[Steamhead]

OK Be prepared for some reading here. I have my dad's PC from his office over here. After installing some updates, they came back the next day, rebooted, and got an error that said "Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt.
System32\Drivers\Ntfs.sys "

It said to insert the CD, etc. etc... Well the very computer uneducated people over there got a CD from a completely different computer (different brand and everything). Well they started to INSTALL XP Home, not repair it. The thing messed up half way through because of the different CD, and they restarted. So now I have a computer with 2 different Windows XP Home editions that both do not work. 1 says the error mentioned above, the other is asking for a CD that doesn't exist....

We bought a brand new Windows XP Home Edition from the store a few minutes ago, and that doesn't work AT ALL....gives me an error...the universal one...

I think i need to uninstall the "half-way" installed Win. XP and reinstall the one I have now...

So...How do i do that, exactly?

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If you set the PC to boot from CD ROM Drive then hard drive, it will show press any key to load from CD as it boots, press enter, let it load set up files, press esc to install without repairing, press D to delete the partition, press L to confirm, press enter, format using the default option, not quick

Make sure it is formatting Raw partition to C:

[Retired Tech]

If you set the PC to boot from CD ROM Drive then hard drive, it will show press any key to load from CD as it boots, press enter, let it load set up files, press esc to install without repairing, press D to delete the partition, press L to confirm, press enter, format using the default option, not quick

Make sure it is formatting Raw partition to C:

[Steamhead]

Will that loose all the stuff on my original XP...the one that says "System32\Drivers\Ntfs.sys" is missing or corrupt?

[Retired Tech]

that was for the one which got half way, you can try pressing R for repair options, though it is unlikely to find anything

For the other one

1. Insert the Windows XP startup disk in the floppy disk drive, or insert the Windows XP CD in the CD drive, and then restart the computer.
2. Click to select any options that are required to start the computer from the CD drive if you are prompted to do this.
3. When the "Welcome to Setup" screen appears, press R to start the Recovery Console.
4. If you have a dual-boot or multiple-boot computer, select the installation that you want to access from the Recovery Console.
5. When you are prompted, type the Administrator password. If the Administrator password is blank, press ENTER.
6. At the Recovery Console command prompt, type the following lines. Press ENTER after each line.
cd system32
ren ntkrnlpa.exe ntkrnlpa.old
ren ntoskrnl.exe ntoskrnl.old
cd "c:\windows\driver cache\i386"
expand sp2.cab -F:ntkrpamp.exe c:\windows\system32
expand sp2.cab -F:ntkrnlmp.exe c:\windows\system32
cd c:\windows\system32
ren ntkrpamp.exe ntkrnlpa.exe
ren ntkrnlmp.exe ntoskrnl.exe

7. Type exit to quit Recovery Console. Your computer will restart.



http://support.micro...kb;en-us;887675

[Steamhead]

OK This is what happens...
If I boot the PC up without doing anythihng, it'll go to the XP loading screen, then say"setup is being restarted"...It shows the installation screen at Step 4:Installing Windows ...

an error box comes up that says "One or more of the components that Wiondows needs to continue setup could not be installed, Press OK to view the setup log file".
I press OK then it says a lot of things, including "The operation was canceled by user" about 50 times, and "Installion failed,: H:\l386\asms cannot be specified" a lot also....along with the error I'm getting now.

If I put the brand new XP CD in. It does this:

Tells me to press any button to boot from CD. I press "Any Button"
Brings up Blue Screen with "Windows Setup" at the top. Doesn't give me a menu of any type.
It starts loading files, the says "Setup is starting Windows"
It does that for a while, then gives me an error that says - "Windows has encounters an error and has closed to prevent any damage to your computer" then it says make sure you have enough disk space, etc. etc.

Then it reboots me.


So there, I hope that gives you a better idea of what I can do, and when.

Also, if I boot to Safe Mode, and boot from Safe Mode, (also "Last known good config.), It'll ask me which OS to boot from, and I can choose from 2 different Windows XP Home Editions .. The first one does is the half way installed one (first thing I explaines in this post) and the second one gives me the error that is in my first post in this thread


Boy I hope that made sense to you...
Thanks a WHOLE bunch!!!

[Retired Tech]

Has this one got data you need on it

[Steamhead]

The one that has data I need on it is the one that gives me the error "System32\Drivers\Ntfs.sys is missing or corrupt"

The other one was installed on accident, and I'm assuming they quit finally relizing their mistake...

[Retired Tech]

Post Four is for the error ntfs PC

Can you ask if they want to try and recover data from the other half way one, this is likely to involve taking the drive out of the PC, installing it as a slave in another PC to look for recoverable data

[Steamhead]

The half way installed one I just wanna remove off of it, as there shouldn't be anything on it..


As for the post 4: I don't have the originol XP CD, just a brand new one, and the computer has no floppy drive. I do, however, have a CD burner here on my Home PC I could use, if that's possible.

Like I said, when I put the new CD in it doesn't let me do anything....

[Retired Tech]

Just so we don't toast the wrong one, let's deal with the half way first

Do you know the make of hard drive on it?

[Steamhead]

not exactly sure what you mean....

[Retired Tech]

It's best to deal with these separately so we don't get mixed up

Choose which one you want to sort out first

[Steamhead]

Can we try to get the non-needed Windows Xp Home Edition off the computer?

[Retired Tech]

If you can post the make of hard drive it will be useful

[Steamhead]

Umm...by "make" I'm not quite sure where to get that....It's a emachines computer...How would I find that out?

sorry for being stupid, lol