“Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt” error on startup
Today I was scheduled to repair Toshiba Satellite Pro M10-S405 laptop with a “software problem”. The customer complained that he is getting the following error right after he turns on his laptop.
ERROR
Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt:
System32\Drivers\ntfs.sys
I started the laptop and got the above mentioned error right away. Restarted it again and on startup a different file was missing:
System32\Drivers\pci.sys
If you search on the internet for these errors you will find a lot of tips how to fix it. Unfortunately, on most websites this error is mentioned only as a software problem. They say that you can fix it if you replace corrupted files from a Windows CD using a recovery console. I guess in some cases you can fix the problem by replacing corrupted files, but from my experience I know that these kinds of errors are very often caused by a faulty memory module.
I started testing the memory on the laptop with Memtest 86+ utility and the memory failed right away. The laptop had 2 memory sticks installed. I tried to eliminate a bad stick by removing and installing modules one by one into different slots on the system board. The same pattern occurred on startup:
- the laptop booted to Windows fine when only slot 1 was populated (tried both memory sticks)
- the laptop wouldn’t boot at all (there were no video) when only slot 2 was populated
- the laptop booted with a missing file error when both memory slots were populated
Unfortunately, it this case the error was caused by a defective memory slot on the system board, not just a bad memory stick. To fix the problem I had to replace the entire system board.
Conclusion: if you get a missing file error on startup and replacing the corrupted file doesn’t help, check the memory sticks on your laptop.
Entry Filed under: Everyday Laptop Repair
March 14th, 2006 at 11:10 pm
toshiba m30x-129 is not starting at all wheras i shut it down properly and without and faults.
March 24th, 2006 at 4:05 pm
my computer wont turn on…the battery and the ac adaptor is ok. bothe the battery indicator and dc in are color green. i need help. tokyo.
March 24th, 2006 at 4:11 pm
Hi there,
You say you computer will not turn on, but it is not enough to troubleshoot it. I can try to help you if I can, but I need a better description of the problem you have. Do you see anything on the screen? Do you hear any strange grinding sounds? Does your laptop make any beeps on startup? Do you see any LED activity? Does the hard drive spins?
March 30th, 2006 at 10:58 am
can only start toshiba laptop in safe mode; any other attempt it just sete at windows start up screen
March 30th, 2006 at 12:54 pm
Dave,
You can try to boot you laptop in Save mode and then use the system restore feature (Windows XP). Go to Start-All Programs-Accessories-System Tools-System Restore. Do you remember the date you were able to log in successfully? Try to revert the operating system back to that time.
April 4th, 2006 at 7:35 am
Hi,
I have exactly (!) the same problem. Because warranty is over, I bought new memory. As long as you only use the first memory slot, everything is fine. I think I will have to let them change the system board, too. How much was it?
Bjorn
April 4th, 2006 at 6:56 pm
I have the same problem as lynne
Acer travelmate 4500 the last few days I was experiencing the following problem the LCD was turning on and off for a short amount of time today the computer would not turn on I unplugged the battery and tried directly with the power cable I notice the system fan come on for a very short time and then turn off very quickly but the power button and the power indicator stayed on on the notebook
I have tried the following
replace the hard drive
I reset the memory modules
also prior to the completely shut down. I tested the system board and CPU with my bootable diagnostic hardware utility and it seem to be fine at the time. what can be causing this problem this is the first time I have never experienced this problem with my personal laptop unfortunately this laptop is not on the warranty anymore
I appreciate any help or advice thank you my e-mail is
April 10th, 2006 at 9:34 am
Hi
Saddly I have exactly the same problem. I bought new memory. As long as you only use the first memory slot, everything is fine.
A new motherboard costs $300!! forget it!!
Bye
April 13th, 2006 at 5:40 am
In the case that i can’t boot to window because missing some files of window soIf i restore the win xp, do my data in my laptop lose or not?
