[David26]

My computer froze on me a few days ago and forced me to reset it. When it booted back up, I got an error saying that "Explorer has performed an illegal operation". When I close the error, it pops back up again. It continues to do this and wil not allow me to do anything. I rebooted the computer using the boot disk and got to the a:\ prompt. I then went to c:\windows and typed win to start windows and it came up with

VFAT Device Initialization Failed

A device or resource required by VFAT is not present or is unavailable. VFAT cannot continue loading.

System halted

I tried to fix it by following the instructions that Microsoft provided, Ifshlp.sys, Msdos.sys, Winboot.ini, and still nothing.

What do you suggest? I really don't want to remort my computer.

Thanks

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An easy place to start is running System File Checker. Go Start>Run, type in sfc, hit OK and watch the show. It will stop and ask when it finds a defective file. If the file is missing completely it won't tell you. You may need your installation disk.

When files go corrupt or missing it's wise to keep in mind the possibities of malware or a disk going south on you.

[Tyger]

An easy place to start is running System File Checker. Go Start>Run, type in sfc, hit OK and watch the show. It will stop and ask when it finds a defective file. If the file is missing completely it won't tell you. You may need your installation disk.

When files go corrupt or missing it's wise to keep in mind the possibities of malware or a disk going south on you.

[David26]

I can't get access to even my Start menu. the explorer error keeps popping up.

[Tyger]

Can't even get into safe mode by holding down the F8 key? And it doesn't say what resource vfat is looking for, I suppose. Makes for pretty slim clues.

These problems are usually caused by one of two things, disk failure, bad sectors, or by malware. We can at least narrow it down by running scandisk in ms-dos mode. Hold down the F8 key during boot up, not to soon or it might say keyboard failure, and when the selection screen comes up choose 5, DOS mode only. When the command prompt comes up just type in scandisk and hit Enter. After the first series of scans it will ask if you want a thorough scan. Accept it.

It will also give you a nice graphic display of where any problems are on the disk. If there are several bad sectors, specially near the start of the disk, that is likely the problem. If you get a clean bill of health, the other possibility needs to be looked at.

It takes a bit of time but it may save you from trying to fix the unfixable.

Edited by Tyger, 21 July 2005 - 07:03 PM.