Start Up problem

conductor4004 · 13th February 2003

I am trying to help a friend in a rural area of another state (via cell phone).

After reaching the final Windows (boot up) screen, the screen then goes blue. Text message says .... If this is the first time you have reached this screen, RESTART.

The same message displays after restart.

I suggested using the Start-Up Disks. The PC read the first disk but would not read the second disk.

After repeated trys (with no success) the currently used optical mouse was exchanged for a conventional mouse. The PC then read the Start Up Disks.

New message: FT.SYS file is (probably?) corrupted.

"probably" may be my (phone) memory and not Microsoft's text

Will the Emergency Repair Disk (ERD) repair the corrupted file?
Is this the next logical step?

And the $64 question ...... Is ERD part of the Start Up Disk set?
Where do I/we find ERD?

Thanks much !!! Andy

conductor4004 · 13th February 2003

Ooops, the corrupted file is FTDISK.SYS .... (Driver folder, system32 folder)

Newt · 14th February 2003

ERD - machine specific and you must have created one on a floppy.

But all is not lost. FTDisk service probably isn't necessary for the PC to boot up. Try having her boot in Safe Mode and then start~run~sfc /scannow and OK. Probably need the install CD. The sfc scan should locate any bad system files and replace them.

If you get the same error booting to safe mode, try booting from the CD to the Recovery Console and disabling ftdisk service then try the above again.

If not, post back for other things to try.

conductor4004 · 14th February 2003

Hi Newt,

Thanks for the help! Trying Safe Mode, I still got the blue screen. Going to the Recovery Console and disabling the offending file Ftdisk.sys did the trick.

For the benefit of the less experienced .... I tried to disable Ftdisk.sys a coupla' times, until I realized the DISABLE command format did not specify a (whole) file name .... just the "Ftdisk" .... no file extension.

I also went around the loop a coupla' times ..... invoking Recovery Console and exiting to RESTART (after I disabled Ftdisk), until I recognized that the "Welcome to Startup" window just wanted an ENTER, to continue to Load/Install the OS ..... rather than the R for REPAIR that I had been entering. .................. A case of being too close to the problem ......... LOL .... couldn't see the forest for the trees!

I'm very pleased that her PC is up running and healthy again. I'm even more pleased that I learned a bit more about OS's. Thank you, so much!!!

andy

Newt · 15th February 2003

conductor4004 - excellent news and thanks for posting back.

And for offering some good amplification I should have though to put in myself.

At this point, sfc /scannow would probably take care of the bad file but if the PC is running normal IDE drives, that service won't be needed so leave it disabled even if you repair the file(s).

And FWIW, I'd do the file repair since there may be other stuff that got dinged by whatever caused the problem you saw.