To fix this problem we need to do a few simple things. There is no need to image your drive yet. Save those time consuming tasks for emergencies.

- The ntfs.sys message rarely relates to drives that are physically bad. Only the ntfs.sys file is corrupt, and we just need to replace it with a fresh one.

- Find a way to access your ntfs hard drive and delete the ntfs.sys file (or replace it). If you delete the file and boot from a xp installation disk, you will be able to access the recovery console. You can accomplish this in many ways:

1) Boot from another hard disk and transfer NTFS.sys from windows/system32/drivers to the disk you are trying to fix.

2) Boot from a Boot CD that is capable of accessing NTFS disks. I recommend a LINUX OS because they have more features than normal boot cds. Try this one. http://www.knopper.net/knoppix/index-en.html It's got some command line tools for NTFS:

- In some situations, you can use a Windows 2003 server CD to boot a drive with the damaged ntfs.sys file. I don't know why this works, but it does. Just don't copy the ntfs.sys file from the 2003 cd to your xp disk. It's different and it won't work. Still, the 2003 CD allows you to access the recovery console.

Hi,

I've just spent the day grappling with this problem & eventually got around it. Here's how, for anybody who needs the info:

There can be a number of reasons for the 0x000000024 error, in my case the disk was corrupt, but there was no hardware problem.

This can be fixed with chkdsk, but XP just went ballistic anytime it tried to mount the drive, so the problem was finding a way to run chkdsk....

The solution was to add the drive to a system that had XP already installed (2000 would also work) but it must be running on a FAT partition. Go into safe mode on that machine and rename ntfs.sys to ntfs.old in the Windows\System\Drivers directory. This will stop ntfs from being enabled, and so stop the drive being mounted.

Now, shutdown, add your corrupt drive and boot up normally. You can probably see the new drive appear in Explorer to get the drive label (e.g. E Now go to a command prompt and type:

chkdsk E: /f (or whatever the correct drive number is). Hopefully you'll see the errors being reported and fixed.

All going well you can then rename ntfs.old to ntfs.sys, and replace the drive in your original PC and get back to work. Take this chance to back up all your data though - if it happened once, it'll probably happen twice.

You can read more on this here:
http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;228888

Good luck,
Karl O'Brien.

HEY ALL! First post here, saw this thread on google. I am having this problem with my computer right now and trying to fix it. I get the ntfs system error if i try to start teh computer in any mode, install a new copy of windows xp, or use the recovery mode. I cant get into the hard drive.

The problem is I CANNOT LOSE MY FILES.

I dont know how to fix this can someone please hlep me out? Thanks!

hed how did you fix the problem with your computer? U booted with Win2k boot disks but did u have the Win2k cd in the cd rom also? or did u have WinXP cd in the cd rom? Please explain me the steps you did to fix your machine. Help!!!!

I have the same Problem I guess as Hed had, I have a 120 GIG hardrive that is not working because of the ntfs.sys Blue screen, I cant load Win XP Cd or anything like that either.

My Major Problem is that if I do get access to the hardrive with your help I cant delete the files on that drive, they are 5 years of work, all my passwords, assignments Projects working on concurrently, and basically my life achievements.

I had 2 partitions on that drive 70/50 70 Being my OS system and the 50 being where I store all my Important Data and Files.

I bought a New 80 GIG hardrive just to be able to use my PC for the next few days till I find a way back into my old Drive. I read the Forum on the Solution to Heds Problem

I dont know how I can use Win 2000 Boot Disks or Setup disks when I only have a Win XP CD.

I didnt understand what he meant by the win 2000 disk procedure or where he got it from can someone explain it to me in detail like you would to a computer noob thank you.

I'm not surprised to see Compaq being mentioned in two previous posts.
Myself I've got this "friendly"(?????) blue screen on a Compaq Evo 800c, using XP only (so no multi boot).

Symptoms:
[a] Booting results in immediate Blue Screen and immediate Reboot. Blue Screen is visible for less than a second..
When Boot Bios options is set to check memory first you do not even see the blue screen.

[b] Using XP recovery option results in (lasting) Blues Screen that can be read

[c] I wasn't able to use Bart-PE: Got the same error.

[d] I wasn't (like Hed wrote) able to use W2000 boot flops. Got the same error.

