# Smart Failure on Hard drive won't boot up



## Cookie tlc (Nov 24, 2006)

I have a laptop that will not boot I get an error that says the SMART failure on the hard drive. Back up data and replace hard drive. 

Small problem , I can not get into the computer to back up the data. Says to press F1 to continue then I have choices to start in Safe Mode ect. I tried Safe mode and get and error that the System32\drivers\Ntfs.sys is missing or corrupt. Insert Window start up disk and press r for recovery 

I have tried this but nothing works The laptop is a Toshiba Satellite I was running Windows XP on it 

Any ideas??? or is it toast any help would be greatly appreciated 

Thanks 
Cookie


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## TheOutcaste (Aug 8, 2007)

Cookie tlc said:


> ...SMART failure on the hard drive...


Time for a new hard drive



Cookie tlc said:


> ...I tried Safe mode and get and error that the System32\drivers\Ntfs.sys is missing or corrupt. Insert Window start up disk and press r for recovery
> 
> I have tried this but nothing works...


Does this mean you were unable to boot from the CD, or unable to get into the recovery console? Or, did you try to do a repair installation of WinXP and you still an error of some kind?

First step I would do is to get into the recovery console and run chkdsk /r. That should at least mark any bad sectors and might be able to recover the damaged Ntfs.sys file. If not, you can extract the missing file(s) from the CD but if it's more than one or two that are missing/damaged, a repair install of windows might be easier.

To get to the recovery console from the XP CD:

http://pcsupport.about.com/od/fixtheproblem/ss/rconsole.htm

If you can't get into the recovery console you'll need to post exactly which step it fails on, and any error messages you get.

That might let you get into windows long enough to back up your data. If not, you may be able to access your data by connecting the laptop drive to a desktop (google "laptop drive adapter", $2-$5 plus shipping) and copying the data that way -- if you go this route you will have to take ownership of the files to be able to access them:

http://www.winxptutor.com/ownership.htm

HTH

Jerry


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## Cookie tlc (Nov 24, 2006)

I can get to the recovery console and am running chkdsk It seems to be stuck on 12% completed How long should this take to run??


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## TheOutcaste (Aug 8, 2007)

Chkdsk can take several hours to complete depending on size of drive, speed of system, and how many errors it finds, but you should see some progress. If it's stuck on the same percentage for more than 10-15 minutes, it's probably frozen.

Try hitting CTRL+C. Give it 2-3 minutes, if it doesn't return you to the prompt, you'll have to power off. Boot back into the Recovery Console and try again. I had one drive that froze up 3 times at different percentages before it finally finished on the 4th try, and I was able to reboot into windows and recover my files.

HTH

Jerry


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## Cookie tlc (Nov 24, 2006)

thanks for the insight and the way to get out of the chkdsk so far I have been letting in run it is at 25% currently so I guess it is just way slow. Not really sure what is on this laptop, since it is not mine It belongs to a co-worker who knows less than I do about computers 

Thanks for the help so far I will let you know how things progess


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## TheOutcaste (Aug 8, 2007)

well, at least it's progressing. I've had it take 8 hours to finish on a 136 GB drive, but that was a very slow computer, and that was done by forcing a check in windows and rebooting, which I think allows it to use the protected mode drivers. From the Recovery Console, it may only be able to access the drive via the BIOS which can be much much slower. Hopefully this will be able to recover the corrupted file and let you boot and get to the data before the drive dies completely.

They will definitely want to replace the drive. Once SMART detects it's failing, it can die completely at any time.

I'll keep my fingers crossed for ya.

Jerry


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## Cookie tlc (Nov 24, 2006)

Okay so it stopped at 25% and now says that the volume appears to contain one or more unrecoverable problems

What now besides a burial and a small service for the immediate family?


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## TheOutcaste (Aug 8, 2007)

You could try running chkdsk again -- might do nothing other than take up more time. I'd go ahead and just try rebooting -- it may have fixed enough errors to let it boot.

If it still gives the error for ntfs.sys, you can try extracting the file from the cd and replacing it -- that might let it boot up, or might just give you the name of the next file that is corrupt. Been awhile since I've done that, so would have to track down the exact procedure, and find the cab file it's in.

Worst comes to worst, you may be able to hook it to a desktop and recover the data files that way as I outlined earlier.

