Recovering Windows Xp When It Fails To Boot When You Convert From Fat To Ntfs

A file system defines the mechanism to store and organize computer files and their data in a computer system. Two basic types of file systems are used in the Windows system, FAT and NTFS. Of these, the NTFS file system is considered more beneficiary for the system as it is more secure, performs file compression, encrypts the files, etc.

That is the reasons more and more users are shifting from FAT to NTFS. However, sometimes when you perform the conversion the Windows system is unable to boot. In such situations, you should use appropriate methods to resolve the issue. However, if you are unable to sort the issue then you should use a third-party windows hard drive recovery software to do the needful for you.

Consider a scenario wherein you have FAT 32 file system in your Windows XP system. You want to convert the active partition from FAT 32 to NTFS using the 'convert drive: /fs:ntfs command'. However, when you perform this operation and restart the system, it is unable to boot. An error message is displayed, that is:

“Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt: System32\Drivers\Ntfs.sys”

Cause:

The root cause of this error message is that the Ntfs.sys file has either corrupted or gone missing while you converted the file system from FAT 32 to NTFS.

Resolution:

To resolve this error message, you should perform the following steps:

Boot the system using the Windows XP CD ROM.

Enter the Recovery Console and press R to start the repair process.

Type the following commands and press Enter after each command:

cd \windows\system32\drivers

ren ntfs.sys ntfs.old

The ntfs.sys file will be renamed if it is corrupt. However, if it is not there it means that it is missing.

Type the following command and press Enter.

copy X:\i386\ntfs.sys drive:\windows\system32\drivers [Where X=CD-ROM Drive]

Enter quit, and press Enter to exit the Recovery Console.

Restart the system. The system should boot properly now.

However, if you are still not able to access the data then you should use a third-party hard drive recovery software to do the needful. Such read-only tools are able to recover hard drive using fast yet sophisticated scanning algorithms.

Stellar Phoenix Windows Data Recovery is a hard drive recovery software that enables you to recover lost, deleted, or formatted data from both FAT and NTFS file systems. It is capable of recovering more than 185 different file types from various storage media such as hard disks, external hard drives, USB flash drives, memory cards, etc.

This Windows hard drive recovery software is capable of recovering deleted emails from Outlook Express and MS Outlook. It is compatible with Windows 7, Vista, Server 2003, XP, and Server 2000.