[e] I cannot acces it as drive E: from another system. Sugested by both coolbarguy and MrKobie. That will require an additional bay to "read" the drive from either another laptop or a desktop.

[f] I haven't been able to use the Knopix reffered to by coolbarguy. It keeps telling me a ntfs fs is read only
I did find the tools "not referred to in his posting" as in his posting after the semicolon it stops.


Als my idea about how I think "asjeep" may have encountered it more than once:
(
AND I DO NOT ENDORSE ANYONE TO REPEAT THE ACTIONS BELOW !!!!!
)
[a] Introduce a Bios Boot-PW
[b] Shutdown XP. But instead of real shutdown (by mistake or by error) the option restart is chosen.
[c] PC will now restart and pop up with the Boot-PW
[d] All that time the Fan isn't working (So the PC is getting just a little 'hottie' I think) and appearantly the File System is being "read"already??
[e] If no-one is paying attention to the PC this willl last to long and will result in the stopcode 24 at reboot/startup.

Are the knoppix tools referred to found in /usr/share/doc/ntfstools?? And if so how to use them??

Knopix has no proble m reading any file on the NTFS drive so as mentioned in this thread before: it is NOT likely to be a hardware error!!
I've seen something similar in the past with the need to replace nt.dll on a NT4 system. (But that was running on FAT which made life a bit easier)

Any comments suggestions appreciated....

ntfsfix utility from Knoppix did the trick for me.

I wish I hadn't wasted my time with the other utilities....

Thx for letting us know. Hopefully that can keep people from waisting their time with other utilities too.

Here's another solution and this one is really easy to do:

http://www.retosphere.de/tipsandtric...hp?menu_id=24&

It's a detailed step-by-step tutorial for the ntfsfix tool used with knoppix

Good luck with your files,
-genfrosch

The reply by Genfrosch (and the referenced link http://www.retosphere.de/tipsandtri...php?menu_id=24&) explains exactly as how I got rid of the problem.

Except for the fact that I took the XP cd and started up in recovery mode and did run chkdsk manually.

This thread saved my life....I was so worried of loosing all the photos and videos I took since my last backup (2 months ago)

I used the procedure described in the KB Article 228888
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?kbid=228888

In particular this part:

Since my hard drive was in IDE-RAID (HPT370) I was not able to use the knoppix option.

As a tip for others with the problem:

Make sure you run the chkdsk driveletter: /p command in the procedure for ALL the ntfs drives in your computer

I assumed it was my boot disk the one with the problems but fixing it didn't solve the problem so I did the same for the other disks and YES! the problem was solved.

Thanks to everybody in here...Is a great forum.

Yed.

I searched the web for a fix for a problem I was having and this was the only place that was remotely close.

I was trying to access the repair console in Win 2k pro and when trying to load the floppies, I'd get a message "the file fastfat.sys is corrupted" on disk 4 and this would halt my access.

Long story short, found a work around and it goes like this.

http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;228888

Do the fix at the bottom and then find someone with win2k of the same version. Grab a copy of thier fastfat.sys from \WINNT\system32\dllcache .

Swap that out for the one on your disk #4 and you are all set to go.

Hope this might help someone.

Delstragoy

Thx for the tip, surely you're not the only one who will come across such a problem.

PS. Welcome to TechSpot. Hope you enjoy your stay.

I just recently got exactly the same problem running on win xp pro and have no idea what to do. Exact same symptoms as hed reported but what I would like to know is if there's another way to fix it (besides Knoppix or whatever it is, I'd prefer to avoid large downloads like that if at all possible). I already know it's definately not bad memory or anything like that either because I stuck another HDD in there and it works perfectly fine and without any troubles.

I've tried making a boot disk for xp (from the link given earlier on in this thread) and following the instructions in the link given in the 2nd post in this thread but it didn't work because the file Txtsetup.sif on the Win XP bootdisk is obviously different to the one on the win 95/98 bootdisk, maybe even the win2k one as well judging from hed reporting his problem fixed, since when I opened it up it was all gibberish and I didn't find any trace of a [FileSystems.Load] section.

Thanks so much.. I had this same problem with my 120gig HD full of information i just didn't want to lose.

I followed Mrkobie's directions for me and it fixed the problem perfectly. Thanks!!

A couple notes however: the ntfs.sys file is actually located under c:/windows/system32/drivers/ not in system/drivers

also... when renaming the file to ntfs.old, you must be in safe mode for the change to take affect. if you boot in regular mode and try to make the change, windows automatically reinstalls the ntfs.sys file.

