Hi, please help..... I was having a tidy up and have deleted some files from my old pc, resulting in message: - whilst initialising deviceIFSMGR the microsoft installable file system manager cannot find the helper driver. please ensure that IFSHLP.SYS has been installed System halted I don't have any files stored on this pc as I inherited it from a friend. I do have the PB master cd's (3) but do not know how to operate a clean start.....Please help Thanks - Louise

MS Article ID 258471 - Error Message: The Following File Is Missing or Corrupted: C:\Windows\Ifshlp.sys Follow the steps in resolution #2 first.

#1 above looks as if it requires a Windows ME CD. Never delete files unless you know exactly what they are for. It seems to me that your PB CD's are your only option. Gives us the exact model number of your machine. Let's hope someone comes along who knows the restore procedure. DerekW

No, it doesn't require an ME cd. You extract the two files mentioned in resolution #2 from the .cab files using the "Extract File" function in msconfig.

Viking Well they have to come from somewhere. If the cab files happen to have been put on the HD then it's possible, otherwise you need the ME disk if can't be retrieved from the restore CD. Poster cannot start Windows so msconfig cannot be used in the normal way. My experience tells me that when files are picked off it is never just one.... DerekW

"Well they have to come from somewhere. If the cab files happen to have been put on the HD then it's possible, otherwise you need the ME disk if can't be retrieved from the restore CD." If's, and's and but's. You don't know what an aged PB will have on there. Most of ye olde branded machines I've dealt with have had the cab files on the HDD. "Poster cannot start Windows so msconfig cannot be used in the normal way." Nowhere is that stated in the OP. You don't know what point the machine boots and the system is halted. And neither of us know whether she can get into safe mode or not. And even if all that is true you can still extract the files from DOS. In fact it probably would be easier extracting the files straight from DOS in the first place now I've said it. "My experience tells me that when files are picked off it is never just one...." Probably true and all utterly academic as the OP seems to have died at the keyboard anyway. ...condolences to the family.

Viking Well I guess I assumed as it said "system halted" it meant no Windows, or it certainly couldn't run Windows which is much the same thing. However, I accept we are very thin on the ground for real information and who knows whether Safe Mode would have been possible. Agreed also the DOS extract approach if necessary but many posters baulk at all that, even if they can find the cabs. As you say - another vanishing poster. DerekW