vista boot failure p floyd 12/17/2008 5:57:00 PM I am receiving a black screen with 'windows failed to boot because a critical system driver is missing or corrupted'. file:\windows\system32\drivers\nvstor.sys. the laptop had xp professional installed when I bought. I later upgraded to Vista 32 bit. HP tells me I have to order a recovery disk for XP Professional. I don't want to do this as all my software uses Vista. Can I use a Vista recovery disk? Am I totally screwed? -- thanks for helping

RE: vista boot failure Mick Murphy 12/17/2008 9:26:17 PM You don't say what disks you do have; that would help. http://neosmart.net/blog/2008/windows-vista-recovery-disc-download/ Have a look at the above site. Also, try going into Safe mode atstartup by tapping F8, go into Safe Mode and do a System restore. -- Mad Mike "p floyd" wrote: [Quoted Text] > I am receiving a black screen with 'windows failed to boot because a critical > system driver is missing or corrupted'. > file:\windows\system32\drivers\nvstor.sys. the laptop had xp professional > installed when I bought. I later upgraded to Vista 32 bit. HP tells me I > have to order a recovery disk for XP Professional. I don't want to do this > as all my software uses Vista. Can I use a Vista recovery disk? Am I > totally screwed? > -- > thanks for helping

Re: vista boot failure Malke <malke[ at ]invalid.invalid> 12/17/2008 9:27:38 PM p floyd wrote: [Quoted Text] > I am receiving a black screen with 'windows failed to boot because a > critical system driver is missing or corrupted'. > file:\windows\system32\drivers\nvstor.sys. the laptop had xp professional > installed when I bought. I later upgraded to Vista 32 bit. HP tells me I > have to order a recovery disk for XP Professional. I don't want to do > this > as all my software uses Vista. Can I use a Vista recovery disk? Am I > totally screwed? That file is part of Nvidia graphics drivers. If you recently upgraded your drivers, roll them back. If you never installed Vista drivers, get them from Nvidia and install them. Hopefully you'll be able to get into Safe Mode to do this. Malke -- MS-MVP Elephant Boy Computers - Don't Panic! FAQ - http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/#FAQ