I just tried to reboot my machine (after a successful shutdown) and it says ntfs.sys is corrupt or missing. This is an Xp Pro SP2 machine....

I tried to boot up off CD to get to recovery console, but after loading all the installation drivers etc, IT says 'file ntfs.sys is corrupt, setup cannot conitnue'.

Now, I dont get the option for safe mode, and I cant get to recovery console. How am I going to get into this machine to recover the file?

I came across this thread because I'm having the same problem with someone's computer. Google is a great thing.

It starts with the "ntldr missing" error, but I can get into the Recovery Console.

Unfortunately, when I dir C:\ I get "an error occurred during directory enumeration"

That's where I go "OH "

Even Hiren's BootCD 7.0 can't give me anything. Whenever I attempt to use a utillity, it tries to access root, and abruptly fails.

I even attempted to do a Repair install through the manufacturer's recovery disk, but it does not recognize that windows is already installed, and it has no space to install. No (R) option to repair.

I'm stumped, and getting a bit miffed. HELP! PLEASE!

-Vlachen of Aranias

ntfs.sys, i think your best bet to be honest is do a full from scratch clean installation, i'd format the disk first also, hope this helps...snipe!

You said you can boot from a XP CD to the Recovery Console. Do a chkdsk /r and see if it can complete and helps.

/r = repair?

Yes /r is to repair. If you do a chkdsk /? if I remember right it will give you a list of the comands.

yes in dos all commands have the switch /? which brings up help for that particular command

I just fixed this problem, by running chkdsk /r. My computer was rebooting continuously. I tried to repair windows with setup->repair and this failed with errors about not finding windows. In the Recovery Console, I ran dir, which gave, "Error Occurred during directory enumeration". After running chksdk /r in the Recovery Console, I was able to run dir on my c drive. I rebooted, and everything was ok. In summary, the file allocation table was corrupt, but the file-system itself was actually ok, because all the files are there. FAT can be corrupted during power loss, due to a virus or of virulent malware or harddrive failures.

Nice for you. But chkdsk /r did not work for me.
Directory still has problems enumerating.
But I know the data is there because it keep strying to boot windows XP

I am trying Knoppix...for the second time because the first time, first Knoppix CD can not find it's OS files...