XP new installation - three hard drives show 'Unmountable Boot Volume' message

As it's a while since I installed XP, just to 'keep my hand in' I
decided to do a new install on my favourite old clunker XP PC. The
install CD was the original XP plus SP1a, and the hard drive was an old
40GB Seagate ST340015ACE. I made sure that the HD was OK by giving it a
low-level format, followed by a format and a full surface scan with both
AOMEI and X-GSmartControl. No bad sectors were reported.

The installation went OK, until the "Remove the CD and reboot". At
first, the reboot proceeded as normal, with XP loading up - then I got a
blue screen with the 'Unmountable Boot Volume' message.

After re-testing for bad sectors, I repeated the installation - only to
get the same problem.

The HD is one of three I have of the same model - so I attempted the
installation with the other two in turn - and each time, I got the same
'Unmountable Boot Volume' message.

I knew the PC was working fine, but just to make sure, I did the
installation yet again, but with a different make of HD (a 40 GB Western
Digital WD400). This time there were no problems.

So my question is whether anyone can suggest why three identical (and
apparently flaw-free) ST340015ACE hard drives all have the same problem?
--
Ian

On Mon, 9 Jan 2017 14:34:23 +0000, Ian Jackson
wrote:

As it's a while since I installed XP, just to 'keep my hand in' I
decided to do a new install on my favourite old clunker XP PC. The
install CD was the original XP plus SP1a, and the hard drive was an old
40GB Seagate ST340015ACE. I made sure that the HD was OK by giving it a
low-level format, followed by a format and a full surface scan with both
AOMEI and X-GSmartControl. No bad sectors were reported.

The installation went OK, until the "Remove the CD and reboot". At
first, the reboot proceeded as normal, with XP loading up - then I got a
blue screen with the 'Unmountable Boot Volume' message.

After re-testing for bad sectors, I repeated the installation - only to
get the same problem.

The HD is one of three I have of the same model - so I attempted the
installation with the other two in turn - and each time, I got the same
'Unmountable Boot Volume' message.

I knew the PC was working fine, but just to make sure, I did the
installation yet again, but with a different make of HD (a 40 GB Western
Digital WD400). This time there were no problems.

So my question is whether anyone can suggest why three identical (and
apparently flaw-free) ST340015ACE hard drives all have the same problem?

Did you initialize the drives (partition and format)?

In message ,
writes
On Mon, 9 Jan 2017 14:34:23 +0000, Ian Jackson
wrote:

As it's a while since I installed XP, just to 'keep my hand in' I
decided to do a new install on my favourite old clunker XP PC. The
install CD was the original XP plus SP1a, and the hard drive was an old
40GB Seagate ST340015ACE. I made sure that the HD was OK by giving it a
low-level format, followed by a format and a full surface scan with both
AOMEI and X-GSmartControl. No bad sectors were reported.

The installation went OK, until the "Remove the CD and reboot". At
first, the reboot proceeded as normal, with XP loading up - then I got a
blue screen with the 'Unmountable Boot Volume' message.

After re-testing for bad sectors, I repeated the installation - only to
get the same problem.

The HD is one of three I have of the same model - so I attempted the
installation with the other two in turn - and each time, I got the same
'Unmountable Boot Volume' message.

I knew the PC was working fine, but just to make sure, I did the
installation yet again, but with a different make of HD (a 40 GB Western
Digital WD400). This time there were no problems.

So my question is whether anyone can suggest why three identical (and
apparently flaw-free) ST340015ACE hard drives all have the same problem?

Did you initialize the drives (partition and format)?

Yes.

The low-level format leaves the disk un-initialised and unformatted.
[I'm not sure that you can even start an installation if an HD is not at
least initialised (but will try it to see!).]

But no, I've done quite a few installations in the past - and although
XP never seems to go exactly the same way twice, I think I've just about
got the hang of it.

