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.
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October 23rd, 2011 at 9:15 am
@ Deja,
I cannot tell because I don’t know what’s wrong with the laptop.
October 21st, 2011 at 6:06 pm
About how much money will it take to bring it to the shop and fix ?
April 29th, 2011 at 8:09 am
Anita,
This could be hard drive related failure.
1. Take a look at the laptop BIOS setup menu. Can you see the hard drive detected in the BIOS?
2. Listen for the hard drive sounds very closely when the laptop starts. Do you hear any unusual noises: clicking, grinding noise, etc…?
3. If the hard drive detected in the BIOS and spins normally, maybe it’s not making good connection with the motherboard. Try reconnecting the hard drive. Simply remove it from the laptop and install back in place. Test again.
April 26th, 2011 at 5:45 pm
My son has a Toshiba Satilite,and when you turn it on the toshiba logo will come on and do its thing..then it goes to nothing,.a black screen with a little curser in the left hand top corner….can anyone tell me how I could fix this,I’m usually pretty good about finding out the problem and fixing it…but this is driveing me crazy..any help would be greatly appreciated,Thanks in advance..Anita
June 13th, 2010 at 8:55 pm
Every time I got this error it was caused by Bad Memory Modules!
It also happens with desktop PCs. I Always use Memtest 86+ when facing this kind of problem prior to recover files.
Thank you for all the good information I got from you!!!
February 27th, 2010 at 11:28 am
j vargas,
It’s hard to tell what’s going on without testing the laptop. Could be bad memory module or corrupted software.
Here’s how you can recover personal information from the hard drive.
1. Remove the hard drive from the laptop.
2. Purchase an external USB enclosure for notebook hard drives. Make sure the purchase the correct type. It’s either SATA hard drive or IDE hard drive. Here’s the difference:
http://www.laptopparts101.com/hard-drive/
3. Install your hard drive into the enclosure and connect this enclosure to another working computer.
The external hard dive will be recognized automatically and you can access it as a regular hard drive through My Computer.
More detailed instructions here:
http://www.laptoprepair101.com.....enclosure/
After all data is backed up, install the hard drive back into the laptop and try reinstalling software from the recovery process. If there is nothing wrong with laptop hardware, it should fix your problem.
February 27th, 2010 at 10:25 am
window could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt:
\windows\system32\config\system
We don’t know what to do.. this message appears when we turn the computer on.can you help us.will we be able to recover our information
December 3rd, 2009 at 4:27 am
I have a Compaq nc8000 which fails to load Windows, saying that a Windows file is corrupt or missing. In my case it is c:/windows/system32/config/system, and it is the same file every time I attempt to boot.
I have taken out the battery, hard drive and memory and replaced them one by one, with no change to the message. The BIOS seems fine, and no combination of memory sticks/slots seems to help, so I am left thinking it is a simple hard drive problem.
I would like to be able to check this but I have no external enclosure that takes a laptop drive. I have tried the disk check that the BIOS offers, and it doesn’t report any problem, but I would like to check it out using a boot disk with some more informative tools.
Unfortunately, I can’t persuade it to boot off either of two boot CDs I have made, both of which work fine on my desktop. I have checked the BIOS settings, and it should be booting from the optical drive first etc, but I just get the same problem as if I had no CD in there. I know that in the past it would fail to boot if I had a USB stick in (trying to find an OS on the USB), but now it does not do that either: could it be oblivious to anything but the hard drive?
Alternatively, is it likely that in this state the laptop will refuse to look at anything other than the official restore CD? I know I tossed this out when we moved house recently (won’t need that I thought…!), so any alternative to having to find a replacement would be great.
September 22nd, 2009 at 11:02 am
mark,
Does it give you any error message before rebooting?
First of all, I would check memory. It’s possible that one of the memory modules is bad. Try removing memory modules one by one, and test the laptop with only one module installed.
By the way, here’s how you can save files from the hard drive.
September 21st, 2009 at 1:28 am
I have a problem regarding about my laptop the brand is acer. The problem with it it keeps rebooting itself. And before that it shows a black screen with some options like: last known good configuration acer safe mode I clicked on last good configuration but nothing it just rebooted again. This laptop is my for my work and I have a big project.
Please tell me what to do.
Thanks
Mark.