Urgent: Pc Broken, Help Me Please!

[Sharky]

Important Hardware Notes:
Windows is installed on a SATA RAID array striped over two drives. Windows does not come with the drivers, so I need to use the ones downloaded from the Silicon Image website (it's a SiI 3132)

Symptoms:
Windows Vista loading bar does its scrolling to show it is loading, then comes up with an error message:

Unmountable_Boot_Volume

Safe mode has the same problem.

Booting to the recovery console does not work because when I choose the button to load drivers when detecting the hard disk drives, it doesn't seem to be able to detect the raid array. So using chkdsk is currently out of the question. As is system restore.

It doesn't look too good. So far, all I can think of is trying to delete the RAID array in the BIOS settings, and try to recreate it. Obviously this is not ideal.

If you have any suggestions, please let me know. I'm kinda stuck at the moment!

Thanks.


Oh, 2,000 credits to the first person who replies to come up with a way of fixing it that doesn't involve reinstalling

[Nathan H]

Unmountablew Boot volume, means that while the system was loading, critical boot files are missing, thats why safe mode isnt working. This could be that a cable is loose on your harddrive meaning reads arent handled correctly, or your vista installation is broken, or your entire harddrive is broken.
Try reconnecting your harddrive and ssee if this does the trick.
Another user may be able to think of a different/more positive diagnosis

edit: a quick google turned up this possible solution

boot from your windows installation cd,
select recovery options then load the recovery console.
if the drive is accesible, you'll be able to log onto the "c" drive - run chkdsk on it

if you have the recovery DVD/CD you can rune shkdisk and options i can't remember to fix disk errors, this might be eonugh to get the boot working again

[Sharky]

Hi, and thanks. I've tried taking all the cables off, swapping them around, etc., but still no luck.

[galaxyAbstractor]

I don't really know how to fix this myself, but I found some guys with the same problems:

http://translate.google.se/translate...hl=sv&ie=UTF-8 (this seem to be windows XP but it maybe works on vista too).

[Sharky]

Ugh, I've recreated the RAID array. Fingers crossed it's not something else that's broken, like the RAID controller!

Thanks anyway, guys. And as a token of my appreciation, have 500 credits. It's now working... Lost whatever data was on the drive, but that was mostly stuff I can get hold of again anyway.

[siabnec]

get a new hardrive thats what id do then work on fixing the sata's later

[Sharky]

Actually, if one of the mods would be so kind as to close/remove this... PC is up and running again now, so the thread is no longer needed.

Thanks.

[TechAsh]

I'll close it for you.

*Closed*