It does look as if there's something odd with those three (pretty
ancient, but identical) disks. Maybe they ARE flawed, but neither of the
surface scan tests reveals it?
--
Ian

On Mon, 9 Jan 2017 14:34:23 +0000, Ian Jackson
wrote:

As it's a while since I installed XP, just to 'keep my hand in' I
decided to do a new install on my favourite old clunker XP PC. The
install CD was the original XP plus SP1a, and the hard drive was an old
40GB Seagate ST340015ACE. I made sure that the HD was OK by giving it a
low-level format, followed by a format and a full surface scan with both
AOMEI and X-GSmartControl. No bad sectors were reported.

The installation went OK,

I'm assuming here that you chose to partition and format the
drives using the installer, and that the drives were recognized ....

until the "Remove the CD and reboot". At
first, the reboot proceeded as normal, with XP loading up - then I got a
blue screen with the 'Unmountable Boot Volume' message.

After re-testing for bad sectors, I repeated the installation - only to
get the same problem.

The HD is one of three I have of the same model - so I attempted the
installation with the other two in turn - and each time, I got the same
'Unmountable Boot Volume' message.

I knew the PC was working fine, but just to make sure, I did the
installation yet again, but with a different make of HD (a 40 GB Western
Digital WD400). This time there were no problems.

So my question is whether anyone can suggest why three identical (and
apparently flaw-free) ST340015ACE hard drives all have the same problem?

How old or rather what is that "old clunker" ?
There was a chipset that played badly with Seagate models,
can't remember the number, but I think it was a VIA.
In any case, I suggest you install from a slipstreamed disk,
most of the drivers will be pretty stable if updated to around 2008
(SP3).
[]'s
--
Don't be evil - Google 2004
We have a new policy - Google 2012

Ian Jackson wrote:
As it's a while since I installed XP, just to 'keep my hand in' I
decided to do a new install on my favourite old clunker XP PC. The
install CD was the original XP plus SP1a, and the hard drive was an old
40GB Seagate ST340015ACE. I made sure that the HD was OK by giving it a
low-level format, followed by a format and a full surface scan with both
AOMEI and X-GSmartControl. No bad sectors were reported.

The installation went OK, until the "Remove the CD and reboot". At
first, the reboot proceeded as normal, with XP loading up - then I got a
blue screen with the 'Unmountable Boot Volume' message.

After re-testing for bad sectors, I repeated the installation - only to
get the same problem.

The HD is one of three I have of the same model - so I attempted the
installation with the other two in turn - and each time, I got the same
'Unmountable Boot Volume' message.

I knew the PC was working fine, but just to make sure, I did the
installation yet again, but with a different make of HD (a 40 GB Western
Digital WD400). This time there were no problems.

So my question is whether anyone can suggest why three identical (and
apparently flaw-free) ST340015ACE hard drives all have the same problem?

Did you F6 floppy install the driver for
the chipset ?

I might run into such an issue, if installing
WinXP on a SATA drive on a Southbridge port set
to AHCI. On the reboot, there is no AHCI driver
(it's not native to WinXP). It's possible, for
some reason, you're using a non-Southbridge port
for the IDE cable, and the setup has decided there
is no driver present at boot time.

I've had arguments before with people about this,
but WinXP as far as I'm concerned, has IDE
drivers for I/O space (INT 14/15, low numbered
I/O space addresses), as well as a PCI space
driver (INT number above 16, controller base
address in PCI space). It's possible that SP1a
only has the I/O space driver (INT 14/15, Win98
style driver). It might have been a later
service pack that included the PCI space
driver as a built-in.

You should really have built yourself a slipstream
WinXP CD, using NliteOS or similar plus the SP3 file.

"Integrate a Service Pack"
http://www.nliteos.com/guide/part1.html

WindowsXP-KB936929-SP3-x86-ENU.exe MD5 = bb25707c919dd835a9d9706b5725af58 331,805,736 bytes

http://download.windowsupdate.com/ms...2300ebfde4.exe

I don't have any "Gold" or "SP1" or "SP1a" discs
to test with here, to verify a theory like this.

