Hate to break the news but eMachines products are highly suspect (I know, I've had them) - they skimp on quality when it comes to components in favor of cheap. You could have rebooted for any reason and run into this and it's far more likely a machine failure than software installation related file corruption.

On the other hand, I've had software do some strange things in the past - simply uninstalling PaperPort via Add/Remove Programs a few years ago resulted in the disappearance of boot.ini & ntloader from the root directory of my rig. Talk about some fun getting that fixed. Once fixed, the uninstall did the same thing a second time, but this time I had what I needed to restore those files easily and then just did a manual uninstall of the app & a reg clean.

Listen to Gary.  
He's kept in a box for just such emergencies.

I've got someone in my apartment with the CD now, it will be shipped in the morning.

I also agree, even though I don't have much of it. An UNMOUNTABLE_ROOT_VOLUME has very little to do with WindowBlinds (as far as I know).

Good luck with this. Really, go out and try a HDD repair facility. I'm sure they'll be able to back it all up to DVD for you so you can copy it to a new disk and never worry about such a thing as loosing your data again.

RED

Hey Yrag!! How are you sir?

Machnicki: Yrag is a total genius with computers, he's helped me many times. Listen to him and you'll be o.k.

REDstyler, I think we've determined that WindowBlinds isnt the cause of the issue here.  The updates that we've been referring to are Windows Updates.

Yrag (as usual) has sound advice.  Get an XP cd from a friend, run the restore, retrieve your files.  (assuming your hard drive isnt a coaster)

REDstyler, I think we've determined that WindowBlinds isnt the cause of the issue here. The updates that we've been referring to are Windows Updates.

I knew that, but thanks ...

So, I'd like to thank all of you for your help. I've shifted from a state of panic and trigger happy to hopefull. I've learned some things today. Nerds rule and eMachines blow.
I would love to just blame Stardock, but the fact is I bought a computer because it had the new 64 AMD when it first came out and knew nothing of the company.

THANKS AGAIN!!!! I'll let you know if it works in 48 hours or so.

Great! Glad to help!

I'm fine Bryan. As always, it's nice to see ya.....    



All these accolades.........

......a dollar to a doughnut, it blows up  

If the system has XP SP2 on it there's a startup choice when you hit F8 which supresses the restart on error. The problem is the system is bluescreening and rebooting like it's set in the startup options. If you don't see Disable Automatic Restart or something like that when you hit F8 you're guaranteed it's SP1. Can't be older then that unless you've never updated XP on this box and you got it more then 4 years ago... highly unlikely. You need to find out what the bluescreen states first before anything else.

Also, guys, I hate to say this, but this guy is asking us what an SP is... do you really want him "trying" to do a rebuild install of XP from a CD. I don't know, but if your data is really that valuable I wouldn't trust you not to accidentally nuke your system when you try to do this yourself. You might want to find a company local to where you are to service this system for you. I'm just trying to make sure you take the safest course out with this.... last thing you want is more problem because of your lack of computer knowledge.

If he can get to recovery console, he should be able to run  chkdsk /r

Based on the description it sounds like a fluke that it happened just after WB was installed. 

He could, but running that could also cause more corruption then there already is on the drive... especially if we're talking about bad sectors, it could spread. Really the recovery process in this case should be to pull the drive, make a copy of it, and then figure out if it's a failing drive or simply some kind of OS corruption. Then deal with that from there. Safeguarding of his data should be the number one priority at the moment since he said it was important, then mess with the cause of the problem. Just my professional suggestion based on everything he's posted so far.

You and I Zubaz could easily wing it and still probably be successful in the end, but imagine for a second everything you know about computers and try to see yourself forgetting all that and trying to fix this. It could be overwhelming.

You have a valid point JRSCCivic.  I guess the other half of the question is what is the criticality of the data from a time standpoint?  If I needed to use the PC right away I's take the chance on chkdsk.  If I had some time to play, I would make more of an effort to safeguard the data.  Anywhere from pulling the drive and dumping it to whatever PC he's using to post here, taking the drive in to the office and begging a tech-support favor to buying a super-cheap PC to do the same.

As long as he won't sue me for helping, I'd go with the recovery console and chkdsk.  The chances are good that the file system would recover enough to back up my data before any more bad sectors were affected.

Point being machnicki, that there is a risk and you have to weigh what you have and what you need.  Your best bet is always to find a local expert that can evaluate better than we can here and offer you options that we may not know about.  There are ways to back up your data before you attempt the suggested fix.  If there is a chance that you could engoge those options, the better for you.

If you can get into the bio settings do a reset of the bio settings to default and save and exit to restart.

SGT

I have to agree with JRS... here. This guy clearly doesn't know ANYTHING about ANYTHING involving his computer. He should get some professional help from the IT person at whatever company he is working with/for, or get the data copied off with the help of someone with another laptop/desktop who really knows what they are doing (like many of the people here clearly do).

Agreed. If a computer is going to fail, it is most likely after a restart. It just happens that this restart was after installing Windowblinds. You'd be blaming Windows Update if the crash had occurred after that.

Computers are just bits of plastic, wire and silicon....totally valueless.

The data/information/work on its harddrive however can be extremely valuable or even impossible to replace.

Step one.... have data copied to a second drive/backup by being slaved to a second computer.

Step two...verify you now have said data safe.

Step three...do what you like with the computer.

It's as simple as that...

 

That's been my experience. I've been able a couple of times to get back into Windows by hook or crook long enough to salvage what I needed but the failure has virtually always occurred on reboot.

USB external hard drive (cheap these days)
SyncBack (free version) set to backup all my data every nite
All three of my rigs are backed up every nite to the same USB hard drive on my home server

If a hard drive fails, I pull it, stick it in a USB drive shell and can recover the data after installing a new primary hard drive (in case I forgot to include some stuff in the scheduled backups - not hard to do). The drive is usually still readable.

The thing is - your hard drive will fail. The only thing you don't know is when, though some of the drive monitoring utilities can give you a little warning.

'Course, if the place burns down, I'm 'toast'.

If your computer is vital to you, you should have it backed up (eg: TrueImage).

It is impossible to break a backed up computer.

I know how frustrating problems like this can be machnicki. Sorry

A friend had something like this happen to her laptop last month. System started to boot then recycled through another re-boot. It was impossible to start her system in any mode. Problem was the hard drive. No warning. It just went. Had to replace the drive and rebuild the system. Hopefully you'll have better luck. Fingers crossed.

Good Luck with the fix or repair. It's a bit of a nightmare but please listen to some of our guys advice. I am not being rude but your computer knowledge seems fairly limited so take it to an IT expert and let him help you with this.   

Hi,

Go here:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/304449

Start up in safe mode command prompt and simply type rstrui and hit enter. Then pick a time to use a restore point from BEFORE the WB install, IF...you believe it to be the root of your issues. Sounds like a failing HDD to me.

Mark