One morning you open your system to find that your valuable data is no longer accessible. You spend an hour trying to find a solution, but nothing works. You try to analyze the various causes for the loss of data. Data could have been lost due to a variety of reasons. It could have been virus infection your anti-virus had detected the other day, or a system malfunction or a boot sector corruption or even a partition corruption. Fortunately,even if you have lost your valuable data, you can recover it using third-party partition recovery software such as a good NTFS partition recovery solution.

Is formatting the only solution to recover corrupt NTFS partition?...

NTFS (New Technology File System) is a new-age file system that is implemented in the Windows systems after Windows NT and later systems. This file system is secure, fast, reliable, and very easy to implement than its predecessor, FAT (File Allocation Table) file system. However, at times the critical system files get corrupt due to various reasons such as virus infections, hardware corruption, abrupt or unplanned system shutdown, etc. Because of these reasons, the system is unable to start and all the data gets inaccessible. If you are unable to resolve the situation, then a complete format of the disks followed by the reinstallation of the operating system would get the solution. To recover the data, however, you would need a third-party NTFS data recovery software.

Consider a scenario in which you are getting the following error message while starting your Windows XP NTFS-based system:

“c:\windows\system32\drivers\ntfs.sys is missing or corrupted”

Cause:...

In Windows NT systems, the purpose of the boot.ini file is to direct the NTLDR file about which operating system to start with. It is very helpful if there is a dual-(or multi-) boot system as you can select the particular operating system to log on. However, despite being such a critical file, it is not marked as a read-only because of which it is sometimes get deleted or overwritten. Because of this, the system may not start and would become inaccessible. In such cases, you should try out the best way-out to restore the file and start the system. In case that does not happen, then you should reinstall the operating system after recovering the data using an NTFS data recovery software.

Let us consider you have a Windows Server 2003 system, which is unable to start. The following error message is displayed on a black screen: "NTLDR is missing Press any key to restart" Cause:

There could be the following reasons behind such startup problem:...

NTFS file system is one of the most used and trusted file system for installation of the Windows operating system. Being a journaling file system, it uses NTFS Log ($Logfile) to maintain a record of the metadata changes to the volume. Though superior to FAT file system in many ways, it is not preferred by many. But despite all the improvements over its predecessor, it has its own flaws. One of the major problems is, it may not load and prevent the operating system to be mounted. Such a situation may lead to file inaccessibility, thus calling for extensive NTFS file recovery steps.

Suppose that one fine day, while trying to boot your NTFS formatted Windows XP system, you get an error message, instead of the "Starting Windows" Splash Screen:

'Error loading operating system'

After getting this error message, you find all the data stored in your NTFS formatted computer system inaccessible. Generally such problems are due to damage to the partition, problems in BIOS (Basic Input/Output System) or CMOS (Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor) of the system. Let us try to fix one at a time, to chalk it out, and thus resolve the problem...

The NTFS (New Technology File System) file system is extensively used in the Windows NT and later versions. This file system scores over its predecessors such as FAT (File Allocation Table)and HPFS (High Performance File System) over a lot of issues such as disk space utilization, reliability, security, performance, etc. Having said that, at times a system having NTFS file system is unable to start citing kinds of error messages. In such cases, you should look into the matter to resolve the issue failing which you must use a third-party NTFS partition recovery software to perform NTFS data recovery.

Think of a situation in which you are starting your Windows XP system but it does not start. An error message is getting displayed in this regard, which is:

“c:\windows\system32\drivers\ntfs.sys is missing or corrupted.”

Cause:

The sole cause of this startup problem is that the ntfs.sys file is either missing or corrupt. You need to restore this file.

Resolution:...

The NTFS (New Technology File System) is an efficient file system that is regularly being used in the Windows systems after XP. This file system has become very popular because of its performance, reliability, and compatibility with various applications. Because of this, many users have converted the file system from FAT32 to NTFS. However, at times some critical system file may get corrupt in this process making the system inaccessible. In such cases, you should try the required steps to bring the system in order. If the measures are insufficient, then you should try a third-party NTFS data recovery software to recover inaccessible data.Let us see a situation that you may face after the FAT32 to NTFS conversion. You may get to see the following error message after starting the Windows XP system:"Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt: System32\Drivers\Ntfs.sys". Cause: The cause for this problem is that the ntfs.sys file may have got corrupt or is missing during the FAT32 to NTFS file system conversion...

Hyper-threading is a technology supported by the Intel processors in which a single CPU (Central Processing Unit) can behave like multiple CPUs. The benefit of using the CPU in this way is that it allows different applications to use the resources separately thereby making optimum use of the CPU. However, problems do occur when you use the hyper threading in a system on which you have installed both Windows XP Service Pack 2 and Rollup 1 for Windows XP. In such situations, the system is unable to start. But you can recover the system by renaming the overwritten system files. If that does not solve the problem, then the best way is to use a third-party NTFS data recovery software.

Consider a scenario in which you have an NTFS-based Windows XP Service Pack 2 system, which is unable to start. The following error message is getting displayed: “Windows could not start because the following file is missing: \system32\drivers\ntfs.sys”

Cause:...

The NTFS file system enables you to associate the computer files with data structures that are not interpreted by file system using the Extended file attributes feature. The regular file system attributes have strictly defined purposes. Such attributes are generally limited in size. In order to access the files associated with Extended attributes, the attributes must be intact and working. If these attributes get damaged, you can not access files from NTFS file system partition and may encounter severe data loss. At this point, you must have an absolute backup of your significant data to get your mission critical data recovered and prevent need of NTFS data recovery solutions.

As a practical example of this behavior, the Chkdsk may scan your NTFS file system partition after a dirty system shutdown and find some of the extended file attributes, which are damaged. Chkdsk may give you the following message: "The type of the file system is NTFS. Volume label is test1. ...