Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2018 January 31

= January 31 =

Laptop
I have a sony Laptop My problem when I turn my laptop on it will say you have a NTFS error and it say Don't turn your computer off then the screen turn blue then it shut down. Than you can't do any thing Please help me — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2003:C1:13DB:93B5:88A3:BEED:205B:4FE2 (talk) 18:51, 31 January 2018 (UTC)


 * NTFS is the file system (almost certainly on your hard drive), and a fault there is preventing your operating system (windows?) from loading. The cause is probably a faulty sector on the hard drive.  It might still be possible to boot your laptop from a CD or from a memory stick.  Sometimes hard drive problems are temporary, but often it means that you will need to replace your hard drive.  Do you have a backup of all important data?  If so, then it might be possible to reformat the hard drive and reinstall the operating system.  If you have no backup then you have to decide whether it is worth paying for data recovery (or some software might attempt this for you?).  Just a remote possibility is that the read head is slightly loose and turning the laptop upside down or on its side might enable the head to read the important sectors.  It's perhaps worth a try, but not likely to cure the problem.   Dbfirs  20:38, 31 January 2018 (UTC)


 * When you see the Blue Screen of Death, don't panic. There's often a solution. NTFS errors can usually be repaired. You need to boot from another device besides your hard disk (go into set up during boot, and designate a new bootup order). Then you need to use disk repair software. On another machine, Google the operating system name along with "NTFS error". Include the exact wording of the error message. "Fix boot failure" is another search term you can try. During your trouble shooting process, whatever you do, if anything asks you to reformat your hard disk (Y/N?)... don't!   The Transhumanist 01:29, 1 February 2018 (UTC)


 * Yes, my reformatting suggestion would only be a last resort. The Transhumanists's suggestion of fixing NTFS errors should be your first procedure if you can boot your computer from CD or USB thumb drive, or if your laptop will restart in safe mode.  There are some suggestions here.  Sony have a recovery procedure but it varies according to the model.     Db<i style="color: #4fc;">f</i><i style="color: #6f6;">i</i><i style="color: #4e4;">r</i><i style="color: #4a4">s</i>  09:13, 1 February 2018 (UTC)
 * If your laptop was made in the past few years, you may have to disable Safe Boot in order to boot from something other than the hard drive. The way to do this varies from one computer to another, but it is usually done in the CMOS setup, which is where you'd be changing the boot order anyway. Googling "Sony laptop disable safe boot" should turn up more specific instructions.OldTimeNESter (talk) 14:30, 4 February 2018 (UTC)