The NTFS file system has been designed to much less prone to corruption than FAT or FAT32 file system. But the corruption can still occur. One general NTFS-related issue involves corruption of Ntfs.sys file that can occur out of several reasons. If this file is corrupt or goes missing, it can render a Windows system unbootable and can make the partition inaccessible. You can repair or replace the file by using different methods through Recovery Console. But if they fail, you need a powerful solution to partition recovery.

For example, consider a situation when you try to run disk defragmenter on your Windows XP-based hard disk that is formatted to NTFS file system. The tool freezes and when you restart the computer after this, the computer fails to start giving the below error message:

“Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt: System32\Drivers\Ntfs.sys”

You cannot access the disk partition.

Cause

NTFS file system has a driver file called Ntfs.sys, which enables your Windows computer to read/write data to NTFS partitions. The above problem results when this file becomes corrupted or is missing when you run disk defragmenter.

Solution

To solve the above problem, you need to repair or replace the Ntfs.sys file. For this, you can use any of the methods mentioned underneath:

Boot your computer using Windows XP installation to start Recovery Console as an administrator. You can then use command prompt to run the below commands:

cd \windows\system32\drivers ren ntfs.sys ntfs.old copy cd:\i386\ntfs.sys drive:\windows\system32\drivers Where, cd and drive represent the drive letters of CD-ROM drive and primary partition

If this doesn't solve the problem, it might be a disk-related issue. So, you can run chkdsk /r command from Recovery Console command prompt.

If the problem continues, you should repair or reinstall the Windows installation. To restore the deleted data after Windows reinstall, you should use your last backup.

At times, the backup doesn't work as is found to be corrupted or incomplete. To deal with such problems, you should use a comprehensive partition recovery software. These tools can scan and retrieve the deleted or inaccessible partitions using safe scanning algorithms. It is highly recommended to use these partition recovery products prior to reformat or reinstall the system.

Stellar Phoenix Windows Data Recovery Software is a professional utility that recovers lost, deleted or inaccessible disk partitions. The partition recovery software employs secure scanning algorithms. The tool is compatible with Windows 7, Vista, XP, 2003 and 2000-based computers. It is a risk-free utility that can recover lost data from FAT32, VFAT, NTFS and NTFS5 file systems.