Try restarting first and let us know what happens


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## Cookie tlc (Nov 24, 2006)

Okay Restated laptop Got the same smart failure predicted error message. Tried to start Windows in Safe Mode This time it does not give the the error that the system32/drivers/nfts.sys is missing or corrupt It just loops me back to the Smart Failure predicted

Any suggestions?? Should I be digging out my black arm band ?


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## TheOutcaste (Aug 8, 2007)

Sounds like it's time for the arm band. You could try running chkdsk again, but I wouldn't hold my breath. You could also try booting to Last Known Good Configuration. If one of the main registry files is corrupted, it may be able to load a previous version.

If there is data on the drive your co-worker really needs I'd suggest getting the adapter so you can hook the drive up to a desktop -- the adapters aren't expensive. Hopefully you the SMART failure won't prevent you from accessing it that way.

In order to use the recovery console to copy files off of the hard drive onto removable media (ie floppy or CD), you have to have first enabled the Set command from within windows. Another one of those things you have to setup before you need it, but usually don't know about it until you DO need it. If there is a way to enable that from within the console, I haven't found it yet.

I don't know if you could set the policy on a different computer, then burn the security files to a CD and copy them over. I would expect there to be checks to prevent that kind of thing, otherwise the security policies wouldn't be much use. Maybe someone else has some idea on this.

Jerry

Just for future reference, here's a couple of microsoft articles about the recovery console:

Description of the Windows XP Recovery Console

Description of the SET Command in Recovery Console


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## Cookie tlc (Nov 24, 2006)

Thanks so much I have ordered an adapter ( since where I live does not have any) Will wait to see if I can get in that way 

All I can say is that I am glad it is not my laptop.... 

Thanks again for all of the insight I sure learned a few things 

Cookie tlc


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## Cookie tlc (Nov 24, 2006)

okay I got a laptop drive adapter but I can not seem to get it contected to the desk top It says that it has been conected. But there is no drive assigned. thought that the was pretty straight forward but guess not. Any suggestions??


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## TheOutcaste (Aug 8, 2007)

With a working drive it usually is just plug and play. But as SMART has already detected a problem, depending on just what is wrong with the drive you may have to use some sort of recovery tool to access the data.

Still some things to double check:
Is it being detected by the BIOS when you boot the system? If not, make sure it's jumpered correctly as either master/slave/cable select
Where does it say it's connected? BIOS, or in Disk Management? (Right Click My Computer | Manage)
If it displays there, what does it show for status:
Foreign (shouldn't show this as dynamic drives aren't supported on laptops)
Not Initialized
Offline
Online
Online (Errors)
Unreadable

Do you mean no drive *letter* is assigned? Windows may not assign a drive letter depending on the status. You might be able to assign a letter (right click, chose Change Drive Letter and Paths), but Windows may not allow that depending on the status.

Check Elvandil's post (#2) in this thread. He has links to a lot of different recovery tools


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## Cookie tlc (Nov 24, 2006)

When I plug in the USB part of the Adapter it goes thru the found new hardware, found new Mass Storage, your new hardware is ready to use. It then says per the limited instructions that came with the adapter, to go to " My Computer" and there should be a new disk drive with a letter assigned. well is is not there. I can not see where to access this drive I have tried it on two other computers with the same result. So really not sure what else there is to do


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## TheOutcaste (Aug 8, 2007)

click on Start | Run, type compmgmt.msc and press enter
Click on Disk Management. Click on View | Bottom-> and make sure Graphical View is checked. Looking at the Graphical View on the bottom right portion of the window, if your desktop only has one hard drive, the desktop drive will show up as Disk 0 and the laptop drive should be disk 1. You can look in here before you plug in the external and should be able to see the drive get added. You may have to click Action | Rescan Disks
If it's working correctly, it would be listed like this:
*Disk 1*
Basic
_(size)_
Online

If it shows online, try right clicking on the graphic of the drive and chose Change Drive Letter and Paths... then assign it a drive letter.

If it shows something other than Online please post what the status is. If it doesn't show up at all (make sure you try Rescan Disks) you may have to connect the drive directly to your desktop IDE controller instead of using an external USB enclosure (you'll have to make sure the Master/Slave jumpers are set correctly if it will be sharing a controller with another drive).

If it still doesn't show up even when connected directly to the desktop IDE controller there may be nothing else you can do. Some of the recovery software listed in Elvandil's post I referenced earlier may be able to see the drive, but usually windows would at least see that something was there.

Jerry


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