NTFS.sys maybe corrupted on DVD-less laptop...

[kareem]

I have a friend who owns a laptop with XP installed. She said she started it the other day and suddenly it came up with a error msg and cannot go into Windows. The message said Windows could not start because the following files are missing or corrupt. NTFS.sys. And it recommends we shut down and run R (repair) with the Windows Startup disk.

My friend has two issues at this point. She has no DVD drive on this laptop (who designed such a laptop?!) and she has no Windows startup disk that she can find. It's only a year old.

Any suggestions?

I told her to try to F8 to see if that would work and she said that it doesn't but rather keep repeating the same error msg.

[Midknyte]

Make/model? I'm guessing it's a netbook of some kind. Do you at least know if it's XP Home or Pro and the Service Pack?

do you have an external CD/DVD drive?

You could also put an XP disc onto a flash drive. Note that the drive will be FORMATTED during the process.
http://www.lockergnome.com/windows/2008/10/09/geeks-guide-to-installing-windows-xp-using-a-usb-flash-drive/

[Sterling_Aug]

I have made my own external DVD drive using an external USB enclosure and plugging the cables into a standard destop DVD drive. It ain't pretty, but it works just as good.

[Train]

Here's how to create the "Windows Quick Boot" diskette for an NT based system:

1. Format a floppy on the NT based system.
2. Copy or Drag/Drop the following three files from your C: root to the floppy:

NTLDR
NTDETECT.COM
BOOT.INI

That's it! Be sure to WRITE PROTECT it!!!
Caution: It is absolutely necessary that the format of the floppy take place on an NT based system since the boot code differs from a DOS/Win9x/ME system.

Put that disk in the drive bay and boot the computer (http://forums.techguy.org/#). It will take you all the way to Windows without relying on the bootloader code from the MBR of the HD or the bootloader files on the root of the C: drive.

I just made a cd with those on it in XP. As my burner is set before my hdd, I booted straight to windows and copied those files from the cd and put them in the root of C:\. Should work with a flash drive. if you can boot to it.

[kareem]

Quite amazing. You all have extremely enlightening suggesrtions. That article provided my Midkntye was very cool. I never knew that. We may try this route but she's gonna need her Windows CD or perhaps another one?

I wonder if the windows CD needs to be the one registered and activated on her machine... I have a copy of XP.

[Midknyte]

Same rules apply as if you were using an XP CD. It must be the same version (OEM or Retail, Home or Pro). If you are doing a repair install, it should also be at the same SP level.

[kareem]

Same version? Yes. That makes sense. But what about the activated PC? Does that CD need to be activated on that PC?

[Midknyte]

If you do a clean install, you are wiping out the activation info. You'll have to reactivate using the same key. If you can get to the activation files on the disk, you can back them up first.

http://www.theeldergeek.com/activation_workaround.htm

If you are doing a clean install using the original key, you probably need to use the OEM version.

[kareem]

Ah hah. I was under the impression that we were talking about repairing the file in question (ntfs.sys) and not doing an install over the existing os or even a clean install. I thought your excellent suggestion (and everyone else's) was going to simply allow us to get to the desktop.

Sorry if I confused everyone. I was trying to avoid doing a reinstallation of the OS. But it sounds like, this is not possible here?

[Midknyte]

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/822800
You can try going into recovery console to repair it first.

If you want to attempt a repair installation, you shouldn't have to activate. You would definitely want to create the USB drive with a slipstreamed XP at the same SP level as the current install.

[kareem]

Cool. Got it. Thanks Midnyte!