On booting up my Windows XP computer the following message always appears “Checking file system on C. The type of file system is NTFS. One of your disks needs to be checked for consistency. You may cancel the disk check but it is strongly recommended that you continue. Windows will now check the disk”. The CHKDSK utility then verifies files, indexes and security descriptors, after which the following message appears “The file or directory \$Mft is corrupt or unreadable. Please run the Chkdsk utility”. Once this message has appeared I can use the computer normally, but I am concerned about this message since it consistently appears every time the computer is started. Additionally, I cannot find the \$Mft folder on the computer. Can you tell me how to fix this problem?

The message that appears regarding the \$Mft folder is claiming that this folder is damaged or there is a problem with the master file table on the NTFS partition. The master file table (MFT) stores information about every file and directory within your NTFS file system (which is the system used to store and organise files on the computer hard drive). If this has become damaged, it could also cause this error message.

From the research that I have completed on this matter the \$Mft directory on your NTFS volume is the master file table. This is potentially a real worry, as the MFT is the core of the NTFS file system and if that fails then it could compromise the data on your hard drive or make it inaccessible. Therefore, we need to treat this error fairly seriously and work towards a remedy before the problem gets worse and potentially compromises the data on the computer.

Before proceeding any further, it is possible that the steps we are undertaking to fix this problem may make it worse. Should this occur, there is a possibility that data may become corrupt or inaccessible. Therefore, you should make sure that you backup all important data you need to keep before attempting any remedial procedures. I suggest that you backup such data to an external hard drive (or like) as this will ease the process of restoration in the future, should this be needed.

Once you have a full backup of all data you need to keep, we can commence our attempts to fix the problem. To begin, we will try running CHKDSK through Windows to repair the installation. Go to the “Start” menu > “Run” and type “cmd” (without the quotes) and click OK. A command prompt window should appear. In this window type “chkdsk /f” (without the quotes) and press ENTER. This will start the CHKDSK utility scanning the computer hard drive for errors and fix any identified errors. Once this has completed restart the computer and check whether the problem continues.

If the problem continues after running the CHKDSK command within Windows we need to take some different action. It is possible that the error could not be fixed when running CHKDSK through Windows because the volume is currently in use and is the boot volume. To get around this problem you will need to boot from the Windows CD and then enter the Recovery Console. This is essentially a command prompt that runs from the Windows CD, allowing us to make modifications to the boot drive.

To commence this procedure insert the Windows XP CD into the CD drive on your computer and restart. You should see a message that says “Press any key to boot from CD…”. Press a key on the keyboard and the computer will commence booting from the Windows XP CD. If you don’t see this message, and the computer does not boot from the CD, then the boot device order may need to be modified in the computer BIOS setup. The boot device order specifies the order in which the computer will query devices for a bootable volume. For example, if the boot order is hard drive then CD drive it will check whether the hard drive is bootable first. As a Windows installation is found, the hard drive is determined to be bootable and it will boot that Windows installation from the hard drive. This is most likely why the computer is not booting from the Windows XP CD in the CD drive. Accordingly, you would need to change the boot order to CD drive and then hard drive, so the computer checks the CD drive for a bootable volume and only checks the hard drive if a bootable CD is not found. If you need to change the boot order then you will need to consult your computer manual for instructions.

Assuming that you have made it into the Windows Setup you should be presented with the setup welcome screen. On this screen press R to enter the Repair/Recovery Console. You may be prompted to select the Windows installation to recover (although if you only have one Windows installation you probably won’t be prompted, as it will assume that you wish to repair your one and only Windows installation). Type your administrator password when prompted (if you did not configure an administrator password leave this blank). You should now be presented with a command prompt, similar to the one presented when you ran CHKDSK through Windows. Type the command “chkdsk /r” and press ENTER. This will scan and fix errors and bad sectors detected on the hard drive. Once this has completed, remove the Windows XP CD from the CD drive and then restart the computer to check whether the problem continues.

Should you find the problem still continues after running the CHKDSK command through the Recovery Console I would suggest that you re-format your hard drive and reinstall Windows, as the fact that the master file table on the NTFS partition is reporting errors is cause for concern. Be aware, this process will be completely destructive so you must backup all data before continuing. As you should already have a backup of your data (if you heeded my warning previously to backup all your important data before attempting the procedures to fix the problem) I would suggest that you review the backed-up data again to double-check that all data you wish to keep has been backed-up.

After double-checking that you have backed-up any data you wish to keep, insert the Windows XP CD into the computer and then restart into the Windows XP setup. At the setup welcome screen press ENTER to commence an installation of Windows. During the process it will detect an existing Windows installation. Choose the option to ignore this existing installation and proceed with a fresh (new) installation of Windows. When you come to the partition installation portion make sure you re-format the partition upon which you will be installing Windows, as this is essential to ensure that the current NTFS file system is destroyed and a new NTFS file system is created (with a new, verified MFT). Once the reformat has completed, the installation of Windows will commence.