Recover Windows after UNMOUNTABLE_BOOT_VOLUME error

Last week, while trying to boot my laptop having 160GB SATA hard drive, I started having problem. It asked me to choose between, ‘Start Windows Normally’ or ‘Launch Startup Repair’. I chose to start the system normally, instead of going through the recover windows options. But I got this abominable blue screen with the following message flashing across:

“A Problem has been detected and windows has been shut down to prevent damage to your computer.

UNMOUNTABLE_BOOT_VOLUME

If this is the first time you’ve seen this stop error screen, restart your computer. If this screen appears again follow these steps:

Check to make sure any new hardware or software is properly installed. If this is a new installation, ask your hardware or software manufacturer for any windows updates you might need.

If problems continue, disable or remove any newly installed hardware or software. Disable BIOS memory options such as caching or shadowing. If you need to use Safe Mode to remove or disable components, restart your computer, press F8 to select Advanced Startup Options, and then select Safe Mode.

Technical Information:

*** STOP: 0x000000ED (0x83449C90, 0xC0000185, 0x00000000, 0x00000000)”

Then I restarted my system and tried to ‘Launch Startup Repair’. But I was stuck with the same blue screen.
With no hardware or software installed in last few weeks, I was unable to understand what caused the problem.

I started to search the internet for ways to recover windows, so I could access all my files and folders.

I tried Safe mode, safe mode with networking and safe mode with command prompt. But nothing worked, and after going through the various drivers, all three options stuck at crcdisk.sys.
Then I used the installation disk to auto repair, but even that didn’t work for me. The computer did load upto the vista background but that was it. It froze!
Then I disconnected all the external devices, except the keyboard and the mouse, and then booted up. In the BIOS I disabled SATA and used the IDE configuration. But to no avail. My computer still didn’t respond properly.
Then I went ahead and made small modifications by accessing ‘Advanced Boot Options’. Here I selected ‘Repair your computer’. Then at the command prompt, I ran chkdsk /f command. After this, I executed chkdsk /r. In case there are bad sectors that are preventing the system from loading, CHKDSK will try to recover those bad sectors. But, no, even this didn’t allow me to view my desktop, or the files stored on my system.
When nothing worked, I got very frustrated, and completely formatted my system. I decided to reinstall the operating system, and then recover all my files from the backup.

With the installation disk, it was a matter of some hours when my system was up and running, as good as new. Then I attached my external drive which had all the backup. But it was not recognized. I was at my wits end, and didn’t know what to do! Further research revealed hard drive failure of my drive, and called for recovery measures. But I also came across this information that formatted, and deleted data could also be recovered using Windows data recovery software.

One of the software named Stellar Phoenix Windows Data Recovery had a demo version which quickly gave me an idea of all the recoverable files. With the easy to understand interface, additional recovery options, and compatibility with different Windows versions, I decided that this Windows data recovery software was worth buying. And sure enough, I managed to recover all my data.