[mdlug] Windows repair tip - ntfsfix

[Ingles, Raymond]

I only support Windows for close family members, and as little as possible.
When I upgraded a laptop for my nephew, I put a Linux partition on there and
set it up pretty well.

 Unfortunately, one of the DIMMS I put in there turns out to have been bad.
I should have checked with memtest first, but I was rushed, my bad. After a
day, XP refused to boot for him, with a "STOP 0x00000024" error in ntfs.sys.
He was able to use Linux in the meantime, and it worked fine. He got the
laptop back to me and that's when I ran Memtest86 and found the reason. Well,
he can do with only 512MB until I can get the chip replaced. But, how to
restore XP?

 A bit of Googling on the error showed that it would be painful to try to
do it with Windows. Either putting the drive in a system that *would* boot
XP or using a Windows 2000 install disk, or other even more byzantine
procedures. Go ahead, Google for 'STOP 0x00000024 ntfs.sys' and see.

 Or... I could just boot up Ubuntu, install "ntfsprogs", and run ntfsfix.
Took maybe 5 seconds to run, and then XP booted up fine, ran a chkdsk, and
seems to be... as operational as XP ever was.

 Now, I'm reasonably sure there are other corrupted files on that disk, and
I've told him that the best thing to do is back up his stuff and reinstall
XP. But as I said, I support Windows as little as possible, so that's up to
him now.

 Sincerely,

 Ray Ingles                                                 (313) 227-2317

   "Engineering does not require science. Science helps a lot but people
 built perfectly good brick walls long before they knew why cement works."
                              - Alan Cox
The contents of this e-mail are intended for the named addressee only. It contains information that may be confidential. Unless you are the named addressee or an authorized designee, you may not copy or use it, or disclose it to anyone else. If you received it in error please notify us immediately and then destroy it.