I Have a HP Compaq nc6230 Laptop (Originally had XP PRO but currently has home) that i bought Used last year, i have been using some of the tweaking programs with it for the past couple of months and last night i tried to start it up but The "a file is missing or corrupt" error for the file PCI.SYS came up. I Looked on the boards and found the article's on NTFS.sys and used the cd that i got with the computer (XP home complete install) to copy the file and tried to reboot but it gave me another file to look for (isapnp.sys), i repeated the process but when i started it again it asked for NTFS.SYS so once again i went to the cd, however when i tried to copy is i recieved a error that this file does not exist . the cd that i have is a install cd for xp home (i think the guy that had this before me bought this secondhand and bought xp home so he could wipe the computer clean) so it is not the restore cd and the computer does not have a i386 folder to copy from so i am stuck.


LONG STORY SHORT> all of my drivers dissappeared and i do not have a restore cd for the computer for NTFS.SYS & some other drivers

Is there ANY way to repair the installation or use the xp cd to install over xp but NOT have to format and reinstall programs?

ANY help would be appreciated

THANKS!

You should be able to just run the install program and have it install over itself. I used to do that back in the day when customers had driver issues or other problems. That way you don't lose any of your data that's on there.

However, if that doesn't work, then you'll probably have to do a clean install. But even then, if you do a quick format the information is still on the drive, just not listed in the FAT.

A Couple More Questions:

I Tried your advice but when i got ready to reinstall xp it showed that it would reformat, is there a way to not reformat or will it ask me first?

Would i be better off to upgrade the Hard Drive, put this drive in a external case and copy the files over?

I have also read that this might be a virus, but i have Norton System Works 2005 installed with current defs and high bloodhound settings, would it be possible to scan it with norton before it has a chance to write itself over?

Is there a better antivirus program that would be able to scan the Hard Drive better

Is There a way to isolate the drive so that i can scan it without the possible virus copying over to my other computer?

Thanks

Honestly I don't know. I haven't had to do this in over a decade so I don't know what the options are. I know Windows used to give you the option of reinstalling without formatting the drive first but it's possible that it doesn't do that anymore (because Microsoft knows best ).
If you have the money, why not? You'll get a bigger, faster drive and have a new portable one too.

Norton should be able to run off it's CD (so it can look for boot sector viruses). You may want to try booting from the Norton CD and see what happens.

If you can install it, you might try AVG. It's free and appears to be highly recommended; it's what I use.

Several ways to isolate it. If you have another computer (or hard drive) you can boot to that and have your current drive placed as a slave, then do an AV scan on it.

Alternatively, you could use a Linux LiveCD to boot into Linux. This will let you look at your hard drive without affecting (or infecting) anything. I know you can get AV software for Linux but I don't know if a LiveCD will include it or not; you'll have to see what packages are included on it (check out www.distrowatch.com). Using a LiveCD will also allow you to copy your files to CD or whatever if you decide to reformat your drive.

I Ended up going with a new hard drive and putting the old one in a case
Thanks!!

One LAST question: What would be my best bet for a backup utility/program for the drive so that this does not happen again?

THANKS AGAIN FOR YOUR HELP!!!!

If you want an exact duplicate image of the drive, then try Norton Ghost or a similar product. If you want just a regular backup program, then I'd recommed looking at the latest reviews. I haven't messed w/ backup programs for a while; I usually just copy my important files to disc or somewhere else. Since I keep all of my docs in one location, all I have to do is zip that directory and stash it somewhere.