# Windows XP PRO error after restore



## Da iLLeZt TL973 (Sep 27, 2007)

whats up guys after i restored my system state, C: drive and all that stuff i was told to reboot the PC, after reboot i got this error

I activate System Restore and it all goes smoothly until, as the computer is starting back up I get

"Windows is unable to start as the following file is either missing or corrupt;
system32\DRIVERS\nvata.sys

You can attept to repair this file by using Windows Set Up using the original SET-UP CD ROM.
Press 'r' at the first screen to begin the repair."

I attempted to repair it but im not sure what command exactly to use or what i should even do now.....can someone please help me??

my system specs can viewed over in the side panel


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## Da iLLeZt TL973 (Sep 29, 2007)

bump......anyone?


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## Exeodus (Sep 29, 2007)

Unfortunately, System Restore doesn't always work so well.  The only way to properly fix this is issue is to do a fresh install of windows.


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## AsRock (Sep 29, 2007)

Does windows still boot or just reboots again or even a BSOD  ?.

Thats a nvidia file by the looks of it.  Any chance you can get it boot into safe mode ?. Or just reinstall the OS as new ?.

Problem is likley the Motherboard drivers partly in need when the system is booting.

IF you can get away with it reinstall the OS as new but not format it IF you have stuff on that drive that you want.


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## Da iLLeZt TL973 (Sep 30, 2007)

AsRock said:


> Does windows still boot or just reboots again or even a BSOD  ?.
> 
> Thats a nvidia file by the looks of it.  Any chance you can get it boot into safe mode ?. Or just reinstall the OS as new ?.
> 
> ...



it will not boot into windows fully but i can get into safe mode i was thinking about installing a fresh copy of XP and run the restore but after restore instead of rebooting i will install the drivers and then reboot the pc

thanks for your help i appreciate it


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## AsRock (Sep 30, 2007)

Da iLLeZt TL973 said:


> it will not boot into windows fully but i can get into safe mode i was thinking about installing a fresh copy of XP and run the restore but after restore instead of rebooting i will install the drivers and then reboot the pc
> 
> thanks for your help i appreciate it




You could try installing nvidia drivers while in safe mode.  don't think it work but what the hell lol.  Worth a try ?..


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## panchoman (Sep 30, 2007)

would repair the system from the cd, it'll basically rewrite your system files while everything stays intact, you'll probably end up reinstalling software and drivers..


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## Rainmann420 (Sep 30, 2007)

AsRock said:


> You could try installing nvidia drivers while in safe mode.  don't think it work but what the hell lol.  Worth a try ?..



If you do a Google search for nvata.sys, you will see that this is a common problem with this Nvidia driver. and motherboard combination, If you can boot into safe mode uninstall the Nvidia Drivers, and you then will be able to boot into windows normaly windows will use its own native drivers and you will be ok, You then have a couple of choices download a newer or older version of the nvidia drivers, OR get a new bios file from Asus and flash your bios to a newer version. Either way you have a SLI capable Motherboard so i would sujest using the Forceware driver package even if your not running in SLI mode, Good luck


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## Lopez0101 (Sep 30, 2007)

Honestly, to prevent this error I'd disable System Restore after getting everything working again. It's never been useful to me and when I used to use it it only caused more problems than it fixed. Plus if you disable it that's that much more HD space to use.


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## jocksteeluk (Sep 30, 2007)

System restore is handy when it works like it did for me 2 days ago saving the need to reinstall all of my software as well as windows, id suggest using norton Ghost 12 for an excellent system restore feature.


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## LiveOrDie (Sep 30, 2007)

1. Insert the Windows XP CD-ROM into the CD-ROM drive, and then restart the computer. 
Click to select any options that are required to start the computer from the CD-ROM drive if you are prompted to do so.  
2. When the "Welcome to Setup" screen appears, press R to start the Recovery Console.  
3. If you have a dual-boot or multiple-boot computer, select the installation that you want to access from the Recovery Console.  
4. When you are prompted to do so, type the Administrator password. If the administrator password is blank, just press ENTER. 
5. At the Recovery Console command prompt, type the following lines, pressing ENTER
md tmp
copy c:\windows\repair\system c:\windows\system32\DRIVERS\nvata.sys
6. Type exit to quit Recovery Console. Your computer will restart.
 if this dosnt help try these links 
1 2


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## Rainmann420 (Sep 30, 2007)

Live OR Die said:


> 1. Insert the Windows XP CD-ROM into the CD-ROM drive, and then restart the computer.
> Click to select any options that are required to start the computer from the CD-ROM drive if you are prompted to do so.
> 2. When the "Welcome to Setup" screen appears, press R to start the Recovery Console.
> 3. If you have a dual-boot or multiple-boot computer, select the installation that you want to access from the Recovery Console.
> ...



I dont think this will help as nvata.sys that ships with xp has a conflict with his mobo as reported all over the net it must be uninstalled and the generic driver used so an updated nvidia driver can be installed


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## AsRock (Sep 30, 2007)

Rainmann420 said:


> If you do a Google search for nvata.sys, you will see that this is a common problem with this Nvidia driver. and motherboard combination, If you can boot into safe mode uninstall the Nvidia Drivers, and you then will be able to boot into windows normaly windows will use its own native drivers and you will be ok, You then have a couple of choices download a newer or older version of the nvidia drivers, OR get a new bios file from Asus and flash your bios to a newer version. Either way you have a SLI capable Motherboard so i would sujest using the Forceware driver package even if your not running in SLI mode, Good luck





Never had the problem my self as i all ways re format after 3-4 months.

Good to know it can be possible t fix though .


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## lemonadesoda (Sep 30, 2007)

If your m/b has onboard graphics, unplug your GPU card and boot into safe.  Once all OK, boot into regular (without the GPU card).  Then install latest drivers, (or use a diver uninstaller), to clean out corrupt drivers and/or registry.  Once clean, reinstall the GPU


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## LiveOrDie (Sep 30, 2007)

Rainmann420 said:


> I dont think this will help as nvata.sys that ships with xp has a conflict with his mobo as reported all over the net it must be uninstalled and the generic driver used so an updated nvidia driver can be installed



windows will replace it with a driver back to the driver you fristed installed xp just to make it past windows boot screen just a base line driver so you can reinstall the driver once or back in windows


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## Da iLLeZt TL973 (Oct 1, 2007)

wow thanks everyone for the help i went ahead and i re-imaged the pc then i ran the restore.....after the restore i chose NOT to reboot and i loaded the nvidia chipset driver, then i chose to re-boot the pc.....all went well and windows came up BUT my keyboard and mouse will not work so i cannot log in lol when i get home from work i will use the usb-ps/2 converter and see if that works....if not looks like i will have to re-image, restore, load the nvidia drivers and finally the usb 2.0 drivers. thanks alot guys


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## Da iLLeZt TL973 (Oct 2, 2007)

Live OR Die said:


> 1. Insert the Windows XP CD-ROM into the CD-ROM drive, and then restart the computer.
> Click to select any options that are required to start the computer from the CD-ROM drive if you are prompted to do so.
> 2. When the "Welcome to Setup" screen appears, press R to start the Recovery Console.
> 3. If you have a dual-boot or multiple-boot computer, select the installation that you want to access from the Recovery Console.
> ...



i did this and it says the system cannot find the file specified

i will check out the other links though thanks man


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