Some Technical Help Needed
<div class="IPBDescription">Anyone know about Windows XP?</div> The other night I went out to dinner, and came back to be greeted by a black screen on my computer telling me that c:/windows/system32/drivers ntfs.sys was corrupted or missing (I run Windows XP Professional edition btw). I tried rebooting, but it just made things worse. My system refused to boot, and when I tried to run knoppix to check my hdds, it told me it had experianced a "kernal panic", and also refused to boot.
So I took my main drive out and plugged it into a mate's system. I did a full virus scan with the latest version of Norton and did a full scan disc. Both said nothing was wrong.
I wondered whether copying the ntfs.sys file from my mate's computer to my own would fix mine. I did just that, and my system is currently working. I have two questions: firstly, would copying the file across really fix things, or is it just temporary, and secondly, what could have happened in the first place to make the file not work?
So I took my main drive out and plugged it into a mate's system. I did a full virus scan with the latest version of Norton and did a full scan disc. Both said nothing was wrong.
I wondered whether copying the ntfs.sys file from my mate's computer to my own would fix mine. I did just that, and my system is currently working. I have two questions: firstly, would copying the file across really fix things, or is it just temporary, and secondly, what could have happened in the first place to make the file not work?
Comments
Since you said your harddisk worked fine on your buddy's computer, have you checked to see if it is a physical hardware error? eg. MB, RAM or CPU?
As for why NTFS.sys got corrupted in the first place, sounds like a random "feature" of windows that we all love... the unexplained crash.
Had this happen to me a while back with noskernal32.dll. As long as you replace the file its fine, its not a hardware problem, it is completely software probably. Dunno how you lost the file, but the only real problem was booting because once again, you needed that file to boot.
That's the thing; I didn't shut down. I just turned the moniter off and left it idleing. When I came back it showed me the screen.
<!--QuoteBegin--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->Since you said your harddisk worked fine on your buddy's computer, have you checked to see if it is a physical hardware error? eg. MB, RAM or CPU?<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Everything else seems fine. I've run a few diagnotic checks since putting my hdd back in and everything checks out ok.
My main concern is this happening again; if as the general concensus seems to be this was just a random Window's occurance, then I'm not overly concerned. I wasn't aware that Windows XP could randomly screw itself up; ever since I've had it there's been no problems for me. Is there any way to stop Windows from doing this kind of thing, or at least minimise the chance? Luckily for me this whole problem happened the day after my 4th year university exams ended, and I shudder to think what would have happened if it had croped up a day or two earlier.
Thanks for the info guys <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif' /><!--endemo-->
I had gotten this error like a bajillion times, turned out my harddisk was wearing out.
Maybe yours is? Try checking a few months later if it constantly reboots when it's supposed to load the login screen.
As for how it got to the blackscreen, sometimes powerlines go whack or something. Mine did a month ago, and my PC restarted unsafely. In that way, Steam and Warcraft got corrupted. I was just lucky I wasn't running scandisk.
Now XP won't boot. Where the XP loading screen usually pops up, it's just black. No text, no error messages, nothing.
I'm gonna transfer my data off it tonight, I'm just praying that I *can* get the stuff off it. Man this sucks.
I had gotten this error like a bajillion times, turned out my harddisk was wearing out.
Maybe yours is? Try checking a few months later if it constantly reboots when it's supposed to load the login screen.
As for how it got to the blackscreen, sometimes powerlines go whack or something. Mine did a month ago, and my PC restarted unsafely. In that way, Steam and Warcraft got corrupted. I was just lucky I wasn't running scandisk. <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
In the last 3 days I have lost power 5 times with the computer running every one, Haven't experianced a single corrupt program... But then I have like 5 active processes running, so the computer doesn't exactly have to scramble to get those closed.
--Scythe--
Now XP won't boot. Where the XP loading screen usually pops up, it's just black. No text, no error messages, nothing.
I'm gonna transfer my data off it tonight, I'm just praying that I *can* get the stuff off it. Man this sucks. <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
Ok, it officially sounds like harddrive failure.
Mine did, and it had the same symptoms....with added problems. Here's the list of problems my harddrive had when it failed:
- Failing to reboot, leading to black screen
- Constant reboot when loading login screen
- Ever-corrupting dlls (ntfs.sys, other important files)
- Scandisk won't continue to phase 2/3
- Defragment doesn't work
- Weird program shutdowns and memory read errors
And that's not all. Unfortunately, I've always had a headache remembering what happens to stuff =____________=
So yeah, best bet is to get a new hard disk, because it really sounds like a damaged one.
I had this problem, ignored it, until it kept telling me that ntfs.sys was corrupted or damaged, and it sure was. Couldn't boot into XP. Ever.