NT 4.0 ntfs.sys

[puddybuddy]

formatting works like a charm, all drivers load except for ntfs.sys. what could cause this sort of a problem. I have redone the install several times expecting different results, to my astonishmnet it repeats the same actions. oh... and my start up disks are sparked with no backups. anybody who knows the gyst of my problem is welcome to help...!!!

 

[prosaic]

I'd need a lot more information before I could guess, and I'd also need a little clarification on the little information you did provide.

First of all, tell us what base service pack level your setup CD for NT 4.0 is at. Then tell us exactly how you are partitioning and formatting the hard drive(s), the exact number and types of hard drives AND partitions on the systems, and which one you are installing NT 4.0 on, and which file system you are using, and what size each partition is. Whew!

Also, tell us at what point you see that ntfs.sys fails to load, and the exact content of the error message and behavior of the system leading up to that point.

And I don't have a clue what you mean when you say that your "startup disks are sparked with no backups". Huh? If this system's BIOS supports booting from CD did you try just booting from the NT 4.0 setup CD?

- prosaic

 

[puddybuddy]

prosaic
Senior Member
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I'd need a lot more information before I could guess, and I'd also need a little clarification on the little information you did provide.

First of all, tell us what base service pack level your setup CD for NT 4.0 is at. Then tell us exactly how you are partitioning and formatting the hard drive(s), the exact number and types of hard drives AND partitions on the systems, and which one you are installing NT 4.0 on, and which file system you are using, and what size each partition is. Whew!

Also, tell us at what point you see that ntfs.sys fails to load, and the exact content of the error message and behavior of the system leading up to that point.

And I don't have a clue what you mean when you say that your "startup disks are sparked with no backups". Huh? If this system's BIOS supports booting from CD did you try just booting from the NT 4.0 setup CD?

- prosaic
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Wow, didn't expect that, but here goes...

-service pack 1 installed to "C:", also known as "Primary Master".

-2 hard drives
Primary Master: 1- Samsung (PLS-30854A, 850MB) fully partitioned and formatted to NTFS
Primary Slave: 1- Western Digital (Caviar 2340, 341.2MB) fully partitioned and formated to NTFS.

-NTFS.sys fails to load about midway during the installation but is fine up until that point with no error messages.

-an error message pops up and asks if I would like to try to load ntfs.sys again because it failed to load the first time... or Press ESC to skip this file...

-By obsessive compression with the extended middle digit on my right hand, I may have "sparked" the enter key (see description of the word "sparked," and its translation into laymen's terms below).

Sparked = toasted, or shocked, or even better dragged across an electrically charged surface... Touched by a refrigerator magnet... etc... totally dead....
So... When I say that my setup disks are "sparked", I mean that they do not retain info anymore...
Someone (my wife and or children) may have touched them after dragging their feet across the carpet, or maybe I did it!!! Doesn't matter, their "sparked".
Any questions???

I related to the "sparked disks" in my explanation, because I was not sure if the first answer I would recieve might be: "So why don't you just use the start-up disks".
I would've liked to prevent this reaction, but instead, I am being criticized for being simple... Well sorry, I'll try to be more technical in my future explanations!

I do apreciate criticism... but it seams like criticism is all your senior members have given me lately.
If I'm lucky, I may in-fact get an answer, but only after a "Troll" gives it to me one last time before I go...

So please don't get offended or put off by my reaction, I may not be qualified to interact with you at your level... you ass!!!

 

[prosaic]

I went back to read my previous post, and I'm having a hard time understanding what it was that got me referred to as a troll and an ass. You didn't provide much information at all in your first post, and I don't think you can reasonably expect anyone to understand precisely what you mean when you use imprecise language like "spark". I suspect that you inferred something that I never intended to imply. I believe that I told you that it was I who was clueless. No?

Regarding the classification of senior members versus members -- we're both at the very low end of the totem pole here in the spectrum of user classifications on this forum. I cannot imagine anyone putting on airs because he's a "senior" member. A superficial examination of the classifications and the way they are applied should be enough to convince you that there are "newbie" level users here who have vast experience and knowledge and high-ranked users who do not. I hardly ever even take notice what user designation someone has, and I didn't realize that I was a "senior" until you pointed it out. As it turns out, I've been using and performing administrative and maintenance chores on computers for many hours a day (as an adjunct to my education and, later on, to my profession, archaeology) for about forty years. But I've only been using Windows since the advent of Windows 2000. So I'm both an old hand and a newbie. And I'm quite new here on this forum. This past half year is the first time in my life I've had time to spend personal time online.

I was trying to ascertain whether or not the method used for creating the partitions and their size might be implicated in your problems. You still haven't given enough explicit information for me to feel certain about HOW you partitioned and formatted the hard drives. In my mind explicit explanations are always preferred to the implication as to what has been, or has not been, done. Anyone can make a mistake.

If I assume that you did, indeed, boot from the setup CD and that you created those partitions and formatted them using the NT 4.0 setup procedure, then that would seem to implicate the CD itself. There are sources for obtaining the various versions of the NTFS.SYS file online if you can't install it from either your CD or the appropriate startup diskette. Microsoft has had the SP4 NTFS.SYS file available for download for use with NT 4.0 so that people could make use of the larger partition sizes it makes possible. Trying an alternate setup CD, if one is available, would be one way to determine if the problem involves the installation media itself. I guess it's possible that the NTFS.SYS file itself could be incompatible with the drives, but I can't really imagine that could be the case, considering the size and likely vintage of those drives.

It's also possible for a memory error or (less likely, I believe) a hard drive error to cause such issues during installation. When I see the same exact error crop up with respect to the viability of a file being copied from a setup CD at the same exact point in an installation process I tend to suspect media or RAM first, with possibility of a hard drive issue being more distant.

The above suggestions are made based solely upon my own experiences and some assumptions I've made about your situation. I think I'll just back out of the thread now because the only thing I can think of to do at this point is to ask more questions. I'll bid you adieu and hope that you'll get the issue resolved.

- prosaic