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Windows 10: Fix “Unmountable Boot Volume” Error

Windows 10: Fix “Unmountable Boot Volume” Error

By 31 Comments

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

  1. 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.
  2. Once starting using a DVD or USB device, select the “Repair your computer” option located at the lower-left corner.
  3. Choose “Command prompt“.
  4. 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.
  5. Select “Y” for yes on the question regarding checking the disk the next time the system restarts.
  6. 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

  1. 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.
  2. Once starting using a DVD or USB device, select the “Repair your computer” option located at the lower-left corner.
  3. Choose “Command prompt“.
  4. At the command prompt, type the following, then press “Enter“:
    bootrec /fixboot
  5. Restart the system. Be patient while chkdsk checks your drive for errors. It could take a really long time.

Fix 3 – Automatic Repair

  1. 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.
  2. Once starting using a DVD or USB device, select the “Repair your computer” option located at the lower-left corner.
  3. Choose “Troubleshoot” > “Advanced options” > “Automatic Repair” > “Next“.
  4. Select the OS you wish to repair.
  5. 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.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. I bought a $200 laptop for $50 because it had this error. I followed your instructions and it works perfectly now. Thanks for your help.

  2. I 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.

  3. Keeps 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.

  4. When 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.

  6. I’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

  7. I’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

  8. I 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.

  9. For 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.

  10. To 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.

  11. I 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…..?

  12. Hello,
    I am having the same issue. It started last Friday. I left like some of you guys suggested but stil back an forth between “something went wrong”, “repairing” again and again!

    I’ll get the USB Windows 10 today to try something else.

  13. I had the same problem and when i was bored of try, after 2 hours my computer starts to repair itself! Leave the computer with the charger connected and turn it on. I wait a day and a half and now it is working very well

  14. Spare laptop has been dead for weeks because of Microsoft sneaking in.
    Windows 10 uploaded itself without my permission, can’t remove the damn thing. It’s on various loops of repair / unmountable etc. All sorts of menus appear and nothing works, can’t boot from DVD nor from USB.
    Can’t afford to sue Microsoft but, as compensation, I’ll do my damndest to only get pirated copies of their products in the future.

  15. I’m also stuck with the blue screen. It’s does auto repair but then loops to “choose your keyboard layout” but the mouse is dead. So I’ve been going in circles. I’ve down for 1 week now trying everything.

    Totally disappointed!!! And angry.

  16. WEEB’s June message! Thank you! Leaving the the computer alone for an hour finally made it come up with the message “diagnosing problem”

    Patience people! See if leaving the black screen alone for an hour or two fixes the problem. I kept powering the computer off when the black screen appeared for 5 minutes. I was ready to pull the drive and look for a shop that could recover my files.

    I now have a recovery thumb drive and a monthly back up process in place. Whew!

  17. I had this same issue and after trying these steps and it still failing, I ran SeaTools boot cd and scanned my hard drive for errors which then told me my hard drive was failing. So before you blame Microsoft, you might want to scan your hard drive because it may be failing on you.

  18. I had the same issue. None of the above steps helped. I had an endless loop “unmountable boot volume > problem détection > automatic repair”. Finally the remedy was:
    – starting the computer with a bootable Bitdefender disk
    – updating Bitdefender with Ethernet
    – removal of a dozen of Trojans in 2 runs of Bitdefender
    – after this Windows 10 was able to heal itself and runs as before
    Remains the problem how the Trojans got into my system. I use Windows Defender as my AV program so it seems not very reliable.

  19. I have this problem but once I turned it off and back on again the screens kept showing no signal. I guess this computer is dead :(

  20. Windows just killed my laptop. It did an *upgrade* overnight without my permission to Windows 10. Surprise!

    Today I have the blue screen of death.

    I am done with Microsoft. I am moving to a Mac.

  21. I am having the same problem and no way to fix this. My livelyhood is on this computer. Windows i was a loyal supporter but you may have just cost me my bussiness and my reputation. If i cant rectify this tonight i am buying a mac and never looking back.

  22. Microsoft, this just doesn’t cut it. I experienced this problem directly as a result of a failed Windows 10 automatic update of Windows Defender. My only other machine (available) is a Windows XP machine and the USB boot drive I created – as per the instructions – does not work (likely because I can only copy the downloaded and extracted ISO Windows 10 files to the USB drive) .

    Even though I changed the primary boot drive to be that of the USB drive. The machine just hangs in an infinite loop where it claims to be repairing the disk (40 hours continuously)

    Microsoft, you owe it to us (morally) to issue a fix which we can download and install without the tremendous pain and frustration your faulty pushed software update is causing.

    Please issue a credible fix, as the number of very unhappy customers is growing steadily and the great promise of Windows 10 fast disappearing.

    I cannot afford to loose the use of my machine nor the data it contains nor can I afford the headache this is causing me.

  23. I was having the issue where windows ten would say – unmountable-boot-volume followed by a black or blue screen that doesn’t go away. A hour or two into searching forums I realized that the black screen now said diagnosing problem, followed by several other screens c: the problem is now fixed on its own and hasn’t reoccurred.

    I don’t know if this will help anyone but I figured people should try being patient before killing their hard drive or buying new Windows.

    Sorry of this is useless info

  25. Executing below commands in that order worked for me:

    bootrec /fixmbr
    bootrec /fixboot
    bootrec /rebuildbcd
    chkdsk C: /f /r /x

  26. Having this issue with my laptop I bought a little under two years ago. Don’t have a Windows disk. (comp. didnt come with one) and have yet been able to fix it. Are all of these issues arising with Win. 10 and all recently?

  27. I initially had the same problem as Jason but it was a bios issue. I had to set the disc to IDE off of AHCI. It took 10 mins before the repair bit showed up, probably due to the usb flash drive. Once in, went to cmd and followed fix 1, comp is back to normal. Thanks for the post!

  28. I upgraded to windows 10 on my Alienware laptop, my very expensive beautiful Alienware laptop. I am now having the Blue screen of death issue in which I am told that I have an unmountable boot drive.

    If you can’t make a USB don’t worry, it doesn’t work anyway. For me it simply says, “Preparing Automatic Repair” and then goes to a black screen. The End.

    Microsoft truly completely sucks on this one. They have no idea how to fix it.. their suggestions don’t work. And they aren’t willing to replace my 2k laptop.. My next Laptop will be a MAC.

  29. I think my computer is worse, I cannot get past unmountable etc and my computer just hangs on in there to in finite and beyond! If I can’t access diagnostics, then how can I possibly fix the errors?

  30. I thinking about going to the library because I’m having the same issue. I tried to fix it with a Windows 7 Boot CD. I figured after a few tries, it wasn’t going to cut it. I downloaded my Windows 10 off the net. (BIG MISTAKE) and lesson learned.

  31. None of these options will work for me. I don’t have a Windows 10 disk. Nor do I have another computer to make a usb from to use in my broken computer. Is there a way to fix this issue without a disk? I hit f12 and got to boot menu. But there is no command prompt to run a check. I just don’t know what to do from here.

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