Windows NT May Fail to Boot on Toshiba Portable Computers (150815)


The information in this article applies to:

  • Microsoft Windows NT Workstation 3.51
  • Microsoft Windows NT Workstation 4.0
  • Microsoft Windows NT Server 3.51
  • Microsoft Windows NT Server 4.0
This article was previously published under Q150815

SYMPTOMS

Windows NT may fail to boot on certain portable computers, in particular Toshiba portable computers, when the system partition is located on an NTFS partition other than the boot partition. The following error message is displayed:

STOP 0x0000007B
Inaccessible Boot Device

CAUSE

The problem occurs during shutdown when the system corrupts the last sectors being written to disk. This appears to be a hardware problem relating to the drive head and power shutdown, which results in an Error Correction Code (ECC) error when reading the sector on restart.

RESOLUTION

Obtain the following update or wait for the next Service Pack.

A modified Ntfs.sys driver for Windows NT and instructions for installing them are available from Microsoft support channels or directly from the following Internet locations:

For Windows NT 3.51:

ftp://ftp.microsoft.com/bussys/winnt/winnt-public/fixes/usa/NT351 /hotfixes-postSP5/toshiba-fix

For Windows NT 4.0:

ftp://ftp.microsoft.com/bussys/winnt/winnt-public/fixes/usa/NT40 /hotfixes-postSP1/toshiba-fix

The fix detects the bad sector in the restart area and uses the alternate restart area during boot.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in Windows NT versions 3.51 and 4.0. This problem was corrected in the latest Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 U.S. Service Pack. For information on obtaining the service pack, query on the following word in the Microsoft Knowledge Base (without the spaces):

S E R V P A C K

Modification Type:MajorLast Reviewed:8/9/2001
Keywords:kbsetup KB150815
©2002 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.