Purely a guess,

Paul

On Mon, 9 Jan 2017 19:43:43 +0000, Ian Jackson
wrote:

In message ,
writes
On Mon, 9 Jan 2017 14:34:23 +0000, Ian Jackson
wrote:

As it's a while since I installed XP, just to 'keep my hand in' I
decided to do a new install on my favourite old clunker XP PC. The
install CD was the original XP plus SP1a, and the hard drive was an old
40GB Seagate ST340015ACE. I made sure that the HD was OK by giving it a
low-level format, followed by a format and a full surface scan with both
AOMEI and X-GSmartControl. No bad sectors were reported.

The installation went OK, until the "Remove the CD and reboot". At
first, the reboot proceeded as normal, with XP loading up - then I got a
blue screen with the 'Unmountable Boot Volume' message.

After re-testing for bad sectors, I repeated the installation - only to
get the same problem.

The HD is one of three I have of the same model - so I attempted the
installation with the other two in turn - and each time, I got the same
'Unmountable Boot Volume' message.

I knew the PC was working fine, but just to make sure, I did the
installation yet again, but with a different make of HD (a 40 GB Western
Digital WD400). This time there were no problems.

So my question is whether anyone can suggest why three identical (and
apparently flaw-free) ST340015ACE hard drives all have the same problem?

Did you initialize the drives (partition and format)?

Yes.

The low-level format leaves the disk un-initialised and unformatted.
[I'm not sure that you can even start an installation if an HD is not at
least initialised (but will try it to see!).]

But no, I've done quite a few installations in the past - and although
XP never seems to go exactly the same way twice, I think I've just about
got the hang of it.

It does look as if there's something odd with those three (pretty
ancient, but identical) disks. Maybe they ARE flawed, but neither of the
surface scan tests reveals it?

It sounds like the partition was not set "active"

In message , Shadow
writes
On Mon, 9 Jan 2017 14:34:23 +0000, Ian Jackson
wrote:

As it's a while since I installed XP, just to 'keep my hand in' I
decided to do a new install on my favourite old clunker XP PC. The
install CD was the original XP plus SP1a, and the hard drive was an old
40GB Seagate ST340015ACE. I made sure that the HD was OK by giving it a
low-level format, followed by a format and a full surface scan with both
AOMEI and X-GSmartControl. No bad sectors were reported.

The installation went OK,

I'm assuming here that you chose to partition and format the
drives using the installer, and that the drives were recognized ....

Yes. The first part of the installation went as normal - until the time
to remove the installation CD, and reboot. [Actually, it starts to
reboot automatically (after 15 seconds), and you have to be quick to
remove the CD. If you don't, it goes back to the start of Setup - and
starts all over again. If things continue as they should, after the
reboot it asks you to insert the CD with SP1a - which, of course, is the
installation disk - except, with these particular HDs, the thing crashes
soon after the reboot.]

until the "Remove the CD and reboot". At
first, the reboot proceeded as normal, with XP loading up - then I got a
blue screen with the 'Unmountable Boot Volume' message.

After re-testing for bad sectors, I repeated the installation - only to
get the same problem.

The HD is one of three I have of the same model - so I attempted the
installation with the other two in turn - and each time, I got the same
'Unmountable Boot Volume' message.

I knew the PC was working fine, but just to make sure, I did the
installation yet again, but with a different make of HD (a 40 GB Western
Digital WD400). This time there were no problems.

So my question is whether anyone can suggest why three identical (and
apparently flaw-free) ST340015ACE hard drives all have the same problem?

How old or rather what is that "old clunker" ?

The PC is from 2001. It was a successor to my W98 machine.
The motherboard is an ASUS P4S533 Rev1xx.
The processor is a 1.7GHz Intel Pentium 4 (Belarc gives no part number).

There was a chipset that played badly with Seagate models,
can't remember the number, but I think it was a VIA.
In any case, I suggest you install from a slipstreamed disk,
most of the drivers will be pretty stable if updated to around 2008
(SP3).
[]'s
I've got another XP installation disk which includes SP2 - but I think
it does the same with that one (will check).

