I have searched online everywhere and cannot find a similar post!

Most people get the BSOD but I don't...Anyways, here's how it all started....

Yesterday, my old Toshiba notebook running Windows XP decided to shut itself down...
Upon rebooting, the screen says:
------------------------------------------------------------
"Windows could not start because the following file is missing
or corrupt:
\System32\Drivers\Ntfs.sys

You can attempt to repair this file by starting Windows Setup
using the original Setup CD-ROM.
Select 'r' at the first screen to select repair."
------------------------------------------------------------
So I followed the instructions and selected 'r' to repair.
Well all this did was open up a DOS prompt.
So I tried to do a DIR....well here's what happens:
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C:\>dir
Directory of C:\

An error occurred during directory enumeration.

C:\>
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OMG! What do I do???

After searching many forums, people have solved this problem by replacing memory or running test on their memory. So I ran a bootable CD with "memtest86" (http://www.memtest86.com) on it. After completing these test many times...its says there is no problem with my memory. My notebook has ancient 66Mhz SODIMM ram chips...I have two 64MB blocks...I took both RAM chips out...tried each one by itself to see if one of the chips were the problem...I still got the same error message. Very unlikely, both chips would die at the same time...So I'm NOT gonna buy new RAM if its not even gonna fix the problem!

Can anyone help me??? Is this problem virus related?
Will I lose all my data on the hard drive?
BTW...I just bought a new hard drive for the notebook last year.
Thanks to all who can help! Greatly Appreciated! :-)

Hello crassbones. Welcome to GIDForums™.

I had to look for a while, but I recalled helping a guy with a very detailed post based on information that he got from Microsoft. It is here. It is very spelled out, but I think it goes over everything that could go wrong trying to fix this problem.

A lot of times this problem can be tracked down to not shutting down your computer properly. In your case, you had no choice. You may want to investigate why your computer shut down and fix that problem.

Most likely your data should be okay once you get this file re-installed. However, that is not guaranteed. That is why backups of some sort are so important.

HTH.

__________________
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I am trying to follow this procedure....however I can't get to Post 18:
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"very little on screen - just says type exit to quit recovery console and restart
then it says 1: C:\WINDOWS and then "which windows installation would you liem to log onto (to cancel press enter)?
dont know what to do now"
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I get the recovery console, but no option to select which windows installation to log onto???
I just begins the recovery console at C:\>
I try typing "cd windows" and its says "path or file is not valid".
So I can't even get to C:\WINDOWS>!!!

I am running Windows XP Pro.

Any suggestions....and thank you for your reply to my post!

Can you hlep dsmith??? I cannot follow the post...

Hi crassbones.

Can you tell me exactly what steps you are taking to get to the point you are at?

If you are getting a command prompt (c:>) can you type in dir and does it list anything?

This very well could be different than what that other post is describing and I mean different in a bad way. There may be a chance to recover your data though...

__________________
The best damn Sports Blog period.

Ya...its a little different than the other post:

This is what happens at the Recovery Console. I do get a command prompt:
So i run a DIR...here it is:

C:\>dir
Directory of C:\

An error occurred during directory enumeration.

C:\>

That looks pretty scary to me!
I just wanted to know if you knew how to fix this, besides reinstalling windows??? Thanks again.

i have had this problem a few times in my life. every time i have attempted every possible "fix" i can think of to no avail - except for reformatting. luckily i use norton ghost so have a clone of my hard drive sitting on my shelp - so i just clone back to that. its annoying, but at least i only loose a month of two of data (somettimes more or less depending on my last backup)

i have posted a few times about missing NTFS - so search GID forums, you should find my posts somewhere

__________________
HOOD

Anyone else have another idea about this problem??? dsmith??

I HAVE JUST REMEBERED what happened. basically the reason i could not use the recovery console or any other type of backup media was that the c: drive had been corrupted. It had "lost" its file system. i even took it to a shop for the professionals to try figure it out, they said it was all in raw data format and i needed to reformat (low level and then high level). so if i were you i would stop attempting to fix your problem, and start on the good old f disk procedure. sorry i cant be more positive

__________________
HOOD

Thats about the worst news i could have ever heard....tell me he is wrong dsmith??