Registered: Feb 2000
Location:
Posts: 23

On bootup I get a message saying that my FAT is corrupt. Does anyone know of any software that I can use to fix my File Allocation Table. I will need something that can work without starting windows since I can't boot up.

Registered: Apr 2000
Location: St Petersburg Fla
Posts: 224

Bummer!

Try Norton SystemWorks. Worthwhile investment to keep a PC tuned up. Windows allows a lot of garbage to accumulate in the registry and elsewhere.
There is a copy of the FAT table stored on disk, so utilities like Norton can possibly recover it.

Registered: Feb 2000
Location:
Posts: 23

Will this help me out now that I can't boot to windows? i figured on purchasing this but I didn't think it would help me out until I was able to get the computer to boot up.

Registered: Oct 2000
Location: Aberdeen, SD
Posts: 2531

I hate Norton. It causes more system crashes than it help. It's because it gets in and monitors damn near everything. When a program is shut down (as an example), Windows wants it shut down, but Norton steps in first and runs its virus software, updates its resource monitors, etc. etc. etc.; which Windows was expecting. The fact that they include Crash Guard makes me laugh. You wouldn't need it if you didn't have Norton installed. Anyway, if you bought it already, just run it off the cd. You get all of the functionality with none of the pain.

As to your FAT problem, when ScanDisk is running at boot-up, save changes and skip undo throughout the entire thing. Most likely, your FAT is reading the file sizes incorrectly, so ScanDisk will see that there is information on blocks that are not associated with a file. When you save changes, you will get files in your root directory called file0001.chk, file0002.chk, etc. They are often pieces of temp files and/or cancelled print jobs. If you keep getting the warning, you have serious troubles.

__________________
-Joshua
Abortion: Darwinism at its finest.

Registered: Oct 2000
Location: Aberdeen, SD
Posts: 2531

You do have a start-up disk, right? If not, press F8 when booting up and choose safe-mode. If that doesn't work, you need to find a boot-up disk from somewhere. You need to get to somewhere where you can run ScanDisk.

__________________
-Joshua
Abortion: Darwinism at its finest.

Registered: Aug 2000
Location: Alive and well on VisorCentral.com
Posts: 861

You can run Norton off the CD without need to install anything, provided that is you can access your CD rom drive.

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"One of the most important things you learn from the internet is that there is no �them� out there. It�s just an awful lot of �us�." -- Douglas Adams

Registered: Feb 2000
Location:
Posts: 23

Thanks everybody

Registered: Apr 2000
Location: St Petersburg Fla
Posts: 224

Spinrite

Forgot to mention Steve Gibson's utility from
www.grc.com
I used it many years ago to recover data from a drive that went south.
Not cheap at $89, but worth every penny if your data is important to you.
Works only in DOS FAT and written in assembler.
Especially useful if you are considering using a drive to create a multi-boot system.