I have to emphasise that this isn't really causing me a problem - but I
am intrigued as to why it's happening.
--
Ian

In message ,
writes
On Mon, 9 Jan 2017 19:43:43 +0000, Ian Jackson
wrote:

In message ,
writes
On Mon, 9 Jan 2017 14:34:23 +0000, Ian Jackson
wrote:

As it's a while since I installed XP, just to 'keep my hand in' I
decided to do a new install on my favourite old clunker XP PC. The
install CD was the original XP plus SP1a, and the hard drive was an old
40GB Seagate ST340015ACE. I made sure that the HD was OK by giving it a
low-level format, followed by a format and a full surface scan with both
AOMEI and X-GSmartControl. No bad sectors were reported.

The installation went OK, until the "Remove the CD and reboot". At
first, the reboot proceeded as normal, with XP loading up - then I got a
blue screen with the 'Unmountable Boot Volume' message.

After re-testing for bad sectors, I repeated the installation - only to
get the same problem.

The HD is one of three I have of the same model - so I attempted the
installation with the other two in turn - and each time, I got the same
'Unmountable Boot Volume' message.

I knew the PC was working fine, but just to make sure, I did the
installation yet again, but with a different make of HD (a 40 GB Western
Digital WD400). This time there were no problems.

So my question is whether anyone can suggest why three identical (and
apparently flaw-free) ST340015ACE hard drives all have the same problem?

Did you initialize the drives (partition and format)?

Yes.

The low-level format leaves the disk un-initialised and unformatted.
[I'm not sure that you can even start an installation if an HD is not at
least initialised (but will try it to see!).]

But no, I've done quite a few installations in the past - and although
XP never seems to go exactly the same way twice, I think I've just about
got the hang of it.

It does look as if there's something odd with those three (pretty
ancient, but identical) disks. Maybe they ARE flawed, but neither of the
surface scan tests reveals it?

It sounds like the partition was not set "active"

It was. However, I guess that the format that you do" soon after the
beginning of the installation over-rides anything done previously.
*This can be skipped if the HD is already formatted, but it's probably
best to let it be done again.
--
Ian

Ian Jackson wrote:
In message , Shadow
writes
On Mon, 9 Jan 2017 14:34:23 +0000, Ian Jackson
wrote:

As it's a while since I installed XP, just to 'keep my hand in' I
decided to do a new install on my favourite old clunker XP PC. The
install CD was the original XP plus SP1a, and the hard drive was an old
40GB Seagate ST340015ACE. I made sure that the HD was OK by giving it a
low-level format, followed by a format and a full surface scan with both
AOMEI and X-GSmartControl. No bad sectors were reported.

The installation went OK,

I'm assuming here that you chose to partition and format the
drives using the installer, and that the drives were recognized ....

Yes. The first part of the installation went as normal - until the time
to remove the installation CD, and reboot. [Actually, it starts to
reboot automatically (after 15 seconds), and you have to be quick to
remove the CD. If you don't, it goes back to the start of Setup - and
starts all over again. If things continue as they should, after the
reboot it asks you to insert the CD with SP1a - which, of course, is the
installation disk - except, with these particular HDs, the thing crashes
soon after the reboot.]

until the "Remove the CD and reboot". At
first, the reboot proceeded as normal, with XP loading up - then I got a
blue screen with the 'Unmountable Boot Volume' message.

After re-testing for bad sectors, I repeated the installation - only to
get the same problem.

The HD is one of three I have of the same model - so I attempted the
installation with the other two in turn - and each time, I got the same
'Unmountable Boot Volume' message.

I knew the PC was working fine, but just to make sure, I did the
installation yet again, but with a different make of HD (a 40 GB Western
Digital WD400). This time there were no problems.

So my question is whether anyone can suggest why three identical (and
apparently flaw-free) ST340015ACE hard drives all have the same problem?

How old or rather what is that "old clunker" ?

The PC is from 2001. It was a successor to my W98 machine.
The motherboard is an ASUS P4S533 Rev1xx.
The processor is a 1.7GHz Intel Pentium 4 (Belarc gives no part number).

