Problem installing Vista

[Zylstra]

Hello Forum Members,

I'm working on a computer, and there is a bit of a pickle I just can not get around with it.
When you put a Vista Installation CD, or when you run the "Repair Your Computer" feature of Windows (on the Advanced Startup Menu  F8) it does its initial loading, and then it just freezes up.

I know what causes the installer to freeze up, and it is not common:
The bootloader of the computer (or, the filesystem in general) was corrupt somehow. When the installer loads, it looks for the bootloader so it can see the drive partitions and find out about the current installation of Windows. This causes the installer to freeze up, as well as the "Repair Your Computer" utility.
I can verify/prove that it is an issue with the contents of the hard drive in some way by removing the drive and running the installation CD again (loads fine after drive removal).

I had this happen on my very own laptop as well. Unfortunately, I had to delete everything on the drive before I could get it working. In this case, I can not do that.

The computer reports BSOD Message: Unmountable_Boot_Volume
(I can get the numbers if needed)
Disabled Restart on System Failure.
Tried "Last Known Good Configuration"
I can not access the Windows Recovery Console without the Installation CD Working fine.


Thank you in advanced,
Jesse Zylstra

PS: Sorry for being so wordy and writing way too much for such a question. I have a bad habit of doing that.

Fact: I spelled “Installation” wrong five times in the original copy of this post.

[BC_Programmer]

if you have a spare  hard drive, you could try installing to that (with the current drive disconnected)- or slave the drive and copy any data off it and then clean it off to install Vista.

[hot dog]

This is quoted right out of a book I have..maybe it can be of some help:

STOP: 0x000000ED    (this hex code may be different than yours)

Unmountable_Boot_Volume

This stop error occurs when the input/output subsystem fails to mount the boot volume.  This can be due to a damaged file system, but in certain instances can also be caused by a conflict between the disk controller and the hard drive cable.

If the system uses an Ultra Direct Memory Access (UDMA) PATA (ATA/IDE) controller, and the hard drive is plugged in with a standard 40-wire cable rather than the necessary 80-wire UDMA cable, the end result can be the 0x000000ED Unmountable_Boot_Volume error.

However, if the first parameter to appear in parentheses at the top of the STOP 0x0000032, the problem is being caused by a damaged file system.  Try using the CHKDSK /R command from Recovery Console: if this doesn't solve the problem, try using the FIXBOOT command.

[Zylstra]

Its 0x0ED, yes.
(Actually a book of BSOD would be nice to have...)
The hard drive is -- oh, what's the new technology now?
SATA! But, it has an adapter from SATA back to whatever a laptops version of IDE is ATA <Insert random number here>

The second part of the BSOD message is 0x863C3520
(Now, when I googled that, I got nothing, perhaps I did something wrong...)
then:
0xC0000185
0x00000000 , 0x00000000

BC_Programmer:
Unfortunately, I don't have a spare drive large enough for installing Windows on.
I will have to see tomorrow if the adapter for the drive that is inside the computer can attach to my ATA external drive case.
(It is "ATA", right? Usually ATA 16 or 32, or some other bit increment)

[BC_Programmer]

ATA is what in common parlance is called "IDE" when in fact IDE refers to the drives themselves and how their controllers are integrated onto the device.

there is ATA-33, ATA-66, ATA-100 and ATA-133 (called, "ultra-ATA"), if memory serves ATA-33 and 66 used a 40-wire cable- the newer two use a 80-wire conductor cable where every second pin was a ground wire used to prevent crosstalk at the higher speeds.

ATA is more or less referencing the control codes sent back and forth from the host to the controller on each device. SATA is the same in that respect, the "language" is the same, but the wire is smaller and it communicates using a high-speed serial connection rather then the parallel cables ATA had been using. The idea behind this was that a One-bit wide lane (serial) can be scaled to much higher speeds then a parallel design since the parallel design suffers from "bit lag" (the data doesn't always arrive at the same time) and Crosstalk between the conductors.

(heh, for the record, laptops use IDE hard drives that combine the power and data ribbon connector into one connector)



Anyway... is the hard drive itself SATA or IDE? I feel the adapter may be playing a role in this.

[Zylstra]

Looked like this:

Original Source; http://www.laptopworkshop.com/shop/images/sata_laptop_drive.jpg

And, it has an adapter to go to whatever the other cable type is.
All laptops in this series would have this setup, since it was not a customized installation.
Gateway M-Series

[BC_Programmer]

err, that's what my Laptops HD looks like too... but there's no adapter ()

[Zylstra]

err, that's what my Laptops HD looks like too... but there's no adapter ()

Series M?
Maybe I ought to take a closer look at it tomorrow