Need Extreme help.

My friend asked me to help him fix his computer from the phone (which is hard to do). I've helped people before but in his case, I don't know what to do. Here is the problem:
His computer is not starting, gets some kind of "unmountable boot volume" error. He tried to recover, and that didn't work, he can't access the command prompt, nor could he boot from the XP disk.
Whatever he does leads to bluescreen. We still are on the phone with him so I can answer questions. Also he is not under warranty and Microsoft Support doesn't help much.
It doesn't go into safe mode. Its repartitioning the drivers
his computer is http://reviews.cnet.com/desktops/del...-31457921.html
PLZ help

is he getting a post beep? at startup? is the disk drive hooked up? if it passes post can he enter the bios(setup) and point to boot from the cd/dvd drive?

ok i had this same problem with my laptop brought it to best buy (still under warranty) the hocked it up to another computer and where able to boot it that way if that helps dont know what they did but it was very fast

He can get to the cd/dvd drive which he is booting now.
This is what he is doing right now "setup format to partition on one of your drives". Its hard to talk on vent and phone and get this info.
This is not under warrenty fyi
I will keep you informed

His Master Boot Record (mbr) is corrupted, it sounds like. Since there's no way to get to the command prompt, he'll probably have to reinstall. If he has the disks that is.

Getting a new key from Microsoft isn't a difficult procedure. Just tell them what happened. As long as you have a valid key, everything should be ok.

qft

this deffinatly sounds like the issue. he should reformat that drive and start from scratch after with a fresh install of xp. they may need to call M$ support if the key entery gives problems. they will loose all the data on the drive doing this.

Right now. He is...good question. He is doing something that is at 24%.
He is setting up repartitioning now. This is actually alot of fun to listen and help now. So far so good. But lets hope for a miracle.
OK. Right now he is setting up reformatting.

this is a great place to mention that there is a little known gem out there for not alot of cash that i have been looking into. Windows Home Server. it has alot of functionality and all this data loss could have been prevented. it does have some drawbacks tho as it is not a full blown server.

Ya. He doesn't care about recovering anything since it was just for gaming. And why would he want a server in his house. When he can just install everything again. And again hope for another miracle. So far so good 45% on setup.

ok the guildwars download is still a killer,not to mention all the M$ downloads, installing a antivirus, loosing all your files. he may get to play this time tommarrow if he is lucky. this whole thing could have been prevented for about 150.00 and an older computer.....

EDIT: This also proves that artificial intelligence is no threat compared to natural stupidity. lol

Hes not gunna get M$ he is just gunna get GW and other games and stuff. Untill he can diagnose the problem and get it totally fixed. Then he will install the M$

It's not a server in a traditional sense, it just has some of the extra stuff on there.

If I'm remembering correctly, anyway.

it keeps an image of your computer, allows for file sharing locally, remote access to your computer from any internet connection and backs things up daily. also allows you to have a few web pages also hosted locally. for a 150.00 server program it seems pretty slick.