I have been trying to deal with this problem for two days with no definitive solution yet. My computer seems to have a mind of its own. Lately, it has been crashing to the blue screen right after XP loads up and says welcome (the music plays, then it crashes) I do not get to the desktop. XP tells me it is from the fastfat.sys file. I have read and researched this file and looked for help but to no avail. Some threads have mentioned problems with FAT harddrives (as this is the file that controls them). However, my one drive (3-way partition) is ALL NTFS. The weird thing is, the computer started crashing only occasionaly, then stepped up the frequency. Now the only way into the XP desktop is through directory services mode. I tried booting to last known config (sometimes worked, sometimes didn't). I also removed and added different RAM sticks to see if that was the problem but the computer crashed anyway. If anyone has any solutions or tips I would be greatful to hear them. I'm at a loss. Thanks, Ryan Specs: P4 2.4B Asus P4P800 Deluxe 1024MB PC3200 RAM (Hynix) ATI 9800 Pro 128 Maxtor 60GB IDE harddrive (only 2 years old)

How to do a system repair.--Boot from the xp cd and go past the recovery console to the install menu. Select repair the existing installation. You won't lose any data except the xp updates.You MUST install at least SP1 and all the updates for security reasons. Unless you have a slipstream sp1 cd you will have to d/l sp1 and all subsequent updates. Be sure the firewall and A/V is active before going online as you will be susceptible to sasser and msblaster. If you don't want SP2 go to autopatcher.com and d/l SP1 and subsequent updates. Please post back within 24 hours or I will delete the post from my follow up list. Thanks. It would be a courtesy if you would post back and let us know if the fix worked or not.

Thanks for the response. I did try an XP repair. I would boot from the XP CD and relect repair (R). The setup would then bring me to a black screen with a command prompt. I would select what windows installation (only one to choose from) but then it's just like DOS. I typed HELP for a list of commands but 'repair" was not one of them. What am I missing? The CD is XP home. Ryan

There are two Repair options. The first is the `Recovery Console;. That's the one you got. It's the XP version of Dos. The other is a `Repair Install' which is the next option.

As Ham30 says, go to the install menu. Please post back within 24 hours or I will delete the post from my follow up list. Thanks. It would be a courtesy if you would post back and let us know if the fix worked or not.