Thanks again!

thanks to the information on this thread i passed the ntsf problem. I got the floppy installation set as mentioned in this thread. Found the file txt..but it was compressed as mentioned above.

Looked and found the file, uncompressed, in the i386 folder on the win xp installation cd.

Opened it in notepad and changed the file, commented out the ntfs.sys section under the [load]. saved it onto the installation floppy.

Set my bad hard drive as primary and inserted the installation disks. it mounted the drive. from there i was able to run chkdsk from the installation floppy repair mode.

disk was straightend out and i am using it right now. All my data was just where i had left it. saved hours of rebuilding.

Thanks for presenting the info that led me to a solution.

I think a bad cmos battery was the cause of my erratic hard drive behavior that resulted in the file corruption. Got a new battery.

Thanks again, and good luck on your repair. It can be done.

havent been any posts in the thread for a while, but it helped me greatly, and i thought id share my discoveries.

i had the same problem as most people here. an sata drive with bad sectors causing my pc to blue screen when ntfs.sys was loaded. the drive is my only sata drive, but not my only drive and it does not have my os installed on it. it has data on it that i absolutely cannot lose.

the data was bad to the extent that knoppix would not recognize the drive. i tried booting off xp floppies, but after installing the drives drivers on floppy #4, the setup would blue screen. i didnt have access to a pc with 2k/xp installed on a fat32 drive, so i was pretty much out of options. then i decided to try booting of a windows 2003 server cd. i was able to install the drive and chkdsk /r it and repaired the sectors.

i guess microsoft did something about the sensitivity of ntfs with 2003 seeing all the problems in 2k/xp

Hi,
I had the exact problem described by many on a client's Dell desktop. I couldn't get beyond the blue screen even in Safe Mode. The following worked for me. I realise there are degrees of problems and this may not work for everyone.
I tested the maxtor hard drive with Maxtor diagnostics - came through perfect.
I removed all but video card, just in case
I entered Recovery Console with the XP CD (Home) and renamed ntfs.sys tp ntfs.old (in system32\drivers folder)and then copied WINDOWS\ServicePackFiles\i386\ntfs.sys to the system32\drivers folder. Rebooted and was able to enter in Safe mode - just barely, with explorer constantly crashing on me. They offered System Restore - did nothing (though I tried it)Most options ( even My computer| properties) were inaccessible, BUT I could enter Task manager (with Ctrl-Alt-Del) and enter File|New Task(run). I set up a checkdisk as recommended by MS (chkdsk /f) which came up after the next reboot.
I then ran: sfc /scannow (see http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;318378). A restart and I was very happy to see everything back to normal. This may not be the easiest solution, but heh, it worked!
MK

I thought I'd try Yed's instructions from Microsoft while I was waiting those few seconds it takes Knoppix to download(!), and it fixed it. Marvellous.

The only point I'd make is that if you have to copy and edit TXTSETUP.SIF from your XP startup disk, make sure that you delete (or rename) TXTSETUP.SI_ or the installer just uses that one anyway and you still get a BSOD for all you trouble.

Rename it and the recovery console loads OK, allowing you to CHKDSK etc.

Thanks to everyone who has put so much effort into this thread. If only I'd seen it two weeks ago - when I rebuilt the PC from scratch to fix this

[CENTER]Found a fix for my XP pro machine, hopefully someone else can bennifit.

I had the same problems as above.
Could not boot to XP ntfs.sys error
Every time I tried to re-install or access command console it blue screened.


From reading above I created 4 boot disks from a Windows 2000 Cd. Why I didn't use the CD alone ( I have no idea) :knock:

I ran the install from the floppies and instead of installing I did a repair via the command console and was allowed to access the drive. (did not ask me for a password) I attempted to run Chkdsk but it couldn't find the autocheck file to run. I mapped to file which I knew was on my Hard drive. It look like chkdsk attemtped to run but errored out with some type of dll error. ( I am guesing 2k and XP uses a different file to run chkdsk) .

I then rebooted the machine and went into safe mood. This time the machine let me logon. I then did a restart and used my XP cd to repair and run chkdsk.
After that I did a restart and the machine was fine. I know this will happen again so I spent yesterday backing everything up and will rebuild machine this week. [/CENTER]