NTFS (New Technology File System) has a reputation of being a reliable file system and immune to some of file system errors due to the features like journaling. But these might occur and make your system unbootable. At times, when such NTFS errors prevent you to boot the system while making the stored data inaccessible, you can use some system-provided tools to repair them. Running such tools can cause data loss if fail to repair. In such situations, you will need to restore from available backup or use data recovery applications to scan and recover the lost information.

If a system is unbootable due to NTFS errors, try following these steps:

Try running chkdsk by booting the system. To boot your hard drive, follow either of the ways:

While starting the system, press F8. Doing so will let you to boot into safe mode through a menu.

Insert the Windows installation disk to start the Recovery Console by pressing ‘R’.

Remove your hard disk from the system to connect it to a healthy system. The host system should detect your hard drive

Execute the chkdsk command:

If graphical interface is accessible, you need to go to ‘My Computer’ and choose the disk to repair it. Next, you should right-click the disk and select its ‘Properties’ option. Under ‘Tools’ tab, you can then opt for ‘Check this drive for errors’.

If you are trying to repair through text console, type ‘chkdsk partition name’, where ‘partition name’ refers to the drive letter of partition to be repaired.

If applying the above measures doesn’t allow you to access your data and NTFS errors persist, you should format your disk and restore from backup. However, if you lose data while no valid backup is available, scan your hard drive using data recovery software.

NTFS Data Recovery tools are commercial utilities built with powerful technology to scan your hard drive to locate and restore the missing data. These tools employ disk level search while providing intuitive interface and advanced recovery features.

Stellar Phoenix Windows Data Recovery is one of the trusted utilities to recover data from NTFS, NTFS5, FAT32 and VFAT drives. It is a comprehensive data recovery software for Windows 7 RC1, Vista, XP, 2003 and 2000. The software possesses read-only design and provide you self-explanatory interface. Stellar also provides powerful recovery software for Macintosh, UNIX, Novell and Linux operating systems.