A Revolution is the Solution
I don't know if someone has already helped you but would like to express my thoughts concerning your problem:
- The "Unmountable Boot Device" problem is very commonly encountered when Windows cannot access the disk because of a missing controller driver.
The only way I remember to be able to do this is to boot with with a Windows CD (or from USB stick) and either provide the driver's diskette when asked for it OR integrate the driver into the setup using tools like NLite.
- If you problem does not originate from your controller the MBR *could* be damaged. Therefore it would be required to boot into the repair console and use "fixmbr".
To fix your problem with booting from an USB stick, I found the following manual quite helpful: http://www.tomshardware.com/2005...in_your_pocket/
Let me know if it helped you. 
Still got the problem - thanks for the tip, I'll try it and see how it goes
To anyone else with something that might also work, feel free to suggest it. I'm gonna go off and try them all one after the other within the next day or so.
these could be useful if you are stuck for drivers
http://www.allbootdisks.com/inde...selectcat&
cat=3
This is also a common error if you have a hard drive that has bad sectors. If you have a linux cd that you used, did you run a chkdsk or the linux equivilent?
Additional info on the thing with booting from a Windows CD and providing a driver:
The procedure I was talking about was a "Repair install" of Windows by writing a new one ontop of the old.
In case you didn't know:
It works by choosing to "Install Windows now" instead of using the recovery console. Setup will search the partitions for old installations and ask you, if you want to repair your installation, retaining all settings, programs, etc.
This solved many severe problems for me while I could keep all my precious data.
And in your case it could well be the ticket, since the boot sector and all other system related stuff will be re-done from the ground up during the setup. If you can provide the mentioned controller drivers - all the better.
I wish you best of luck!
If you don't have a Windows CD, this won't help you. But, when I've encountered the "Unmountable..." error, I usually have success fixing it with the following procedure. (Note: you don't need a CD for the same OS version you have installed -- a Home CD will work for this on a Pro installation, and vice versa.)
1. Boot from the Windows CD, and go to the Recovery Console. This will essentially give you an old-style DOS prompt.
2. Run the command CHKDSK C: /R
3. When that completes (sometimes an hour or more later), reboot the computer. Nine times out of ten, it boots normally.
Note that this can indicate that your hard disk is developing problems, and I probably wouldn't trust it too much longer.
Pg if it was me i would strip the HDD of the data you need and reformat wih a Linux OS on the whole a lot less Pain...
http://www.techtips4u.com/kb/sw/.../sw/
SW00014.htm
http://techtips4u.com/downloads/
I have successfully used a Windows 2000 installation CDs to repair the MBR - it has almost the same recovery console as XP (might be the same). You can also use a BartsPE or the better BartsPE based UBCD4Win which has an MBR edit/repair utility on it that is particularly good even on completely stuffed installations. Both can be built from any XPSP2 installation CD on any PC. I routinely use these or a Live Linux CD for the removal of malware and OS repair issues.
http://www.ubcd4win.com/
ilogo got a point there Pg m8 did a simulation of your problem and it seems to be the best way if you want to keep Xp yuckkkkkk
Is your laptop fixed? Because I'd really love to ship my sister off to another country...
If your MBR is valid, then Lawrence O. Johnstone had the right answer. Better give your sister his picture.
Commenting by HaloScan
