What better time to crash than during ChristmasHack?
I started up my computer two hours ago to get on what was suppose to be my most intense day of coding, only to receive this message during the startup process:
Windows could not start becuase the following file is missing
or corrupt:
System32\Drivers\Ntfs.sys
You can attempt to repair this file by starting Windows Setup
using the original Setup CD-ROM.
Select 'r' at the first screen to start repair.
So I put in the XP CD and started the Recovery Console. After that, the only thing I knew to do was:
chkdsk /r
That took an hour and it said it "found and fixed problems". When I started back up, got the same message as quoted above. Any ideas?
I'm feeling knots in my stomach because the "ntfs.sys" is the file in question...
I always keep a copy of knoppix around so I can continue coding until I feel like fixing problems like that...
try this: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;822800
edit
this one looks more helpful: http://xphelpandsupport.mvps.org/how_do_i_rectify_a_missing_or_co.htm
You can attempt to repair this file by starting Windows Setup
using the original Setup CD-ROM.
Select 'r' at the first screen to start repair.
Do that. But not at the first screen! 
Start from the CD, select "install", when it says that it has found an existing installation of WinXP, select it and press "R".
This will replace your system files with the system files from the CD. Maybe you have to reinstall some of your drivers when they are replaced with the original Microsoft ones (e.g. I had to reinstall my ForceWare driver when I did it last time), but your installed programs, etc. will persist the "repair install".
this one looks more helpful:
And it was! Looks like I can finally get back to coding...perhaps I'll make a backup first.