overnight, is there any way to see the summary of the tests the next day?

Anyway, I've ordered a Crucial M4 with bracket, £80 and should be here Friday.

[PoleCat]

Going back to CHKDSK for a minute, if I want to run it overnight, is there any way to see the summary of the tests the next day?

Anyway, I've ordered a Crucial M4 with bracket, £80 and should be here Friday.

CHKDSK is old DOS - I can't recall if it writes a log file anywhere. You might try spelunking through your
C:\Windows folder but I can't guarantee you'll find anything. Good luck!

[SonOfCrusader76]

OK, got the SSD installed without any issues (so far) - boot times are amazing now.

[karamazovmm]

which ssd you got?

[SonOfCrusader76]

which ssd you got?

Crucial M4. Don't know what the point of the bracket is though - it's still far too big for the PC's drive bays. I just connected it up and seated it in the bay any how. The PC's never moved, so it should be fine.

How long do you think it'll be before a 500gb SSD comes down to below £100? Next few years? One other thing: I had TuneUp Utilities installed on my old Windows installation - does that know not to automatically go ahead and defrag SSDs? Is it best to disable defrag altogether and do it manually?

[karamazovmm]

I dont have a clue, the samsung 840 is using tlc nand, and sincerely we are currently hoping for more OEMs to use those nand chips, they are cheaper and if they are produced in larger mass it could be that we have more affordable ssds

http://www.anandtech.com/show/5067/u...nding-tlc-nand

here is a explanation of tlc nand

and good choice

[SonOfCrusader76]

They're stupidly expensive right now - the 500gb version of the Crucial M4 is the best part of £300 at amazon. You could get a flippin' netbook with that...

[karamazovmm]

thats just extremely expensive, the m4 256gb can be found for less than 180 in the US. In brazil you are going to pay at least U$ 1k thats just unbeliviably expensive, and btw that was based on importing the drive, its still cheaper to get it that way.

[SonOfCrusader76]

The storage drive appears to have packed up completely now - I was hoping it would last a while longer. I have backed up pretty much everything, but there's one minor annoyance - I made quite a bit of progress in my Fifa 13 career since the last backup, and I'd really like to be able to get at that so I can copy it over to a working drive.

I'm getting something similar to this:



Is there any way to get back in one last time so I can grab those Fifa saves? I mean, without too much messing around - otherwise it's not worth it. Maybe if I'm lucky, I remembered to activate Origin's cloud sync system, in which case the saves will be safe in the cloud.

Bloody annoying though - this drive had a five year warranty and it's failed after a little more than two years!