Boot up problem. (missing sys file)

[Induna]

I don't know if anyone can help me with this but I'll give it a go.

A friend gave me his hard drive to look at as he told me when he boots up (Win ME is installed on it), when it gets to the Windows splash screen it hangs.

I used F8 on boot-up and did the 'step by step confirmation' and found that the reason the system hangs is because of a missing or corrupted sys file: IFSHLP.SYS driver...

And when I hit safe mode it says Windows is bypassing your startup files. And also says C:\system\VMM32.VXD is corrupted or missing.

I used a Win98 startup disk and tried to transfer the SYS file over to the C: but I get a DATA ERROR READING DRIVE C message.

I can't use scandisk either.

It seems to me that a SYS file is corrupted and I need to transfer a new file onto the C: but I can't. I even tried the EXT command to get the SYS file from the CD ROM drive but I get an error message saying unable to open file f:\null

Can anybody give me any advice? I only want to do a format as an absolute last option. Thanks.

[Etnies]

Ive just got a similar problem to this, i installed piolet and happened to intall mcafee as well. I didnt want this so uninstalled it, i then tried to get on the internet but it said couldnt find my network connection so i restarted my computer and got a few error messages about cant find sys file, then it rebooted to a black screen, i tried rebooting again and got the same problem.

i put the ms xp disc in and tried to correct the error, it however created more.

now if i restart my computer it says
---------------------------------------------------------------
problem has been detected and windows has shut down to prevent damage.
-----------------------------------------------------------------

it then tells me to disable all my antivirus engines, and backup utitlities and run chkdsk, which i cant do as Im stuck on the blue screen that advises me of the above problem.

I cant even reformat my computer as it wont load up in safe mode either,

any possible ideas?

[notbob]

both of you

install the drives in question as slaves

if possible, transfer the system files you need

if not save as much of your personal data as possible and

boot from a floppy

format c:

[stuperfied]

What was he doing prior to the incident and vmm32.vxd is an archive which contains .vxd files and it contains different .vxd files for every system it's installed on this is why i'm not supprised that his hard drive won't work in your computer.

If he has made major or too many alterations to hardware or just cut power too many times without shutting down first this problem can occure but that .vxd problem is probably just from putting his hdd into your computer. Here is a web site which can explain it in more detail http://www.infinisource.com/techfiles/vmm32.html.

[stuperfied]

once you fix that .vxd error which can probably be done by getting yourself a winme boot disk instead of that 98 'cough' crap 'cough' you should be able to access that drive then instead of doing a format just boot to dos and re-install over the top of the existing installation which should fix your ifshlp.sys problem but all of this should be done in HIS computer not yours.

[notbob]

Originally posted by stuperfied
getting yourself a winme boot disk instead of that 98 'cough' crap 'cough'

there is almost no difference between boot disks, much less 98 and me

boot disks contain all the dos files you need--format, fdisk,scanreg and scandisk

everything else is fluff

[stuperfied]

Thanx notbob but ever heard of sarcasm.
Yes they are almost the same and it shouldn't make a difference but dosn't the me one create a virtual drive which means that the computer will still boot reguardless of if the hdd is accessable or not. I'm not sure if winme has the virtual disk (RAM Drive) support.

[notbob]

98 has a ramdrive

95 might even

me adds support for system restore functions

[Etnies]

Thanks for the advice, however Ive just read this after going out and buying a new hard drive (60gb) which i needed anyway as my old one was smaller.

Im not sure what caused the original error, but when I put thew win xp disc in and asked it to correct the error I didnt realize at the time but the disc was not complete and had missing cab files.

I have just noticed this as I tried to install xp on my fesh drive and got exactly the same errors, i am now in need of help again

I formatted the drive into ntfs, but i also have a windows 98 recovery disc that came with my pc. i can boot from this but it has given me the option

'do i want to enable large disk sypport Y/N?

if i choose either optio will this conflict with ntfs, or should i get a full version of xp and try installing again?

[notbob]

say yes, otherwise it will format 2.2GB and nothing else

that question is a throwback to win 95, when all hdd's had to be broken into 2.2 GB partitions (6GB=c:, d: ane e: drives)

answering yes to that question can't hurt anything

[Etnies]

thanks notbob

after typing fdisk, and answering yes to the large file question I attempted to run the recover program that was located on the cd, however I think recovery cd's just tell your pc to unpack the operating system that is already on your hard drive (is this correct?) but as I am now using a new hard drive Im unable to recover anything,

So ive decided to get a new OS from a er...a very legitmate source ..... not p2p at all... lol

hopefully in about 4 hours i should be fixed, then in about 2 weeks (at 24 hours a day) I should have all the mp3's ive just lost.

[Induna]

Thanks for the replies. (You know it was only banter before, don't you bob ;))

Anyway, the first thing I did was take a spare hard drive round to his house and used that as a master and his a slave, so I could access his drive that way. what happened was my drive froze in exactly the same place as if his drive was the master. (it booted up fine without his drive attached) Obviously it wouldn't let my drive boot up because of this error on his drive, which surprised me. I even tried it on seperate IDE channels. That's why I'm asking for help.

So, I took the drive out of his computer and hooked up to mine and tried again, no luck. In the boot process it gets to verify DMI pool... like it normally should but this takes over a minute, then I get the winME splash screen, then it hangs. I just can't see a way of getting these system files onto his drive.

Bob was right about the startup disks, there very little difference. Win98 disk doesn't have the scanreg tool though, which could be useful, if only i can get access to this drive. It's like a locked house, I just need to find a way in.

One of you suggested I could reinstall ME on top his drive without affecting his files. This looks like the only option left, guess I'll have to try that.

Btw stuperfied, that link doesn't work.

[Induna]

Oh hI forgot to say, he just instaled a brand new game on his P.C, the new Japanese 11 football game and was downloading a patch, but he said this other thing was loading up, some music program. Then he told me athe tool for adding this patch didn't work so he downloaded a new one. Too be honest he wasn't making much sense. He said it went into safe mode, but he must have done something because it won't even do that now. He's corrupted some important startup file by the sounds of it.

[Krell]

Induna

nonbob is correct, especially when it comes to hardware configurations. My opinion is it would have been better to take HIS drive, and put on YOUR system, as a slave. Delete his Windows directory, and Program files, and root files. Scandisk, Defrag, then reinstall Windows on HIS machine. (check free space)

What you have then is all of his old files, and a clean install. Then he gets to muck it up allover again. fun fun fun

[Induna]

I've already tried that:

Quote: So, I took the drive out of his computer and hooked up to mine and tried again, no luck.

All that happens is my (good) drive hangs just like his. It's as though something on his drive prevents my drive from booting correctly. Normally if the slave isn't recognised the Master will boot up but the slave won't be seen. In this scenario the slave prevents the master from booting up. It's bloody frustrating!

I knew when we tried this at his house earlier today I was doubtful I could save his files.