There was a chipset that played badly with Seagate models,
can't remember the number, but I think it was a VIA.
In any case, I suggest you install from a slipstreamed disk,
most of the drivers will be pretty stable if updated to around 2008
(SP3).
[]'s
I've got another XP installation disk which includes SP2 - but I think
it does the same with that one (will check).

I have to emphasise that this isn't really causing me a problem - but I
am intrigued as to why it's happening.

P4S533

https://www.asus.com/support/Download/1/15/6/1/8/

There's an IDE driver, but no txtsetup.oem, which
doesn't suggest it is necessary for initial bring-up.

And no notes in here. No driver type warnings.

http://dlcdnet.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/...989_p4s533.pdf

Since the battery could be flat for CMOS, I'd check
the IDE settings are at [Auto]. Which should select
LBA at a guess.

Paul

In message , Paul
writes


P4S533

https://www.asus.com/support/Download/1/15/6/1/8/

There's an IDE driver, but no txtsetup.oem, which
doesn't suggest it is necessary for initial bring-up.

And no notes in here. No driver type warnings.

I've had various hard drives (most of them also old clunkers) in this PC
in the past - but I've never had to download and install any drivers
(although it's possible that, just for the hell of it, I have done the
odd driver updated live online - if one was available).

http://dlcdnet.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/...989_p4s533.pdf

Since the battery could be flat for CMOS, I'd check
the IDE settings are at [Auto]. Which should select
LBA at a guess.

Although there were no indications that one was needed, I did fit a new
battery. The old one still looks OK (measures 3.014V).

According to one of my stickers on one of the Seagate disks, at one time
it did have a more-or-less virgin XP OS on it (which I would have put
there). So one thing I could try doing is to clone the now-working XP
from the 'trouble-free' WD400 disk to one of the 'troublesome' Seagates
- and see if it runs.
--
Ian

On Mon, 09 Jan 2017 17:06:35 -0500, Paul
wrote:

Re XP SP1 not recognizing HD after first stage of install

P4S533

https://www.asus.com/support/Download/1/15/6/1/8/

There's an IDE driver, but no txtsetup.oem, which
doesn't suggest it is necessary for initial bring-up.

And no notes in here. No driver type warnings.

http://dlcdnet.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/...989_p4s533.pdf

Since the battery could be flat for CMOS, I'd check
the IDE settings are at [Auto]. Which should select
LBA at a guess.

It's a SIS, and I don't think they made any "really bad"
stuff, only their usual inferior chipsets.
Since it's an IDE ATA setup, if the CD was set as master, and
the HD as slave, or variations thereof, could that prevent booting ?
Maybe unplugging the CDRom drive on the second boot might rule that
out ?
16 years ago is a long time ....I can't remember. I have an
ASUS running 98 from that era. No XP though.
[]'s
--
Don't be evil - Google 2004
We have a new policy - Google 2012

In message , Shadow
writes
On Mon, 09 Jan 2017 17:06:35 -0500, Paul
wrote:

Re XP SP1 not recognizing HD after first stage of install

P4S533

https://www.asus.com/support/Download/1/15/6/1/8/

There's an IDE driver, but no txtsetup.oem, which
doesn't suggest it is necessary for initial bring-up.

And no notes in here. No driver type warnings.

http://dlcdnet.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/...989_p4s533.pdf

Since the battery could be flat for CMOS, I'd check
the IDE settings are at [Auto]. Which should select
LBA at a guess.

It's a SIS, and I don't think they made any "really bad"
stuff, only their usual inferior chipsets.
Since it's an IDE ATA setup, if the CD was set as master, and
the HD as slave, or variations thereof, could that prevent booting ?
Maybe unplugging the CDRom drive on the second boot might rule that
out ?
16 years ago is a long time ....I can't remember. I have an
ASUS running 98 from that era. No XP though.
[]'s

The boot sequence is CD HD - so in the absence of anything bootable in
the CD drive, it should then move on to the HD (which it does).

