How To Fix Unmountable Boot Volume
Pamula Harrison
A few weeks ago, my apartment got hit with some really high winds that knocked our power out. All of the important electronics in my apartment are plugged in to surge protectors, but I noticed some damage to a few small things like a lamp and alarm clock following the power outage. A few days later, my girlfriend attempted to use the desktop computer in our living room which as mentioned was plugged into a surge protector so should not have been affected by the power outage.
When she tried to turn it on, a blue screen came up that said "Unmountable boot volume", we will restart for you and attempt to fix the problem. When the computer restarted, the logo came on with the typical loading wheel and a message that said "Preparing Automatic Repairs." Afterward, the screen went black and nothing happened for a while. In an attempt to figure out if it was doing anything, I tried moving the mouse, to which it responded, the mouse appeared on the screen and was responsive, but the screen remained black and nothing else happened.
I then shut it down and gave it a few days not really knowing what to do. The next time I tried to turn it on, I opened the startup options using F12 and ran the pre-boot assessment. The first time I tried this, I ran into an error along the way, not entirely sure what, but I believe some startup files or drives may have been corrupted, and I let the computer continue to run scans of the remaining memory. Eventually, the screen shut off but the computer kept running and I was not able to get the screen on again so I again abandoned my efforts.
Finally, about a week later, I tried again using the same F12 at startup and running the assessment. This time, no error message came up, but I again let it run through the remaining memory. Same result, however I was able to get a response after the screen went black by pressing the "Enter" key which it brought me to the boot options menu and I'm not sure what else to try. I read another source on this discussion that recommended "Norton Bootable Recovery Tool" which I tried with no result.
It sounds like corrupted Windows files and possibly the MBR. A surge protector is fine for voltage problems but for a desktop the better protection is a UPS. A voltage interruption can cause files to corrupt due to improper shutdown caused by a voltage loss. Whereas a battery backup will not only surge protect but keep power supplied to the system for a period of time so a smooth and orderly shutdown can be accomplished. A must, in my opinion, for any desktop system. I have had one on my desktops for many years and have never had any data loss or corruption due to voltage problems, and in my area there have been many sporadic voltage problems.As for your problem try the following site which has a number of fixes.
The Unmountable Boot Volume Windows stop code error is a pain. Since it usually keeps you from loading into Windows, you can't troubleshoot it like you would with most other errors.
The "boot volume" is the partition of your storage drive (an SSD or hard drive) that holds Windows. This error occurs when your computer can't load Windows properly, resulting in a blue screen of death you'll need to troubleshoot.
This usually occurs due to a damaged file system or corrupted Windows files. Often, you'll see it after applying a major Windows update. While this error can also stem from an improperly configured BIOS, that's rarely the case unless you've modified the BIOS on your own.
Like most blue screen messages, the unmountable boot volume error isn't always something to worry about if you only see it once. Sometimes Windows runs into a temporary hiccup that you never have an issue with again.
Usually, though, you'll see the unmountable boot volume error each time you try to boot into your PC, and it won't let you load Windows at all. In that case, proceed with more in-depth troubleshooting.
Since you can't boot Windows normally to solve this issue, you'll need to create a Windows installer on a USB drive or DVD using another machine. This will let you access the troubleshooting tools Windows offers by booting from a different device.
Once you've created your installable disk, plug it into your PC and boot from the USB or DVD. You'll probably need to change the boot order on your PC to do this. The exact method to do so depends on your computer.
Let Windows start from your USB drive until it loads up, then click the Next button. You'll see the Install now screen. But you don't want to reinstall Windows; instead, click Repair your computer in the bottom-left.
From here, Windows will run an automatic repair that will hopefully take care of your issue. Once it's done, exit the installer and try to boot your computer normally. If Windows still shows an unmountable boot volume error after this, continue to the next step.
The Master Boot Record (MBR) or GUID Partition Table (GPT) contains information about where Windows is located on your hard drive and helps the OS load properly when you turn your computer on. If this becomes corrupted, it can lead to an unmountable boot volume message.
Type exit to leave the Command Prompt once these finish running. Then reboot again and see if the boot volume error continues to pop up. If it does, you might want to run advanced MBR troubleshooting.
If the automatic repair and MBR/GPT repair don't solve your problem, you should next try Chkdsk. This important Command Prompt tool lets you check the storage drive for errors, which may be the cause of the unmountable boot volume message.
The /r flag locates any bad sectors on your disk and fixes those errors. If you don't include this, Chkdsk will simply report errors it finds. You need to include c: so the operation scans your Windows partition (the most common location for it). Replace c: with d: or another letter if you've moved yours somewhere else.
Chkdsk may tell you that the volume is already in use, and ask you to run it next time the system restarts. If it does, enter Y for yes and reboot to start the process.
For the final Command Prompt solution, you can try another important utility. SFC, or System File Checker, looks for corrupted Windows system files and attempts to fix them. If nothing above has fixed your issue, this is worth a try.
First, you may have a hardware issue. Your hard disk drive or solid-state drive could be corrupted, dying, or suffering from a faulty connection. If you're confident, open your computer (which is easier on a desktop than a laptop) and check to make sure the drive's cables are all securely connected. Sometimes faulty RAM can also cause this problem, so make sure the RAM is properly seated.
If you check the connections and everything looks OK, you should run some Windows diagnostic tests to determine if a component is dying. Replacing it should fix your issue, but you'll need to talk to an experienced computer technician if you can't swap the components out yourself.
After ruling out hardware, your Windows installation may be corrupted in a way that the above utilities can't repair. In that case, your only option is to reinstall Windows and hopefully fix the problem by starting fresh. This is a pain and takes time, but it isn't as tedious if you have a backup. You may want to first run through other potential fixes when Windows won't boot before taking this intensive step.
We've looked at several steps for fixing an unmountable boot volume stop code error in Windows 10 or Windows 11. Since this is usually caused by file corruption, running the above scans from a Windows recovery disk should fix it most of the time. But in the worst cases, you'll need to diagnose your hardware or even reinstall Windows.
After joining MUO in 2014 and earning a degree in Computer Information Systems, Ben left his IT job to go full-time with the site in 2016. He joined the editorial team in 2017 and has climbed the ranks since then.
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I was surfing the Internet one day when my computer jammed up. I restarted it, and when Windows was loading, a blue screen popped up saying unmountable boot volume and a few different options appeared. I tried to run in safe mode but the same problem again occurs.
It will prompt you for administrator's password. If you set a password please enter it and hit ENTER after it, or, if you don't know the password for the administrator's account you can try to hit enter without any password (By default it is blank).
When you are on c:\windows prompt type chkdsk /p. It checks the performance and errors on the hard drive. If there are errors after completing the scan it can show you the volume has one or more errors OR the volume appears to have unrecoverable errors.
If you get the volume appears to have unrecoverable errors there are very less chances that you boot into same operating system back but if you get the volume has one or more errors you can try to fix the error.
To fix the errors type: chkdsk /r. This command will try to fix the errors and when this command completes then type: chkdsk /p again to check if the errors removed. After this type EXIT and it will reboot your system and try to boot.
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