# Help! Lost power and now XP says "Unmountable boot volume". **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 9, 2011, 9:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-lost-power-and-now-xp-says-unmountable-boot-volume/592051 "2011-08-09T09:36:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Stan\_Shmenge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/94ad74/32.png) [@Stan\_Shmenge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stan_Shmenge)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2011, 9:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-lost-power-and-now-xp-says-unmountable-boot-volume/592051/1 "2011-08-09T09:36:55Z")
Please tell me this is something easy to fix. boot.ini looks good. IO.SYS and MSDOS.SYS are present. Can’t seem to figure out what is up here. ---
**Author:** ![Blake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a9a28c/32.png) [@Blake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blake)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2011, 9:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-lost-power-and-now-xp-says-unmountable-boot-volume/592051/2 "2011-08-09T09:51:50Z")
Shouldn’t be too big a deal. I’ve had it happen tome before. You just have to boot into dos and run fixmbr or something. It’s been so long I can’t remember precisely what or whether you need the dos floppy/cd or can do it directly from the recovery console. Anyway it shouldn’t be a big deal, and unless it’s something urgent I will let someone who knows exactly what they are talking about help you. Main thing is, it’s unlikely to be serious. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2011, 10:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-lost-power-and-now-xp-says-unmountable-boot-volume/592051/3 "2011-08-09T10:32:17Z")
It’s not DOS, it’s the recovery console. You either need to have already had it set up, or, more likely, you’ll need your Windows XP installation disk. Put the CD in, and then reboot your computer. At some point during the reboot, you’ll see something like “Press R to go to the recovery console.” Do that. You’ll need to log in as your main Administrator account. If your regular logon doesn’t work, just try typing Adminstrator as your username. When you get the command prompt (it ends with \>), that’s when you type “fixmbr”. When the command completes, remove the CD, and reboot your computer. If you do not have a true Windows XP install disk (many manufacturers don’t give you one), either borrow one, or do a Google search for “Windows XP Recovery console ISO” to download one. (You have a license to use it built into Windows XP, and the version straight from Microsoft only works on floppies, which I’ll assume will be near impossible for you to use. Still, I’m being extra careful and not linking the file here.) Burn it using Nero or similar. ---
**Author:** ![GusNSpot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gusnspot/32/436_2.png) [@GusNSpot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GusNSpot)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2011, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-lost-power-and-now-xp-says-unmountable-boot-volume/592051/4 "2011-08-09T22:12:47Z")
Battery back up Battery back up Battery back up Battery back up Nuff said. ---
**Author:** ![Stan\_Shmenge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/94ad74/32.png) [@Stan\_Shmenge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stan_Shmenge)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2011, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-lost-power-and-now-xp-says-unmountable-boot-volume/592051/5 "2011-08-12T04:25:31Z")
chkdsk /f finally did the trick from recovery console. Thanks for the help.