Fix: NTFS_FILE_SYSTEM BSOD

The blue screen NTFS_FILE_SYSTEM indicates that the NTFS file system driver has encountered an error which it couldn’t handle. This is usually caused by the following things:

• There is data corruption in your memory
• There is data corruption on the storage
• The system is running out of memory (this usually occurs on servers which are heavily loaded.

The workarounds for these problems include checking the memory for bad sectors in safe mode. If this doesn’t prove any result, you have to check your hard drive for errors. A hardware problem is a common cause for this blue screen of death. Let’s take a look at the solutions below.

Solution 1: Checking your hard drive for corruptions

The very first thing we should check is the boot files present on your computer. Your computer boots from these files and if there is any problem or any file is corrupt, it will pop up the BSOD NTFS_FILE_SYSTEM as under discussion.

Boot files can get corrupt in a variety of different scenarios. They get corrupt either when you install a potential windows update or when some program/malware overwrites the files. We will launch the command prompt in a recovery environment and see if executing the check disk commands fix the problem.

1. Restart your computer and upon booting, press F11 to go into the recovery environment. Now select Troubleshoot.

2. Click on Advanced from the list of options available and select command prompt.

3. Once in the command prompt, execute the following command. If you have Windows installed to some other directory, you can replace “C” with the name of the drive.

chkdsk C: /r /x

chkdsk C: /f

If check disk utility only scans your computer and doesn’t perform any fixes, you need to execute the following command:

sfc /scannow

System file checker (SFC) is a utility in Windows which allows users to scan and restore corruptions present in their operating system. It is integrated with Windows resource protection, which protects folders, registry keys, and critical system files as well.

4. Wait for the process to complete and do not cancel at any stage. After all the operations are performed, restart your computer and see if you can boot as expected.

Note: If you are unable to fix the problem using this solution, you can take out the hard drive and use it as an external drive on any other computer. Then you can check the disk for corruptions and see if this fixes the bad sectors.

Solution 2: Checking Drivers for Errors 

Another thing we can try before checking for hardware faults are the drivers. There are several cases where drivers get corrupt and cause of this, the system cannot handle the driver request and pop the blue screen of death. Furthermore, if the driver is in a bad state or wrong configuration, this error can also occur.

We will try running the driver verifier in the recovery environment. Now you have two options. Either you can check for driver errors directly from the command prompt RE or you can boot in safe mode and carry on the solution listed below.

1. Navigate to the command prompt as shown in the above solution in either the recovery environment (RE) or in safe mode.
2. Once in elevated command prompt, execute the following command:

verifier

3. Select “Create standard settings” and press “Next” to proceed.

4. Select “Automatically select all drivers installed on this computer” and click “Finish”. Now Windows will scan for errors. Make sure that you have backed up all your progress before proceeding. A prompt will come forward for you to restart your computer. Restart your computer.

5. Windows will scan all the drivers upon the next restart. Wait patiently if the process consumes too much time. Once the process is complete, the computer will be restarted automatically. If it finds any driver, it will notify you and you can attend to it.

If any problematic drivers were found, you can boot the computer in safe mode, open device manager (devmgmt.msc in the Run application) and update the drivers either automatically or manually. You can also download the specific driver from the website and install it using the installer.

Solution 3: Checking hardware for errors

If all the above methods don’t work out, you can get your hard drive inspected. Around 60% of the time, the error turned out to be related with bad sectors which cannot be fixed or a bad hard drive. It doesn’t really matter if you have a new PC or a new hard drive installed; hard drive errors are very common and can happen to any hard drive.

Get the hard drive checked by either a technician or using it as an external drive in another computer. Once you have connected it to another system, you can run the disk check on it and see if there are any disk corruptions.

Solution 4: Clean installing Windows

If all the above methods don’t work out and the hard drive seems to work perfectly, you should go on and do a clean installation of Windows on the drive. First, you should back up all the important data on your some external storage either by booting the computer in safe mode or in RE.

You check out our article on how to install Windows 10 on your computer. You can easily make a Windows bootable by either Rufus or by Windows media creation tool. Do note that when you install a new version of Windows on your hard drive, all the existing data will get erased.