So, you tried to boot your Microsoft Windows 10 computer, and you are hit with the awful “Unmountable Boot Volume” error and cannot get into Windows. What do you do? Try the following tricks to fix it.
Fix 1 – Chkdsk
- Start your computer using a Windows 10 DVD or a USB drive. If you don’t have any Windows 10 media available, visit this page and follow the steps to create one using the Media Creation Tool.
- Once starting using a DVD or USB device, select the “Repair your computer” option located at the lower-left corner.
- Choose “Command prompt“.
- At the command prompt, type the following, then press “Enter“:
chkdsk /r c:
If your bootable drive is a letter other than “C”, replace “c:” with the bootable drive letter you use. - Select “Y” for yes on the question regarding checking the disk the next time the system restarts.
- Restart the system. Be patient while chkdsk checks your drive for errors. It could take a really long time.
Fix 2 – Fix Master Boot Record
- Start your computer using a Windows 10 DVD or a USB drive. If you don’t have any Windows 10 media available, visit this page and follow the steps to create one.
- Once starting using a DVD or USB device, select the “Repair your computer” option located at the lower-left corner.
- Choose “Command prompt“.
- At the command prompt, type the following, then press “Enter“:
bootrec /fixboot - Restart the system. Be patient while chkdsk checks your drive for errors. It could take a really long time.
Fix 3 – Automatic Repair
- Start your computer using a Windows 10 DVD or a USB drive. If you don’t have any Windows 10 media available, visit this page and follow the steps to create one.
- Once starting using a DVD or USB device, select the “Repair your computer” option located at the lower-left corner.
- Choose “Troubleshoot” > “Advanced options” > “Automatic Repair” > “Next“.
- Select the OS you wish to repair.
- Be patient while the utility attempts to repair the files.
If none of these steps work, you may have a bad hard drive that needs replacement.
Sam says
May 11, 2019 at 6:52 amI left my machine on for a couple of days and noticed that Windows 10 was sluggish, went to reboot and the prompt said (Update and reboot). Upon rebbot with the update (May 8, 2019) it rebooted into the unmounted disc issue. Repair started on reboot but came back with “cannot repair a RAW drive” I made a bootable flash drive, nothing hapoens other than a blinking curser even after leaving tge pc on for several hours. It appears as though Microsoft’s update for 1st week of May, 2019 has effectively put me out of business.
Karl Simpson says
March 25, 2018 at 11:00 pmKeeps telling me I need 8gb free space, I have 2tb external drive, what s the deal microsoft? you messed up my boot drive with your latest update and your so called fix will not even load.
Aakash says
January 25, 2018 at 8:32 amWhen i select my flash drive through boot manager it restarts and again shows up the black screen. Hahaha ten tell me how can i get into windows PE. I think that the only solution to fix hdd error is go and get a new one for your PC/Laptop.
Chris says
October 15, 2017 at 6:13 amWhen I try #1 I get the message that because it is RAW, I cannot access it. Any suggestions?
Samira Silva says
July 20, 2017 at 1:07 amI’m having this issue but I’m not sure if I should get window 10 or 7 as my laptop was upgraded. My second question is can I download this file u mention thru a phone?? I don’t have a back up computer to do it thru. How would that work?? Thank u
Melissa says
June 23, 2017 at 9:55 pmI’m having the same issue
I’ve inserted the disc after I burnt the ISO file but it’s not booting up using the disc it’s business as usual blue screen error code then tries auto repair
Is there a way for me to change a setting in the bios to start by disc?
Greatly appreciate any help
It’s an Asus Laptop I hopefully don’t end up hurlin at the wall
Romel Carino says
May 7, 2017 at 3:09 pmI had this issue about 5pm. My laptop was on when a lightning struck then suddenly all the electric power turned off and on without a second. It took me hours to download the image disc iso from windows website. I used rufus to create a bootable disk from an iso. just FOLLOWED THE FIRST FIX, did a chkdisk. turned off the laptop then turned it on. it’s working now. Thanks.
Markus Kreuzer says
April 3, 2017 at 7:03 amFor all,
You can install a new system installation on a second partition.
Then join the old system installation to the startup.
So now you have tow versions on your system.
Later you can delete the second system from the new partition.
Then you can delete the partition or use it for an other system.
This was the only way how was able to solve this boot problem in the past.
All standard ways didn’t work like auto repair an others.
Hope this help some on to fix the problem.
Rus says
February 23, 2017 at 5:24 amTo Backup your files use a linux bootable flash drive (go for Ubuntu)and boot into linux
https://www.ubuntu.com/download/desktop/create-a-usb-stick-on-ubuntu
then mount your hdd from there if you get mount errors then try to mount the volume as a read only disk.
http://askubuntu.com/questions/296331/how-to-mount-a-hard-disk-as-read-only-from-the-terminal
once you can read the drive and have access to internet upload your needed files to cloud storage. Then all is good even if the drive is wiped clean and reinstalled.
Kiki Kei says
January 23, 2017 at 8:52 pmI got the same problem and I’ve a usb flash to boot with, i tried below steps still cannot recover:
1. Automatic recover
2. command prompt –> CHKDSK /R C: ( it tooks over ten hours and after that i exit the cmd still cannot boot the window 10 )
3. scf scannow…well tried that but still cannot boot
4. tried bootrec /fixmbr
bootrec /fixboot
bootrec /rebuildbcd (results in 0 window installation)
5. window trouble shooting screen, system restore…(it asked me to choose the OS in windows….)
6. return to last build ( my laptop was upgraded from win 8, well i gave it a try, it said cannot go back)
only last step to reinstall i haven’t tried yet, since i haven’t backup my hdd files…. what can i do…..?