As the crash occurs when XP is definitely well into loading up (after
about 15 seconds, when I think the screen should go blank for a few
seconds, and then the cursor arrow should appear in the centre), the PC
is obviously looking OK at the HD, and is reading data from it.

It looks like there's a flaw in the boot information (all three disks
being similarly affected). But as I've said, none of my tests (which, in
addition to what I mentioned, also include running CHKDSK and doing an
MBR repair) reveal any problem. Weird!
--
Ian

On Tue, 10 Jan 2017 10:30:36 +0000, Ian Jackson
wrote:

In message , Shadow
writes
On Mon, 09 Jan 2017 17:06:35 -0500, Paul
wrote:

Re XP SP1 not recognizing HD after first stage of install

P4S533

https://www.asus.com/support/Download/1/15/6/1/8/

There's an IDE driver, but no txtsetup.oem, which
doesn't suggest it is necessary for initial bring-up.

And no notes in here. No driver type warnings.

http://dlcdnet.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/...989_p4s533.pdf

Since the battery could be flat for CMOS, I'd check
the IDE settings are at [Auto]. Which should select
LBA at a guess.

It's a SIS, and I don't think they made any "really bad"
stuff, only their usual inferior chipsets.
Since it's an IDE ATA setup, if the CD was set as master, and
the HD as slave, or variations thereof, could that prevent booting ?
Maybe unplugging the CDRom drive on the second boot might rule that
out ?
16 years ago is a long time ....I can't remember. I have an
ASUS running 98 from that era. No XP though.
[]'s

The boot sequence is CD HD - so in the absence of anything bootable in
the CD drive, it should then move on to the HD (which it does).

As the crash occurs when XP is definitely well into loading up (after
about 15 seconds, when I think the screen should go blank for a few
seconds, and then the cursor arrow should appear in the centre), the PC
is obviously looking OK at the HD, and is reading data from it.

If it's reading the HD, it's not a hardware problem, it's a
driver. Might even be a conflict. See if you can get some diagnostic
running long enough to write a log you can read from a live-cd.
Hint - you can boot from the Kaspersky Rescue Disk and use the
Registry Editor to disable services/drivers from loading at startup. I
once had to do that to remove a particularly obnoxious registry item
that Acronis put there and would not allow me to boot.
[]'s

It looks like there's a flaw in the boot information (all three disks
being similarly affected). But as I've said, none of my tests (which, in
addition to what I mentioned, also include running CHKDSK and doing an
MBR repair) reveal any problem. Weird!
--
Don't be evil - Google 2004
We have a new policy - Google 2012

In message , Paul
writes


Did you F6 floppy install the driver for
the chipset ?

Do you mean the F6 soon after you start doing the installation? It's
something I have ignored, as if I recall, it's for if you have a SCUSI
or RAID HD. The old Seagate is an IDE.
--
Ian

In message , Shadow
writes



If it's reading the HD, it's not a hardware problem, it's a
driver. Might even be a conflict.

There's no problem seeing the HD - either when you're installing from
the CD or for the first 15 seconds when XP is booting up. I think that
after that when other parameters start to get loaded - including the
what the screen resolution has been set to (which, until you have set
it, will be the initial default settings). I presume that if a different
(and incompatible) HD driver is one of the things that gets loaded, the
HD could be cast adrift - and hence the catastrophic failure to
continue.

See if you can get some diagnostic
running long enough to write a log you can read from a live-cd.
Hint - you can boot from the Kaspersky Rescue Disk and use the
Registry Editor to disable services/drivers from loading at startup. I
once had to do that to remove a particularly obnoxious registry item
that Acronis put there and would not allow me to boot.
[]'s

As this is more a 'labour of love' than something which is actually
causing me a problem, I think that it's maybe time to put things on the
back burner for now. [I really ought to attend to some more-pressing
matter!] However, I'll do one more simple test, ie as I suggested, clone
the trouble-free virgin installation on the WD400 disk to one of the
no-go Seagates - and then to use the Seagate as the C-drive.
--
Ian