April 13th, 2006 at 6:52 am
Hi Neth,
When you restore the Windows XP operating system, your hard drive will be reformatted and you loose all your data on it. Before you run a restore CD you can connect the laptop hard drive to a desktop computer and back up/transfer all important data.
April 23rd, 2006 at 10:15 am
Hi, I have a Toshiba Satellite L25 (S1216) and a full cup of coffee was spilled into the keyboard and after a week of drying out, I got it to boot up and now the HD runs really slow at times (not all the time) and everytime I shut it down it hangs after the saving your settings screen and apon rebooting the system it always says…
“Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt:
System32\Drivers\ntosknrl.exe”
But if I never shut it off, it will always work. Is this a memory problem or do I now own an expensive paperweight?
Thanks,
Rich
April 23rd, 2006 at 11:12 pm
Hi Rich,
Recently I spilled some coffee on my keyboard (half a tee spoon) and I had to replace it.
That is amazing! Your laptop still works after a cup of coffee!
Liquid spills are very unpredictable. Any part could be damaged after the spill, even the part not affected by liquid directly. Yes it is possible that your laptop will work properly after you replace the memory module, but most likely the system board was damaged and causing the problem.
If you take the laptop to a laptop repair shop for a liquid spill diagnostics, most likely they will offer to you at least replacing the system board and the keyboard. It might be more expensive to fix the laptop then to buy a new one. A cup of coffee – that’s a lot!
April 25th, 2006 at 7:02 pm
I recently have had the problem of turning on my Toshiba Satellite, and it goes compltely black, then eventually it says that it could not be started because the WIndows was corrupted or missing.
May 3rd, 2006 at 6:59 pm
I was having similar weird problems after a booting a Toshiba Tecra A3 laptop. It would intermittently blue screen, freeze or restart. I suspected memory or a harddrive fault but these tested out fine. After a lot of poking about the ac adapter suddently died and refused to power the laptop. After replacing the AC adaptor all the problems dissapeared. Power is often enough the cause of the most obscure PC and laptop problems!
May 10th, 2006 at 1:01 am
I have Toshiba Satellite A25. my combo box (dvd r, cd rw) does not work and i wanted to replace it. after fixing it with compatible HP dvdr , it gives IDE#1 error.
My problem started with error message as system file corrupt/missing on boot up. Got message to insert Original set up CD into the drive and press r for recovery on the first screen. unfortunately my dvd drive would not read the CD requiring it to be replaced. With this old-original Dvdr it is only problem of reading my CD, whereas after replacing it with new combo, it gives IDE#1 error.
Without functioning of DVD drive, my Original recovery Cd of Toshiba is not read and hence problem continues.
Help and suggestion welcome.
thx
May 10th, 2006 at 7:32 pm
Today I had this problem with my computer. At first I thought that it was HDD problem - tried to use several tools for HDD. But failed to do anything. Then I searched on the internet and the first thing that I found was this comment. So, I took away the first memory…. and computer booted!!!! Thanks a lot to author! you are the MAN!
May 10th, 2006 at 8:51 pm
Haresh,
Most likely you cannot use the HP optical drive because it’s configured differently. Most laptop optical drives work in cable select mode (CSEL). This mode is set at factory through firmware. Some Toshiba laptops require the optical drive to be set to master-slave mode (M/S). If your laptop requires a M/S drive and you install a CSEL drive, then it might be not detected by the BIOS or you can get IDE#1 error on startup.
“System file is corrupt or missing” error message can be caused by a failing hard drive or a bad memory stick. Test the hard drive and try to replace the memory.
May 15th, 2006 at 6:31 pm
it is so nice to know that i am not the only one dumping liquids into a laptop! i spilled a bit of water (maybe more like a tbsp) onto my keyboard about 2 weeks ago. the only damage from what i can tell is the keyboard. what’s involved in repairing it or is it repairable?
May 15th, 2006 at 7:02 pm
Kris,
:)
I laughed at people who spilled a liquid on their laptop, until I did it myself.
1 tpsp of coffee and my keyboard is gone forever. Liquid spills are very unpredictable and liquid spill diagnostic is pretty expensive. If you are lucky, only the keyboard has to be replaced. If not, then you can face the system board replacement.
If after 2 weeks everything functions properly, except the keyboard, then most likely you are lucky and only the keyboard has to be replaced.
December 26th, 2006 at 4:05 pm
my laptop works fine. until i turned it off directly because it froze. when i turned it back on it says “windows could not start because a file is missing or corrupt:
c:/windows/system32/config/system. (it happened on the first day i bought my laptop. dang!!!!!) then i rebooted in safe mode and it said it again! in safe mode!
please help
December 31st, 2006 at 5:35 pm
Un_known,
I think you have a bad memory module. Test the memory.
March 26th, 2007 at 9:57 pm
Help! I spilled just a little bit of water on my toshiba L25 laptop keyboard when the power was on. It immediently turned itself off and won’t work at all now. Did this mean that it shorted out? Is there any possiblitly that it will work again after drying out?
March 30th, 2007 at 6:12 pm
hi.. i’m having the same problem with my M10 right now, but i don’t know where to try and remove the memory stick, anybody can give me some idea on where M10 memory stick is? Thanks lots!
March 30th, 2007 at 6:35 pm
i’ve found the way to remove! =D but unfortunately, it’s my slot that has got problem..sigh..
April 3rd, 2007 at 4:19 pm
i have a toshiba lap top that has always worked great, all the sudden it wont work at all and pops up this message that says system32\DRIVERS\sapnp.sys is missing
help!!!!!!!!!!!
April 20th, 2007 at 9:56 am
when i turn on my laptop i get a error message “we apologize for the inconvenience, but windows did not start successfully. a recent hardware or software change might have cause this” how do i fix this on my toshiba laptop. please help
April 24th, 2007 at 7:00 pm
leon,
Start the laptop and press F8 as soon as Toshiba logo appears. From the menu select Last Known Good Configuration and press Enter. It might help if you have a software related problem.
June 15th, 2007 at 7:01 pm
Okay I don’t know about my memory drives, I haven’t checked those yet but before I do, I would like to know how to start in safe mode, I don’t see that option.
When I turn on my laptop, I get the Toshiba logo screen, then it goes black and I get the “Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt:
System32\Drivers\Ntfs.sys” message. However, occasionally it’s a different driver (isa…something.sys) missing.
My laptop is a Toshiba Satelite A65-S126 System Unit
June 17th, 2007 at 10:40 pm
Randall,
You can press F8 key as soon as Toshiba logo appears on the screen. On a working laptop it should take you to the screen with boot options.
BTW, in this post I covered some common problems with a Satellite A60 or A65 notebooks.
August 1st, 2007 at 1:09 pm
when I turn on my computer the system turns on with the toshiba logo and on the bottom of screen it says
Press(F2) to enter setup,(F12) to enter multiboot selection menu
its a toshiba satellite L35 the fan comes on the hard drive light comes on for a brief second..and then the only light on is the power light ..when I press F2 it says entering setup please wait and gets stuck and only power light is on..someone mentioned flashing the memory or bios
August 1st, 2007 at 10:02 pm
Anthony Hartwell,
It doesn’t sound good. If the laptop cannot enter the setup menu, there could be a problem with the motherboard or BIOS.
Reflashing the BIOS is a good idea, but I’m not sure if it’s going to work. You mentioned that the laptop gets stuck when you press F2, so it might stuck when you press F12. But it worth trying. In order to reflash the BIOS you’ll have to create a bootable floppy diskette (use any other working computer) and then boot the laptop from this floppy using an external USB floppy drive.
Reseating or replacing the memory module sounds like a good idea too. Try moving the memory module form one slot to another. Try replacing it with a known good stick.
Also, you cat try this. Sometimes laptops get stuck because of a faulty hard drive. Try removing the hard drive and entering the setup menu when the hard drive is removed. Can you? If you can, apparently you have a faulty hard drive (or bad controller on the motherboard - not very likely).